What Is Going On?!
It started the day before the closing on the purchase of our
condo unit. We were so excited to do the final walk-through with the
realtors—both our realtor and the sellers’ agent. The following day we would
sign all of the official documents and receive the keys to our unit. We could
move in that very afternoon. What a great birthday gift for me!
I asked the sellers’ realtor what that spot was and he
dismissed it with a wave of his hand and said, “Oh, just a little mildew. You
have plenty of paint in the laundry room to touch that up.” He walked out of
the room as though it wasn’t worth another moment’s notice.
Was I going to make a fuss about something that indicated
water damage? If I did, the whole deal might be delayed, possibly even canceled.
We could lose the option to buy the condo unit we had waited patiently to take
possession of. I showed Jon the spot. We both shrugged and I thought, Whatever
it is, we can deal with it later. Jon’s a retired building contractor—he can
fix anything.
About a month after we moved in, we were lying in bed
propped against the headboard with pillows, contentedly reading on our Kindles.
It was August, right in the middle of the rainy season when the heat and
humidity are at their peak in this tropical area. We had the air conditioner
running to cool and dehumidify the air in the master bedroom and all was cozy.
It was the first summer that we had remained in the area and
we’d been warned that it could be miserably hot, but we were pleasantly
comfortable with three mini-splits in the 1200-square-foot apartment. We
usually only ran one at a time, cooling whichever room we were using.
I glanced up at the dark “mildew” spot on the ceiling and
felt a twinge of fear. Had it grown in size? I pointed to it and said, “Babe, I
think that spot is bigger.”
He didn’t think so, or didn’t want to believe it at the
time. I took a photo of it including the corner of the air conditioner for
perspective. I would continue to photograph that spot for several weeks as it
turned from a little mildew to a definite area of moisture on the
drywall.
One morning we woke up to find moisture had run down the
seam between two sheets of drywall leaving a nasty water stain. The drywall
tape had pulled loose and a six-inch strip was hanging down. Jon quickly turned
off the air conditioner unit and said, “We’d better not use that unit until we
have an air conditioning company check out this minisplit. We’ll just use the
living room minisplit to cool the bedroom at night.”
That day, I was in the laundry room filling the washing machine with dirty towels when I heard water running overhead. By that time, I was paranoid about possible water leaks. I looked up and saw a river of water flowing from the ceiling, down the wall, and puddling on the floor. I hadn’t turned the washing machine on yet, so it wasn’t coming from one of our water pipes. Not another water issue in our apartment!
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