rain and ladders

This morning before 8am, as I was making our lunches, Erik insisted I climb the ladder he had put up against the side of the house. It was not quite light yet, and raining heavily. He had already been up to see the rush of water flowing down the decorative roof gusset and into our recently painted original wood siding, and wanted me to see it as well.

I was wearing a skirt and six year old boots with not-quite-attached soles. Because of our tiny side yard, the ladder was propped aat a very steep angle, and my first step up pulled the top of the ladder off the house.

Not a fun way to start the day.

When I got to the top, I could see water cascading down the underside of the gusset, onto the area of the siding that's blistering with water-filled bubbles.

When our contractor was over on Tuesday evening, we pressed a few and they'd squirt out an impressive amount of water, like draining a taut blister. I was reminded of running a marathon-- my feet afterwards.

The good news is that we seem to have discovered the cause of our bubbling siding. The bad news is that it will be raining for the next five months, so even after the gusset is caulked, the siding still needs to dry out.