After a wonderful,
sunny day, the
sky darkened and took on that gorgeous
green tinge that preceeds a
downpour.
The rain started slowly - large drops, not many of them. Seconds later, I couldn't see the shed at the bottom of the garden for rain!
We decided to check that the upstairs windows weren't letting any in. My wife decided to do it, as she was going that way, anyway.
Then I heard her calling to me from the kitchen, "Come here, you've got to see this!"
The outside kitchen door was closed - but you'd hardly have known - water was streaming in, incredibly fast! The floor must have been nearly an inch deep in water already!
We both just stood there, staring in disbelief. Eventually we worked out the rain was getting in over the top of the door. We'd complained almost as soon as we'd moved in that the door should never have been mounted on the outside - and now we had a great example of why!
I got my umbrella and we took a look from the outside. The gutter was overflowing, right above the door, letting all the rain from the rear extension's roof flood down the wall. The top of the kitchen door sticks out just proud of the frame and was drawing the flood around, into the kitchen.
We started bailing - sweeping the water back out as fast as we could. After about 45 minutes, the rain stopped. We were exhausted - so we sat down and had tea and cake (as one does). Oh, and talked about what to do about it.
Then it started raining again. Heavily... but not quite as bad (so it seemed) and only for about ten minutes. So we swept out the rain and set to. We fixed up a strip of wood, just so the door frame sticks out further than the top of the door. That should stop it...
Of course, the sky then cleared and it's a bright sunny day today...
May 15, 2000