I love spring but I am not a fan of early spring with the wetness, mud and slush. And I’m really not a fan when that wetness gets inside my chapel. Sure, I wanted water, but I wanted it in the taps, not on the floor.

Last spring I did some investigation type demo to try and find the source of the water and the extent of the damage. It seemed to me that this was a “one off” issue. There were no signs of this ever happening before. There was no rot, mould or moisture, well except for that little lake that developed inside. The solution was to dig a trench around the whole foundation and install a weeping tile to provide drainage away from the house. Did I mention dig? I mean with a shovel and wheel barrel; didn’t want to damage the foundation. This was my summer upper body training!

We did find one hole in the foundation that Alvin, the chipmunk, was using to come and go at his leisure. The funny thing was, he would just run around inside and then pop out the same way he came in. Once, he even brought a friend, double trouble. Arechipmunks messing with me? It worked because I was indeed freaking out. Foundation repair completed; take that Alvin!  IMG_0868.TRIM

I also needed to dig a well, so in came the monster machines and they dug the well to 200ft. Another trench was dug to pipe the water from the well into the building and finally the chapel had water, the good kind! Since I was digging everything up anyway, I figured I might as well dig up the rest of the property and put in the septic system. Begs the question, why did I bother to mow the grass that week?

There was so much activity at the Chapel with digging equipment, trucks, bulldozers and cranes that my neighbours would just stop and watch the chaos that was happening. Finally after weeks of digging, the ground was levelled, grass planted, workers were gone and peace returned to my humble Chapel. With my family’s help, we built a fence and patio so I would have at least one finished sanctuary to enjoy the last bit of summer.

Now let’s go inside and see what disaster awaits me! No more digging please!