Absolutely, totally, incredibly the best.

Awesome. Fantastic. Amazing!!!!!

He came out here to take a look at the vent and plumbing stack to see if he could find why we have had a leak in the bathroom ceiling. When my SIL told me he’d stopped at the hardware store first, I couldn’t think why, but then thought… oh, no! He’s buying us a new fluorescent light fixture for the kitchen! That fixture had a “temporary light” label on it when we moved here. (It didn’t even have the cover anymore; that fell off while the roofers were here, and dropping heavy packages of shingles on the roof.) I’d asked my brother about it when we first moved in, and he told me about not being able to find the right fixture for there, anywhere. He was very frustrated about it, too. I got the impression that it had something to do with the electrical, which is pretty janky in this house, so when the light blew two bulbs, which had been replaced not that long ago, for fluorescent bulbs, it was our first warning something was going wrong. Then, when we replaced the bulbs from the extras in the basement, they started going strange things. They were darker at the ends, and we started to see waves of gases flowing inside… Not good! So we stopped using it. I told my brother about it and asked him again, why it had not been replaced. We were not going to take any chances with replacing it until I knew for sure we actually could!

It turned out, the local hardware stores simply didn’t have the right size in stock. 😄😄 If I’d known that, we would have probably replaced it, long ago!

So we were going to just replace the fixture when we had the funds for it. Getting the truck, then getting cats fixed, were a priority. The only inconvenience, really, was how dark it was to do dishes. They sent me some photos of lights at a hardware store they were visiting one time, and asked me what my plan was. At that time, I told them we had no plans, yet. We just needed to know if there was an electrical issue.

What I did NOT want them to do was spend several hundred dollars on a replacement fixture.

So when I heard he was at the hardware store, that’s what I thought he might be doing.

When he arrived, though, and opened up the back, what I saw was a package of pink fiberglass insulation and some rolls of heavy duty plastic. Still more than I wanted him to spend, but at least that made sense!

He then climbed up to check the stacks and they looked okay, overall. There was no obvious area a leak could have been happening. I’d sent him a photo from the ground before I roof raked as best I could around there, and you could see an island of clear roof in that corner. Clearly, we were losing a lot of heat in that area, which might also have been a contributing factor.

It was VERY slippery up there, though, so he had to be so, so careful as he came down to get his bucket of tar. He went back and forth a few times, which was quite nerve wracking! However, he basically slathered that vent, not just around the new shingles, but up the sides as well. Then he put more around the opening for the plumbing stack, next to the vent. If there was water coming in through there, it sure as heck wasn’t going to be getting through anymore! He had to work fast, too, because it was cold, and he had to get it done while the tar was still warm and pliable. He was glad to have been able to get here and get it done while it was still light, too. It gets dark awfully fast, this time of year!

As he was putting away his ladder and stuff, we were chatting and I mentioned how our roof rake, when full extended, can reach all the way to the peak of the roof over the main entry. Since we were looking at it anyway, I mentioned the eavestrough there is something we needed to repair or replace in the spring.

My bad.

The eavestrough was coming loose in one spot, causing a bend at a join, so water would drip through a crack before reaching the downspout.

Next thing I knew, he was setting his ladder up in the pile of snow I raked off the roof and climbed up to take a look. Seeing what he was doing, I got hammer handy – apparently, not a “real” hammer, but it’s what we’ve got! – and he was able to secure it in one spot, but in another, the nail is completely missing. Still, for now at least, there is no longer a sagging area. We can deal with the rest in the spring.

Then he went inside and upstairs to look into the area that’s above the bathroom.

To explain, the upstairs is what might otherwise have been an attic. When it was converted to bedrooms, my dad raised the roof on one side for head room, and that’s where windows were added. My daughters use one of those windows to get onto the roof over the new part of the house to shovel it. The other wall, however, is right under the roof and at an angle. In the room that is above where the bathroom and my husband’s room is now (which used to be a combined living room and dining room, when I was little), there is a small section under the angled portion that is now walled off. When we got an indoor bathroom, it was built to cover the vent and plumbing stack.

This is what it looked like, when we first peeked in there back in February, 2018, just 4 months after we were all moved in.

How or why that stuff was in there, I have no idea.

You can see, however, that there are very old water stains in the wood, however, it is dry in there.

We were able to get the stuff closer to the front, but none of us is able bodied enough to actually crawl in.

My brother, however, could.

He was able to get all the way past that vent, with a little broom and dust pan, sweeping away decades of dust and pieces of wood. I tried to help as much as I could, but that was little more than passing him things and holding a flashlight, in addition to the one he had in the tunnel with him.

I’m just comparing the photos now, and can see that the water stains have grown, however the floor is dry. Wherever the water was coming from, it has been pooling under those floor boards somewhere, before dripping into the bathroom, without getting anything wet in this tunnel.

After sweeping the worst off the floor, he started pulling out the stuff he was finding. Some odd pieces of linoleum with a bold floral pattern I’ve never seen around the farm, and yet somehow feel like I should recognise. My brother also felt he recognised the pattern. He dragged out a folded up… vinyl table cloth? We aren’t sure. There was a box with leftover tiles that cover the floor upstairs! What good are spare tiles, if they’re hidden in a tunnel behind a wall, where no one can see or reach them? Then, most curious of all, he tossed out an object for me to see. Before I could even shine a flashlight on it, something about the shape looked oh so familiar to me.

It was a plastic toy kangaroo, with a joey in it’s pouch.

I remember playing with that toy! What it was doing way back in there, I have no idea!

It is also now sticky and disgusting. It’s old enough the plastic is degrading in that slimy way only “vintage” plastic can do!

Once things were clear, my brother began working in stages. He cut plastic to lay down as a vapour barrier, then began stuffing in the fiberglass insulation.

He literally filled the tunnel with insulation, using a garden hoe to push it into place at the back.

When he got to the vent and plumbing stack, he used spray foam, top and bottom, to seal around them, laid down more plastic, cut to fit around the vent, then kept added more insulation.

Every time he went in, he had to inch his way in like a worm, then inch his way back out again. He did that dozens of times! Oh, he was so exhausted by the time he finished the bag of insulation. It didn’t quite fill the space right to the entry but, by that point, there is the attic over the old kitchen on the other side.

We don’t go in there.

That tunnel above the bathroom is now the most insulated space in the house.

We’ll be keeping an eye on the roof in that area. There should be no more escaping heat melting the snow off there, anymore, that’s for sure!!

By this time, it was completely dark out, and I helped my brother pack things back into his truck. Then I went to feed the outside cats to get them away from the truck, so he could safely leave.

He didn’t leave.

The next thing I know, he’s at the counter between the kitchen and the dining room, clearing it off and setting up to reach the light fixture.

Yup. He bought us a new light fixture.

I suspect they actually bought it that day they sent me the pictures, and asked if I had a plan.

After turning on the light to see what it was doing, he started taking it apart to look at the wiring. He couldn’t see anything obviously wrong. He then went to find the right breaker to shut off the power (there are some gaps in the labelling), and got to work. The breaker also turned off the dining room light, so I set up our large flashlight to light it from below, plus he had his headlamp. He had to fuss with it a bit, and drill a hole in the base plate for the wiring in the ceiling to fit through, but otherwise it was a pretty basic fixture switch.

Here is our shiny new light fixture!

It feels so weird for there to be so much light over that counter again! The light itself it completely different, and far more yellow than the previous bulbs. The fixture is slightly narrower than the old one, so you can just seen an outline on either side, but who cares? We have a working light again.

That done, he packed his truck up again, and finally got to leave! He was here so much longer than he expected to be, but was not about to leave until he’d done what he came to do. And extra, of course, because he’s like that!

My brother is so awesome.

What would be do without him? 💙💚💙💚💙💚💙

The Re-Farmer