Ceilings, water and more water

WE HAVE A new tenant on our second floor. But that means old problems become new again.

Last winter we turned on the second-floor furnace and a few days later water started dripping out of the ceiling on the east end of our music store. Thankfully we caught it in time, moved the instruments, turned the furnace off, and called a plumber to check it out.

Of course the plumber couldn't find anything. The condensation from the HVAC unit on the second floor goes into the last remaining 1896 marble sink. We figured it must be a pipe leading from the sink, so we gave up and forgot about it. The ceiling has water stains from years ago, so it's likely been an issue for a while. Funny, though - when we first fixed up the second floor space and the HVAC was used, it didn't leak.

Last week we rented space to a young man and he's renovating the space. It will be way cool. To stay way cool, the air conditioning is on. And .... yup. More leaking. We've got a temporary solution - the condensation pipe is now draining into a big bucket. Yes! More trips up to the second floor to drain buckets! I really miss going into the second-floor crawl space every time it rains, but I guess that's what a new roof does for you.

Fortunately it doesn't go into the Electric Fountain Brewing. Unfortunately, we need to fix it. So Monday morning, Ted Johnson and his crew are coming over to take down the ceiling. Wednesday, a plumber arrives to check the pipes. It will be messy and expensive. We've removed everything from that area, even propped up the stage onto the wall.

It's OK. It's an old building. We understand the challenges. Anybody out there want to buy some nice guitars so we can afford it? Doesn't work that way, unfortunately. So we'll tough it out and get it done.

Drip, drip, drip. That's the sound of our old building. It's not always music to our ears.