And the walls come a tumbling down AKA spring in Gjoa Haven

Spring is here!  The sun has been bright and beautiful the last week and temperatures have been hovering in the minus teens and just recently close to zero.  It has been wonderful walking around in a light parka and hiking boots and not having to worry about having a part of my body frozen off.  The snow on the ground has been strangely melting despite the temperature never going above zero and the predictable mud and puddles have been steadily building.  

What we didn't expect, however, and the part that is most distressing is along with the snow, our house is also melting.  We first noted the melt de maison when the sound of dripping brought us to the back door (until recently we couldn't open the door because it was frozen shut so we used the back porch as storage). That was when we determined the sky to be falling. Literally.

 The walls rippling with water behind the paint appeared to be melting, the (badly) taped dry wall seams blowing apart under the strain.  At 930 Friday night we put in an after hours call to Housing.  

Oh, Housing....  

A nice man named Bruce came by to check it out. He stood there silently watching the water stream from the ceiling into a bucket.  Kelli and I were dancing around frantically planning to climb onto the roof to shovel the snow, offering to lift Bruce up into the attic to go save the day etc, and all Bruce would do was shrug with a quiet "maybe we can come fix it on Tuesday."  

Back porch roof :(

I know this sounds crazy but letting water damage sit for any amount of time is counter intuitive in my world thanks to the family business - Terra Restoration Steamatic Hamilton (business plug!).  So the idea of having someone come "fix" the flood in 5 days didn't sit well with either me or Kelli. 

We peppered him with helpful suggestions about how it should be fixed asap and perhaps he should call some friends to come shovel off the roof etc.  Poor Bruce, didn't know how to handle The Thompson-Hanson Tag Team and we ended up bamboozling him into calling Sophia the acting head of Housing at home requesting that she call our house immediately. We did however pat him on the head reassuringly (because not many people can withstand The Thompson-Hanson Tag Team), gave him some delicious homemade granola bars, then sent him on his way.

Let me preface the next part with we've had several run ins with the acting head of Housing in the recent past and we both believe this woman to be bat shit crazy.  The History kid in me wants desperately for there to be a footnote function on this blog so that I can take a tangent into the frozen pipe debacle of April 2013 where I can detail without breaking the flow of the blog the gong show so that you too can feel the baffled rage we felt thanks to the acting head of Housing.  I like to prevent further damage so when my sink pipe was frozen I acted immediately and expecting Housing to do the same.  It's crazy I know but I figured an after hours call to prevent a burst pipe would be worth the overtime.  I got told in a lispy German accent that "you do not live in Paris or Vienna and that you must wait your turn. Maybe we come to see it tomorrow but until then you can use the bathtub to wash your hands."

Super.  

Anyway, Housing, she called us - almost immediately defensive - telling a story about her water leak being much worse.  I wasn't certain if she was trying to make me feel better about the state of my house or if she was making a bigger statement about the terrible state of Government of Nunavut Housing.  I'm not one for nepotism but seriously, if I ran Housing I wouldn't have a leaking roof - that's just foolish. 

 I know what I felt: rage.   I badgered her into coming to see the leak Saturday morning at 10am and I got my sorry butt out of bed to meet her.   

The walls appear to be melting.

Kelli fielded this little visit having a bit of a grudge from being told to "be quiet and listen" several times during our frozen pipe escapade.  She was ripe for a fight and really quite worried about the state of the house going into a summer where her house would be sitting vacant full of all her things.  According to this Housing woman practically everyone else in the town of Gjoa has a leak in their house that is much worse than ours and therefore we should just put down some towels and wait.  

That didn't sit well with Kelli.

Black mold.  Really two little words that are scary as hell.  Because that little spore doesn't like wet drywall - that's crazy talk.  After a heated discussion about the purpose of a roof and how waterfalls in the house are NOT ok Kelli talked the Housing woman into calling CAP maintenance to start the ball on getting it fixed.  They came quickly and said they'd notify Housing that the problem is much worse than the original "get some towels" situation the woman tried to sell us on previously.  But it would probably not be fixed in the next few months because Housing is going to drag their feet on approving the work order.

It didn't end there.

Next we found water bubbles protruding from exterior walls.  My first instinct: pop them.  Kelli's first instinct: let's see how big they get.  The we can't beat'em join'em attitude let us approach the melting house shit show with better attitudes let me assure you.

Water bubble in the living room.  

Water bubble in my bathroom under the towel rack

It didn't stop there.

Call it paranoia, call it searching for a great adventure, but we went hunting throughout the house looking for wet spots on ceilings and walls.  I was tickled - you can imagine - when I found a growing water spot directly over my bed just waiting to startle me awake in the wee hours when it decided to break.  

Who doesn't love a good water bed? 

Water spot over my bed just waiting for me to fall asleep :(

The water spurred us into action and we were both able to get a lot of packing and purging done while we raced around mopping up puddles.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure where I'm going to sleep tonight since at this point my room is more like water world. I made the executive decision to prop my bed against the wall that is currently dry, the towel is directly underneath the seeping water spot and the shower curtain drape is strangely fitting.

my room :(

I just got finished standing on Kelli's bed poking at her ceiling and by the looks of it we will both be camping in the living room where it is currently dry-ish.  We've also identified a spot just right of the entertainment system so we've shifted everything to the left.  We put the towel where we are expecting the dam to break.

Ah-mazing!

Nunavut Housing is quality.  

Tell your friends.

And the walls come a tumbling down....

LAND TRIP!

It's that time of year again! LAND TRIP!!!  Two days on the land with good people, country food, and wonderful sunshine!  Gotta love end of the year trips. The first thing we did when we got to the lake today was drill some holes for fishing.  If there was ever any doubt as to the thickness and therefore safety of the ice all of my doubts were assuaged when  we didn't find water until we extended the ice auger...

... to 6+ feet and we wouldn't have found water if we were just a few inches shorter.  No fish though.  Not even a nibble.  I even sang the "here fishy, fishy" song.  

-14 with windchill and clear sunny skies made for an excellent day for a land trip.  I rocked 100spf sunscreen, kept my face covered and my back to the sun and I still ended up with a pretty wicked goggle tan.  I spent most of the day sitting around a fishing hole much like the one pictured above.   

Looking fabulous in the standard Arctic uniform: Canada Goose, fur mitts, big boots, and goggles. 

I was worried that the kids would be bored because there wasn't any activities organized but then again I'm a fool.  Kids in Nunavut don't need organized activities! For kids who - on good days - have some trepidation working independently in the classroom, don't even hesitate when getting organized on the land.  They pushed a kamatik (much like the one we're sitting on in the photo) up to the top of the hill, behind us, and created their own rollercoaster.  There was even a "weeeeeeeeee!" periodically. The kids also organized the heck out of the hole digging, bonfire building, snow wrestling fight clubs etc...

We tried without the goggles but just ended up squinting and slightly blind.

Gotta love a land trip!