"Be careful what you wish for."

“I hope the whole ceiling falls in.”

My husband looked up at our ceiling, then warned me, “Be careful what you wish for.”

“I mean at work. I hope the whole ceiling falls in at work. Maybe then they will come and fix the leak.”

Of course I said this to my husband as we were getting ready for bed, thinking about earlier in the day at work. It was when the last period was ending on Thursday, when the rain started coming down really hard. My class of 10 students and I listened to the rain pound on the roof and the windows, while they finished up their lesson and I started straightening up my classroom like I do every Thursday. That’s when I noticed one of my bookshelves had a puddle accumulating on top of it. When I looked up to the ceiling I could see the rain coming through the sagging discolored ceiling tile. The drops started coming faster and faster as the ceiling sagged lower and lower. I quickly cleared off the top of the bookcase moving all of my classic literature books so they would not be ruined and put a trashcan under the leak to catch the water. Then I phoned the front office.

“My ceiling is leaking.”

“Oh no…I’ll let maintenance know and send them right over.”

The bell rang and I continued to tidy my classroom when I noticed another leak dripping on one of the window sills. I put a second trash can on the window sill, to catch that water. Then went on with the rest of my preparations, getting ready to head home for the weekend. By the time I left my classroom I hadn’t heard from or saw anyone from maintenance. Based off the cleanliness of my classroom or lack there of, I imagined that I would be coming back to a of couple trash cans full of trash and water, also possibly a disaster where the ceiling caved in over the weekend.

As I was recalling that instant, later that night I spoke out loud and probably shouldn’t have. I did hope that the ceiling would fall in so that somebody would have to attend to it. But I didn’t mean to wish it out loud. Sometimes things just come out of my mouth without me thinking and my husband is always the one to catch it and call me on it.

The next morning I went out to our kitchen to make some coffee like I do every morning. I’m half asleep fumbling around in the kitchen. Mind you the rain hasn’t stopped since my 6^th period class the day before and that’s when I see it, a small puddle on my kitchen countertop, right next to the coffee grinder. I didn’t remember spilling anything on the counter and didn’t see any glasses left that may have sweat a puddle onto the counter.

That’s when I remembered what I had wished for. Nooooo…I didn’t mean it. I didn’t really want the ceiling to fall in, certainly not at home. We’ve had enough problems in our kitchen since we moved in, we didn’t need to add a leaky roof too.

“BABE?! Come look at this…”

When he came into the kitchen I was opening the cabinets trying to find out where the water was coming from. I didn’t see anything falling from the ceiling, but noticed a couple drops coming from the cabinets above the counter. Then I saw the puddle on top of the microwave too. I went to grab my phone so I could take pictures with the camera, meanwhile my husband used a ball point pen and started circling where the drips were coming from. We could see it had to be coming from the ceiling but somehow coming through the cabinet and was pooling on the bottom shelves then dripping onto the counter and the top of the microwave.

My husband had to head to work, while I got to stay home as I do the majority of Fridays. This time though I had a sick child home with me too. While I tried to get him situated, I called the handyman our Aunt and Uncle trust and use, along with the home warranty company. Come to find out that the seller didn’t purchase any coverage for a leaky roof through the home warranty. Seriously? UGH!! So all I could do was cross my fingers and hope it wasn’t anything big that needed to be fixed. 

The handyman wasn’t able to come until after he got off of work, meanwhile all day I fretted about this new found kitchen problem. After talking with my old neighbor and my mom, I decided to contact the seller to find out if the roof had any type of warranty. 

The seller had replaced the roof in the last five years. When we had our home inspected before buying it, the inspector commented on what a good job the roofer had done, so I figured it must have been a good company who most likely offered some type of warranty to guarantee their job. Unfortunately the seller was out of town and was unable to give me any information on the roof other than the name of the company. When I called the roofing company, they were unable to look up our roof because their computer system was down, but assured me they would get back to me by Monday. 

Meanwhile the handyman came over and my husband and him climbed a scary looking ladder to get on top of our flat roof. They discovered that there is nothing wrong with the roof itself, but there was a support beam of some sort that is rotting and probably allowing some water to come through causing the puddle on the kitchen counter. The handyman told my husband once it dries out completely he can seal the beam so it no longer leaks. 

I was so relieved that it’s not the roof itself, and seems relatively easy to fix. I will definitely be careful what I wish for from now on.