Two months later...

At first, I tried to patch things up myself. It was the Thursday night that the NFL season began, and I was sitting in the living room watching the Redskins get beat up by the Giants. And in the corner where the ceiling meets the wall above the fireplace, I noticed a shadow that seemed out of place. And then, the shadow slowly began to move, trickle actually, down the wall. Huh? I got up to check it out, and yes, we had water coming in from the outside where it was steadily downpouring. After a few calls to my dad and father-in-law asking for advice, we felt hopeless. We set up a few fans and a dehumidifier and waited. It rained most of the night, but in the morning, the interior damage wasn't that bad. I had to get a ladder in order to get up on the roof, but I did, and saw ......... nothing. There was nothing out of the ordinary, but I knew the lead was somewhere by the fake-chimney that we have for our gas fireplace. I patched all around where the chimney and roof meet with caulk, and hoped that would seal the deal. But, a few weeks later, during the remnants of Hurricane Ike, we got soaked. So we called in professionals, and today, they took down the fake chimney and are patching up our roof. But, of course, it is now raining. So the job is postponed, but at least we are now dry.