Well I had my first Tornado night last night as the normally safe Chicagoland turned into a Soupy Burma weather wise and then spawned loads of Twisters. We had one touchdown five minutes away from us. We were firmly in our basement at that time because of sirens and err the neighbour calling us and screaming, "Sirens means 2 minutes away! Don't go Outside!". Spoilsport!
Anyway, no harm done. Missed us by more than a whisker. Unfortunately the violent storms which have been mostly hitting us for the last two weeks have caused havoc on some of our basement. The far end where we (wifey, I and the three cats) ensconced is pretty secure, but unfortunately the top end where the stairs come down to our formerly delightfully finished and decorated lower dwellings have been plagued by flooding and water seepage.
Because the Developer cut corners like the absolute Cnut that he is, we found membrane that is meant to be in the walls to push water to the drain tile was missing and in some cases cut down so low they weren't doing a fucking thing. We surmised that they only had one roll of weather proofing and rather than buy a second one (the basement is very big) they just cut it down and used it that way.
Anyway, it is going to cost $40,000 (that's more than 12 quid in Ingo money), to put the whole thing back to where it was. All the finishings on the right side of the area (we sheltered in the left) have been ripped out and we have to replace the stairs coming down from the lobby as water had found it's way in from shit construction on the extension and mold was forming under there and on the floor. This also means replacing the dry wall and some concrete. Woo Hoo!!!! (let's hope when we start next week we don't have more Tornado weather).
The best part? The people we trust to get the work done properly only take cash or Cheque due to old clients of theirs charging back on the credit card. So I have to get an interest free credit card and buy loads of stuff from my wife's business to convert it to cash because it's cheaper than paypal.
So shit crooked developer + Crazy apocalyptic weather storms = Loads of fun and no fucking money ever again!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicago: Yay!