keeping the house afloat

Any boat owner can tell you what a boat is -- a hole in the water surrounded by wood into which you pour money.

Home owners understand the sentiment. Just like boats, houses need constant attention and repair to stay afloat.

The boat analogy is not inapt. Unless a house is situated in the middle of the Atacama Desert, it needs to be as watertight as a sloop during rainy seasons. Assuming that the homeowner is not fond of impromptu water features in the bedroom.

I have now lived in the house with no name for six years. The house has been kind to my budget. The largest maintenance cost I have incurred was a new paint job just over a year ago (painting the dead). But it is not the wallet-deflating projects that are often the most annoying. It is the recurring flaws that are often most memorable.

My house is built in the Mexican modern style championed by Luis Barragán. Straight lines. Acute angles. Lots of flat planes.

It is those "flat planes" that present the recurring problem.

The house consists of two stories. The ground story contains the main living area built around a large patio. Four bedrooms. A library. A kitchen. A guest bathroom. The first floor is a large circular terrace topped with four pavilions. With the exception of the area covered by the pavilions, the terrace is open to the vagaries of weather. Here, that means lots of exposure to high temperatures most of the year and tropical rains in our wet season.

The terrace is surfaced with ceramic tiles. Tiles mean grout. And punishing weather means that the grout between the tiles will often crack from expansion and contraction. When that happens, water can seep into the rooms below because the terrace forms the roof for the rooms on the ground floor.

My house has suffered more leaks than the White House. When I moved in, the first rains exposed leaks in the kitchen, the library, and one guest room. Those leaks were plugged by replacing several tiles on the terrace and adding fresh grout.

No leaks appeared for a year. But they eventually did. And, as is the way of leaks, they were in new places. We have been through that cycle several times during the past six years.

This morning the latest group of leaks -- primarily in Omar's bedroom -- are being fixed. Martin and Victor know the routine. Not only were they part of the paint crew last year, but they have been responsible for two prior leak jobs.

Because the problem is the grout, Martin and Victor will remove the current grout with a saw that sounds as if I have opened a cut-rate dentist practice. If tiles are loose, they will be removed, cleaned, and re-seated. When the new grout dries, a sealant will be applied over the top of the grout. That method has been effective in stopping leaks in the past (no plumber required for these leaks).

Is it a permanent fix? Of course not. Short of pulling up all of the terrace tile and installing a new drainage system, there will be no permanent resolution. And, even if I were to shell out the type of money that would put a new car in my garage, leaks would appear in the new construction. Water will find a way.

When the rains arrive this summer, we will discover whether the hull has been properly caulked. If not, we will weather the storm and invite Martin and Victor back with their trusty saw.