Water finds a way

I came home yesterday, and that funky smell that has been lingering the past couple days had become stronger. The wife had done some investigating and couldn't locate the source. Fridge is cleaned out, trash taken out, we've all bathed recently.

My sense of smell is terrible, I assume because my allergies have done their damage. The wife's sniffer is normally acute but is out of commission with a lingering cold. This funk however had penetrated both our dulled senses.

The wife determined it was actually coming from the furnace vents. I checked the furnace filters hoping not to find a small creature recently expired. All clear. Down to the crawlspace. It turns out that the recent deluge of rain had seeped past the foundation and had soaked some insulation right below the furnace intake. The insulation was pretty rank. Hopefully problem solved.

Just before rolling over to read last night I looked up at the bedroom ceiling. It looked wet. Stood up and felt around, and it was not an illusion. Didn't feel like crawling around in the attic at midnight, so I didn't check it out until this morning. Turns out the spare bedroom's ceiling was also damp the next morning.

Our house has a very low sloped roof so there isn't a whole lot of room to crawl around up there. There is no way to crawl out to the edge where the ceiling was damp. I could see the underside of the roof though, and it looked dry. We are hoping that the recent heavy rain and wind simply pushed the moisture in through the soffit vents.

Fingers crossed, knocking on wood - hoping it isn't rotten.