My wife and I packed up the kids yesterday to go over to her parents so we could take down the Christmas trees and clean up a little for them while they were away.  After going out to look for a garbage bag in the garage I noticed there was a pretty nice sized icicle hanging from the INSIDE of the garage over my father in laws car with bits of sheetrock on the roof and window.  Looking furthur, I saw more ice damage in that it was also melting and tearing apart the sheetrock.As I went inside to see if there was furthur damage in the house itself, I knew I would need to look in their closet to see if the leak was there as well.  upon kneeling down to see anything, my knee was instantly wet as the carpeting was saturated as it had also leaked in at this level.  Moving stuff around for about a half hour I found wet clothes, wet rolls of wall paper, wet sides of a few picture frames as well as a dart board set that had swollen up some due to absorbing all the water.  When everything was out of the way, I then realized there was actually ice in the closet as well.  It made for an interesting evening for sure.  Now it is time to give the old insurance agent and contractor a call to see what can be done before it becomes too extensive as well as expensive.

As you may be living in an area where this could potentially occur, it is important to make sure your house is well sealed to the elements such  as ice and water.  We actually have other issues in our own house such as a garage that was built with a drain that leaks into the basement where I have found salt residue all over my stuff when the water drips there and evaporates.  I have since set up a large container to catch the leak, but need to look into other methods of stopping it from occuring at all.I  guess with major disasters that have occurred recently, such as the earthquake in Haiti and the Solomon Islands tsunami (where I  served in the Peace Corps 10 years ago) these home issues are minor but remind us of the power of mother nature .