It's sort of like an Amazon rain forest in here...

Last Thursday, which happened to be the Worst Day in Recent History (more on that later), the husband arrived at the house mid-afternoon to find it raining in the attic.

I should note that it wasn't raining outside, no, this impressive little indoor rainstorm was created by the combination of the near-freezing temperatures outside and the fact that our furnace vent doesn't - it merely stops an inch below the roof decking, letting all the nice, warm, humid air into our attic. Which of course then condensed on the decking, causing a little localized weather system reminiscent of the Amazon rain forest.

Remember this picture? That's our furnace pipe on the right, the roof decking all around, and the metal plate covering the hole where the pipe should exit to the exterior.

Now, I know, you're wondering why we didn't fix this back in November when we realized it was a problem - actually, we were wondering this too as we watched water drip from the attic. We had planned to do so, as part of installing the new metal roof. Needless to say, we haven't gotten to the new metal roof yet, so the venting issue hadn't been fixed. However, the rainstorm in the attic gave us a certain motivation to fix the problem, post-haste. We took the coward's way out and called our roofer. Best $75 we have spent so far.

Several hours and two trips to the hardware store later, we were the proud owners of a properly-venting furnace. Here's the sheet of metal that the roofer ripped out:

That flimsy bit of metal was all that was covering a fairly sizable hole in the roof where the furnace should have vented. It's almost rusted through.

And here is our beautiful new vent:

I know, it doesn't look like much, but there was a nice, steady poof of steam coming through the vent when I took this picture.

It's amazing the little things like a proper furnace vent that make you happy when you're dealing with a renovation project of this magnitude. And hey, now it only rains in the attic when it's raining outside!