RENOVATIONS WINNER: Leaking roof will be fixed

In October, William Leonard looked online at the other entrants in The Gazette's Great Renovations Contest and felt guilty.

He figured he had it easy compared with the families who faced insurmountable medical bills and houses that had turned into endless money pits.

His family's biggest problem was a leaky skylight.

But then Leonard got laid off from his job as a senior facilities maintenance technician at Plasmon Inc., a company that makes disc-drive libraries. This was followed by news that his wife's father had been diagnosed with cancer.

So when the call came that Leonard had won a $1,000 gift certificate for The Home Depot, it was an island of good news in a sea of bad.

"That's fantastic!" he said. "This is the hugest blessing coming through. We can certainly use that."

Readers chose Leonard's submission above more than 50 others, based on not just a photo of his leaky study, but a clever poem:

"Skylight flashing had a drip
streams of water took a trip
ceiling couldn't hold it all
ran right down inside the wall
really need to fix this right
time and money are so tight
need your help to wrap this up
contest money in my cup!"

What the poem didn't say was how important that study has been to the Leonards. It's where William's wife, Faith, has made some extra money tutoring math students, something that has become more urgent with William out of work.

"We had buckets on the floor," Faith said of the leaky skylight. "The books were getting wet."

So William gutted the room, taking up the flooring, tearing out the drywall. In the past weeks, he's redone the skylight and is pretty sure he's stopped the leak. He added insulation and he plans to put in new drywall and new flooring.

Now, with The Home Depot card in hand, he needs to find a few hours to get the job done. "Most of my time is taken up with job hunting," he said.

EDITOR'S NOTE

We hope to follow up with the Leonards to give you "after" photos in the coming weeks.