Plumbing

I have been promising an entry of our plumbing/bathroom redo adventures for a while. I think the time has finally come so get ready for the water works. I will try to keep this light, but the plumbing and I had quite a battle.

The first plumbing issue that we found when we moved in was in the basement.  Someone had shoved a log into the end of a drain pipe to keep it from leaking. I am sure that they were trying to go for the cheapest solution and they didn't have the 5 dollars that is cost us for the proper end cap. Maybe they didn't understand the effects that water has on wood which explains the leaking that began every time we washed dishes. The next plumbing issue as I said before was the toilet breaking but we again went to our lovely home improvement store and got the parts to fix the toilet. I was impressed with how well the toilet worked after we were finished.

Now we come to the part of our story where we run out of options. One fine day I went to the mall to look for something for the children. When I parked I noticed a plumber and his vehicle. I felt very strongly that I needed to stop him and get his card and ask why our drainage was so slow. All the way into the mall I was plagued with this feeling but I pushed it aside because I was too embarassed to just walk up to him.  I went about my shopping and we were soon on our way back home.

When we arrived home I washed the dishes while the kids played outside. At one point I could see them so I went outside only to find them covered with mud. (It was a warm dry day.) I asked where they got the mud and Andrea said from the waterfall. What Waterfall?!  I ran outside to find water pouring down our wall around where the kitchen sink was located.  At this point I really wished that I had that plumber's number. I called Mario at work and shut off the water.  He came home shortly and we went downstairs to see what was wrong. At first it was hard to find the leak. Someone had hidden (wrapped) the pipe with a tarp, a trashbag, pantyhose, a bra, and some underwear! After prying those items off of the pipe we discovered that there were large rusty holes in the pipe. (I was in shock that the inspector could have missed that.)

We knew we had no choice but to bring a plumber to help. Both plumbers said that all of the pipes had to be replaced. Most of the pipes were being held together by the layer of silver spray-paint someone applied (in an effort to make the pipes look steel instead of cast iron. The inspector was right that the plumbing had been updated, he just didn't clarify that it was with spraypaint, pantyhose, bras, two copper pipes and a radiator hose. Since we were going all out with the plumbing we knew we had to replace the toilet, tub and sink in the bathroom.

That may seem a bit excessive, but there was reason behind our madness of tearing those accessories out. The toilet was ancient, but more importantly, it wasn't sealed properly. Someone had used spray foam from the basement to seal it instead of replacing the old wax seal properly. Also, the bathtub wasn't properly supported in the basement so we would avoid stepping on the back end. There was actually no shower at the time either. The sink was impossible to maintain.

The work began a little later than we hoped, and as usual, we found many more problems along the way. First, the floor in the bathroom was covered in carpet. This kept all moisture on the subfloor which we discovered to be severely rotten (especially directly around the toilet.)  The subfloor had to be replaced.  Second, the walls and ceiling all had to come down because of water damage.

We had a completely gutted bathroom and bank account by the time we were done with the repairs.  We were without water for 4 weeks and without a toilet for 6 weeks. It was a trial for all of us, and unfortunately, my health took a hit, I think as did everyones.

I survived this event by the grace of a loving Heavenly Father who carried me when I literally could not get out of bed for fatigue. He sent help when we were completely spent. He gave comfort in the times we felt most afraid it wouldn't work out. And even though our savings were gone and our home value depreciated right after we moved in, I had faith that God would provide for our needs. I am grateful to have running water. I am grateful to have a shower and a working toilet. This is how I survived this old house.

(the picture was borrowed from longmireplumbing.com)

The House Bites Back

On Saturday, Mario and I had of taking the debris from the house to the city dump. We had removed old paneling from the small study and we were anxious to be rid of it. I was so excited to be up and about that day. I was suffering from anemia due to some health struggles and the previous week had been very difficult.

After a typical late morning Saturday, Mario and I went outside, lay the seats down in the car and we proceeded to break up the old paneling so that it would fit in the car. Now, to lay a foundation to this story, Mario has razzed me for years that I need to wear regular tennis shoes instead of my flip flops everywhere, but especially when doing construction work.  (I chose to ignore him because my sandals are so much more comfortable.) We broke a couple of panel pieces successfully and we moved on to the third. As I put my foot down, my sandal unexpectedly shifted to the side. What happened next was kind of a blur, probably because I was dizzy. :) A lovely rusty nail went straight into my heel. I started limping back in the house. I will spare you the details, but my anemia returned.  The next 3 days I spent lame as a duck and praying that tetanus wouldn't set in.  Luckily, on Monday, something happened that completely distracted me (sarcasm ensues).

Mario came to me Monday morning to tell me that the water wasn't heating up. We went downstairs to check it out and smelled gas. We left the house and called the gas company from our neighbors house. When the man from the gas company came, he was able to fix the leak and re-light the water heater. He was then required to check for any other leaks. The end result was that he had to shut the furnace down and put a cute little red tag on it.

Apparently the vent stack that goes from the basement to the roof is too small and there isn't enough ventilation in the basement. The lack of proper ventilation meant that carbon monixide could have built up in the basement at any point and killed us. The most serious issue was that the box built around the air intake for the furnace had been broken when the plumber re-plumbed. The end result was that suction was being created in the basement. That suction is probably what caused the water heater to go out and it meant that carbon monoxide exhaust could have been pulled through our ventilation system at any moment.

Update: We replaced the air intake box and it is sealed properly. Now our only concern in the chimney stack.

I have gone through many emotions as this week has trippingly advanced. I didn't cry at all when I stepped on the nail. Once I laid down in bed I actually started laughing! I was struck by how ridiculous it was that this house could have even more anxiety to dish out. I will admit getting a little aggitated by the heater situations. The most discouraged that I got was that I began praying more fervently that Extreme Makeover: Home Edition would come to our house and rescue us. In the spirit of good humor and trying to find the bright side. . . I know that God will provide what we need. At least we have a roof over our heads and two beautiful children to love.

6/30/13 I have finally found that the only solution to our ventilation problem is to switch back to an electric water heater. We will have to buy a new one and pay for the installation, but I can't pass on a hazardous situation to the next family. I wish the plumber had followed the code like we had paid him to do. I now just pray that we will be able to find the money to replace it before winter comes this year and we have to turn the furnace back on.

A Quick note on "Good luck..."

I have decided that I don't believe in superstitions or good luck. :) When I see a black cat walking across my path I plow ahead. If there is a ladder to be maneuvered around, I, with head held high, walk right under it. And, after this house, I will never fear cracking a mirror.

Now, you must be wondering when I took this bold and risky approach to life. I'll tell you that I can't pinpoint the day, but it was sometime after we moved into this house. When we first moved in, I was a little superstitious. I didn't want to bring any bad luck our way.

When we first moved in, Mario kept saying, "Well, at least the toilet works!" I said, "Don't say that, it may break." He laughed at my foolishness... One month later it broke!  Then he started saying, "Well, at least the roof is good." I cautioned Mario again, but his statement seemed a fair one as the inspector assured us the roof was practically brand new.

Within a couple weeks of Mario saying that, we found a shingle laying on the ground. When Mario went up to investigate he found the gutters packed with asphalt. There were several spots where shingles that were so worn down they needed patches. (I will give the inspector the benefit of the doubt that he didn't know that some signs of a worn out roof are; gutters full of asphalt, worn patches on the roof, and loose shingles!)

As we discovered the precarious nature of our electrical problems, the rotten sub-floors, the waterfalls, and began to have questions about the foundation, I came to accept that some things just happen. Although I still believe in "The Force," I have come to accept that good luck and bad luck don't really exist, just pure dumb luck! :) So take the step with me my friends! No more throwing salt over your shoulder. (It just hits your neighbor in the eye, and there is no cause to spread the pain.)

How I have survived the house through these discoveries is by accepting that I have very little control in this world. Things happen, and homes that haven't been maintained need constant repair. All I can do is my best effort in making sure the next people to own our home will have the best chance possible at safety and comfort.

All and more than you could ever want to know about plaster

The day we got the keys to our new old house I was so excited! I started stripping all of the walls of their lovely 70's wallpaper. The wallpaper, I soon discovered was covering severly cracked lead paint covered plaster walls. Whew that is a long description! Determined to solve the problem and using the obsessive research skills that run through our family I set to work on the computer learning the proper way to patch pathetic plaster. (Say that phrase 5 times fast :P 'patch pathetic plaster')

Anywho... I taught myself how to repair the problem and I quickly set out for that amazing friend to fellow fixer-uppers, Home Depot. So my local shopping experts guided me to the right screws and tools. (This was my first intro to this store and we are, by now, fast friends. I know at least half of the employees and they recognize me and grin a little now everytime they see me. I know they are thinking,"There comes the woman who pays all of our wages!!"

Our plaster work began in the Northeast bedroom. Our repairs ended up taking about 3 months. Luckily, Dad and Mom came to the rescue and helped us make it a livable happy space. They were lifesavers. The room looked good and clean and safe (minus the ominous electrical wiring)

Now, lets delve into the amazing world of plaster....  For those of you who are curious about how to repair plaster cracks I will tell you or you can run it through a search engine. When plaster has cracked and separated from the lovely lathe slats, one must run screws along both sides of the crack. Then you must carve out a v shape into the crack. This groove allows the patch to stay.

Most websites recommended using plaster of paris to repair. Let me just tell you, that stuff is a pain in the patella! It hardens so fast that we couldn't even get it to the wall before it set. We looked like a couple of overeager beavers running back and forth from the kitchen sink (which was at the time working) trying to patch up our dam (did I spell that right?) before the mud dried out. We finally gave up our plaster adventure and used joint compound which was much easier. It was still kinda thick, but oh so much better. I have since learned that you are supposed to add water to joint compound and thin it out a little. Who knew??? Really who did?! Grrrr. After getting the first layer of compound on, then you use drywall tape and another wider layer to finish off. Eek!

Wow, I know that was an overall boring paragraph, but I hope to save someone a little pain in the discovery process. (This one is for you Allie!)

While still on the topic of plaster let me tell you how amazingly fun and theraputic it was to bash all of the plaster out in our bathroom. Now, I will devote a whole entry in this blog to our bathroom and what fun that has been (because our bathroom has earned its own blog entry), but for now lets talk about the lovely green and pink plaster walls with the fake pink plastic tiles. As we were working on the bathroom we took the time to knock off the plastic tiles, just to find that there were mold problems and standing water in our bathroom plaster. We knew it needed to come out, but I was quite intimidated about it. Luckily, our neighbor Lance came to the rescue! He started tackling it. He took the small sledge hammer and started pounding it away. I got in there with him and the wall really started giving way. I found all of the stress lightened as I bashed large holes in the walls with my hammer. (no pent up aggression problems here at all!) Knocking out all those walls took less time than repairing the cracking in the first room, but of course now we have to hang drywall. :) (Helpful hint: Use hammer and knock plaster in a large square. Then you can pull on the plaster and it will come off in large, toe-breaking pieces. No, really, I almost broke a couple of toes :) Again that was for Allie!

I will close this somewhat boring and tragic plaster section by saying, I HATE PLASTER! I can't believe people used to take the time to put it up. I wish I had invented sheetrock. I am sure whoever did is filthy rich by now. So good luck on your plaster adventures, may you never find plaster, and may God bless you and keep it far from you!


*BTW: The reason that I chose the above picture of the plastered person is because it resembled Lance and I so much as we left the plaster and drywall zones.  One the dusty days we looked like we had left the human race!

In the Beginning. . .

This is the house in question and yes that is a spruce tree trying to eat it!

There was a naive man and woman who fancied themselves intelligent enough to delve into the home buying market. The woman (beautiful witty me, of course) and the man (my handsome analytical husband) looked for hours, days, and months for that house that would fulfill all of their dreams. They were determined to find a mortgage that they could handle without having too much work to do inside the house. The woman researched about homebuying until she was blue in the face. (I guess this is a good place to switch to first person. :)

I could tell you the ins and outs of short sales and foreclosures and interest rates and even the importance of being preapproved for your loan. I could tell you how to tell if a roof had reached its life and what to look for structurally to tell if the foundation was bad. Luckily for me my lender insisted that we pay for a home inspection to ensure we purchased a stable home. Ah, the wonderful home inspector who would walk through everything for me and solve all of my problems. He would find everything wrong with the house so that we would be protected and know what we were getting into.

So, after months of searching and two home purchases falling through (and paying for two inspections) my heart settled on a cute and well loved home built in 1920. I could tell that the woman who lived there cared about the home. I was so enthused by the quaintness of the home that nothing would dissuade from finding a way to buy it. I was nervous about the next step, which was the home inspection. I was sure that there would be something terribly wrong and we would have to move on because of the age of the house.

The inspection day came and went and the inspector gave us great news. Even though the water heater had reached its age, the furnace was brand new, the roof was no more than 5 years old, some of the plumbing had been updated (with the mention of copper pipes... cue the oohs and ahhs here), the foundation looked to be in good condition, and even though not all of the wiring was grounded it appeared that the electrical system was updated. With a nod from our intelligent and lifesaving inspector we moved forward with our purchase as rapidly as possible. We were convinced we were getting an amazing deal because all we would have to do is update the walls and flooring and we would be good to go.

Now, for those of you who have heard anything of our adventures in the last few months I am sure you are already rolling on the floor with fits of laughter. ;) Those of you who don't know our fun, get ready for a bumpy ride.