Plumbing surprises and destruction/construction
Progress has been continuing, though this was a busy week at the office and sorry for the delayed posting of last week's updates!
I managed to snag a couple photos as well of the existing termite damage that I mentioned in the last post - the mulched board - as I was transferring the detritus of Morris's work into the snazzy dumpster that we rented.
Keep in mind that these were supporting beams for part of the house. Be terrified.
You know how meat that has been slow cooked for a long time just shreds with the slightest touch? Yeah, that's what this wood did. Wood is not supposed to do that!
Also, we had some fun running out into the distant suburbs to pick up a trailer (which has been incredibly useful). And the Tractor Supply Store little chicks for sale. This is not a thing I was anticipating, city gal that I am.
It was adorable. A+ chicken nuggets.
Thursday night was grabbing the trailer, Friday was a run to Home Depot and then running back to VA to watch Infinity War (lots of thoughts on that for another forum). Saturday was a long day of more Home Depot and plumbing surprises.
Morris managed to get the floors laid for the dining room and it was a surprisingly quick and easy process. Occasionally we find things that are faster and easier than expected, but it certainly feels like it's more common to find things that were more difficult and complicated.
So, it's important that all plumbing fixtures should have cut off knobs for the water coming to them because things go wrong or fixtures need to be replaced and whatnot. We had already decided we were tearing out the 1991 original vinyl flooring because it was terrible and ancient. So Morris is moving thing out of the kitchen so that he can clear the way to put in stuff for the new tile flooring. That included taking out the dishwasher that we had even been intending to leave in because it seems to be a nice, decent little machine.
Morris goes in and closes all the cutoff valves he sees under the sink, no biggie. He removes the hose from the dishwasher to discover that things were not what they seemed. Hot, scalding water started shooting out everywhere because some Quick-fix Rick decided to bring the hot water pipe directly into the dishwasher WITH NO CUTOFF VALVE. None. No thought to "hmm.. you know, dishwashers do occasionally break or need to be replaced" at the time. Just hook it up and hope for the best. Morris runs down and has to shut off water to the entire house because there's no cut off valve any closer to this thing than the damned main pipes. I was on mop duty to try and save the floor from the pool of hot water (cooled down from the original scalding pool).
So more trips to Home Depot to get more plumbing supplies so that he can get in there and establish a new cutoff valves. Some of those worked great first time, sadly not all did. More trips to Home Depot, more mopping, and a very annoyed and tired Morris. We started quickly losing daylight and I needed to run back to the apartment and tend to the dog and then promptly passed out. Morris continued working overnight until about 5am, working out to nearly a 23 hour day of working hard. His coworkers on his team for the office fitness challenge appreciated the ungodly amount of steps and calorie burn he generated.
To set the stage for what I arrived to see on Sunday morning, let's grab some of the pictures from the house's listing site so that you can get the good "before" images that I neglected to snap on my own.
Morris took out the ceiling because he wants to run new wires for lights and other snazzy things and the textured design (not a popcorn ceiling, but almost as tacky) was gonna need to go. We had been talking about a few different options, and started really talking about open joists being a fun, industrial kind of look. Also turns out there was a leak somewhere and some of the drywall in the ceiling had slowly been turning to mush.
He also managed to pull out the old dishwasher and under sink cabinet that unsurprisingly was basically rotted. Fun things happen when cheap particle board cabinets come into repeated contact with leads from pipes and dishwashers. They rot.
Doesn't that just look lovely? So Sunday continued with more Home Depot (fortified with a couple dozen doughnuts from the Krispy Kreme nearby) and clearing things up in the kitchen, setting up wiring, etc. I managed to finish the painting and trim for the dining room and picked up the drop cloths to show off the gorgeous new floor that Morris put in. It resulted in 2 very tired, but satisfied homeowners.
I managed to snag a couple photos as well of the existing termite damage that I mentioned in the last post - the mulched board - as I was transferring the detritus of Morris's work into the snazzy dumpster that we rented.
Keep in mind that these were supporting beams for part of the house. Be terrified.
You know how meat that has been slow cooked for a long time just shreds with the slightest touch? Yeah, that's what this wood did. Wood is not supposed to do that!
Also, we had some fun running out into the distant suburbs to pick up a trailer (which has been incredibly useful). And the Tractor Supply Store little chicks for sale. This is not a thing I was anticipating, city gal that I am.
It was adorable. A+ chicken nuggets.
Thursday night was grabbing the trailer, Friday was a run to Home Depot and then running back to VA to watch Infinity War (lots of thoughts on that for another forum). Saturday was a long day of more Home Depot and plumbing surprises.
Morris managed to get the floors laid for the dining room and it was a surprisingly quick and easy process. Occasionally we find things that are faster and easier than expected, but it certainly feels like it's more common to find things that were more difficult and complicated.
So, it's important that all plumbing fixtures should have cut off knobs for the water coming to them because things go wrong or fixtures need to be replaced and whatnot. We had already decided we were tearing out the 1991 original vinyl flooring because it was terrible and ancient. So Morris is moving thing out of the kitchen so that he can clear the way to put in stuff for the new tile flooring. That included taking out the dishwasher that we had even been intending to leave in because it seems to be a nice, decent little machine.
Morris goes in and closes all the cutoff valves he sees under the sink, no biggie. He removes the hose from the dishwasher to discover that things were not what they seemed. Hot, scalding water started shooting out everywhere because some Quick-fix Rick decided to bring the hot water pipe directly into the dishwasher WITH NO CUTOFF VALVE. None. No thought to "hmm.. you know, dishwashers do occasionally break or need to be replaced" at the time. Just hook it up and hope for the best. Morris runs down and has to shut off water to the entire house because there's no cut off valve any closer to this thing than the damned main pipes. I was on mop duty to try and save the floor from the pool of hot water (cooled down from the original scalding pool).
So more trips to Home Depot to get more plumbing supplies so that he can get in there and establish a new cutoff valves. Some of those worked great first time, sadly not all did. More trips to Home Depot, more mopping, and a very annoyed and tired Morris. We started quickly losing daylight and I needed to run back to the apartment and tend to the dog and then promptly passed out. Morris continued working overnight until about 5am, working out to nearly a 23 hour day of working hard. His coworkers on his team for the office fitness challenge appreciated the ungodly amount of steps and calorie burn he generated.
To set the stage for what I arrived to see on Sunday morning, let's grab some of the pictures from the house's listing site so that you can get the good "before" images that I neglected to snap on my own.
Morris took out the ceiling because he wants to run new wires for lights and other snazzy things and the textured design (not a popcorn ceiling, but almost as tacky) was gonna need to go. We had been talking about a few different options, and started really talking about open joists being a fun, industrial kind of look. Also turns out there was a leak somewhere and some of the drywall in the ceiling had slowly been turning to mush.
He also managed to pull out the old dishwasher and under sink cabinet that unsurprisingly was basically rotted. Fun things happen when cheap particle board cabinets come into repeated contact with leads from pipes and dishwashers. They rot.
Doesn't that just look lovely? So Sunday continued with more Home Depot (fortified with a couple dozen doughnuts from the Krispy Kreme nearby) and clearing things up in the kitchen, setting up wiring, etc. I managed to finish the painting and trim for the dining room and picked up the drop cloths to show off the gorgeous new floor that Morris put in. It resulted in 2 very tired, but satisfied homeowners.
It's looking great!!!! We are still working on our house too but its so slow since we live there already. Get it all done girl!!
ReplyDeleteThanks! It does help, but the commuting back and forth is also a pain in the behind. I'm actually looking forward to getting to a point that we can get in there and not have to shuttle back and forth across town.
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