Happily Haphazard: July 2010

Since I was a teenager I have loved DIY shows. I looked forward to Saturday mornings so that I could watch "This old house". In College I took a "Stair Design" and "Building Codes" classes and for a long time was a drafting major who wanted to be a Restoration Architect. I still am a DIY show junkie and love to learn new things and don't mind getting my hands dirty. However having told you all this I have to admit that it is not as much fun when you have a list of unexpected "forced" DIY projects.
Since my last post we closed on our first house, a charming yellow Cape Cod style home with plenty of room to grow and lurking plumbing and "fix it up" issues. I must have done something to anger the "water" gods because every time I turn around there is a new leak somewhere.
Needless to say my lovely new home has been throwing as good a temper tantrum as my 3 year old! But I am determined to overcome!
Our first fix was a major leak in a pipe in a basement closet. "No problem" the plumber said and fixed it right up. A few days a leak showed up in the main floor bathroom that leaked down the wall to the basement. The same wall with all the electrical panels. Oh joy! The vanity mirror was removed, the leak fixed and an attempt to dry everything out was made, but proved to be unsuccessful. The walls behind the vanity, the mirror, the vanity itself and part of the drywall on the basement wall had to be removed due to moisture. And yes a breaker in the electrical panel, luckily only one. So due to budget constraints Brice and I decided to do the drywall and vanity install ourselves. I felt pretty good about the outcome.
In the mean time 2 more leaks showed up in the basement closet, and after replacing a broken water heater our water softener system cycled and flooded the same part of the basement because the tube was not secure to the drain. You'd think that would be all but no. In removing the dry wall in the basement it revealed the main drain to the house. And after moving in, you guessed it water was leaking down the pipe.
In the mean time, while trying to position a refrigerator in the downstairs kitchen I removed a cabinet on the wall where the drain pipe is to discover a huge mold spot and the problem to the leak. Our toilet in the main floor bathroom had been leaking and from the looks of it for a long time. Fabulous!! So now a good portion of the wall and ceiling in the basement and the laundry closet area has been removed and treated for mold. Thinking that the toilet would be a simple fix and my first house guests coming I decided to put new vinyl sticky tiles over the horrible "outdoor tiles" in the bathroom, just leaving the area around the toilet so the the plumber could fix it. Of course it was not going to be that easy though. 2 days before my guests came, the plumber told me he could not fix the toilet because the sub floor around it was rotted and that the whole floor would have to be demolished and fixed before he could fix it. So for a week now we have been living without a toilet in our main bathroom, and I get the fabulous job of floor demo.
Some crazy person that lived in the house previously had decided to re-tile the floor by leaving the original vinyl, putting down wire meshing then a layer of what looks and weighs like concrete, then the tiles which were grouted in concrete! Its at least 2 inched thick and I only have until Tuesday to finish it before the floor guy comes!
On top of everything, we replaced the broken furnace, 2 doors, a window, replaced 3 out of 5 faucets in the house ( with one more to go),put in 4 new light fixtures, 3 new vanity mirrors, made 3 window screens ( with 5 more to go),tore out the smelly not salvageable pet urine soaked carpet in the downstairs bedroom, put up a piece of fence, and are prepping the back yard for sod. Oh and when I tried to water the front lawn last week, you guessed it, the faucet is leaking!
Now that you've gotten through this "Book" of a post I thought it only fair to share some before and after pictures.