Category: A HOUSE FROM HELL

We have REALLY been trying hard to move forward in spite of ALL the obstacles we have been jumping over the past 49 days.  We are so close to having at least a bedroom and feeling like it is somewhat livable and then WHAM! 10 steps backwards we go.  I did get the pantry (short of the floor) finished though. The overall theme (eventually) will be farmhouse chic. Hubby and I both love this shelf paper – eventually when the floor and door molding are in the cohesiveness of our ideas will show through. Imagine a Tuscan green old fashioned screen door on the pantry and it will be done LOL.

We received a call yesterday telling us that our carpet was in and they can install it Friday – SCORE.  All we have to do is finish painting the bedroom, no problem. Hubby finished framing the window yesterday and we only need to paint now.  What a difference a brighter color makes. I can’t wait until we can change that window!  Foundation people said we have to wait 3 months to allow settling so I finally put a sheet over it!

I also called the plumber yesterday to come fix the the leak caused by the foundation guys.  We now know why the foundation guys were in such a big hurry to get out of here.  Raul lied AGAIN! Raul told hubby the leak was in the wall above the foundation and asked if hubby would mind fixing it after he tore the wall off because they were late to their next job because of the rain delay day they had to take during our job.  We tore out the wall and found that the leak is in and under the foundation and should have been repaired at the same time they repaired the other leak they cause when the jack hammered into the washer drain.  Now they have closed the holes and in order for the plumber to fix it new tunneling from a different direction is required taking out a tree in the back yard so hubby and I spent an hour moving all the pavers and things that will be in the way of the digging.

The bottoms of the cabinets were rotted, but today we learned just how badly.  Good thing we’d already decided that they needed to be changed because we couldn’t get them clean enough to paint. The electricians were also scheduled to be here today to fix a splice area and some funny wiring.  Hubby and I intended to have the sink and the rest of the cabinetry out of the way, but ran into a stumbling block when the leaky 40 year old garbage disposal was hard wired in behind everything.  So everyone decided to get in on the job.  My question is how many men does it take to move a sink?

Garage disposal bottom

No wonder the garbage disposal was leaking. Don’t you just love the dumbing down of the wood industry that they have to paint construction grade 2×4’s flourescent pink?

Hubby also found good and bad news yesterday when he finished tearing out the bathroom drywall.    The good news is that the mold was only on the front of the wallboard and the vanity.  The bad news is that he had to rip out the wall board out of precaution to realize it wasn’t on the back.

Every day seems to be over before I get my list accomplished!  Today’s to do list started with:

• haul out as much trash as humanly possible
• master bedroom closet molding
• hang clothes
• meet with electrician
• paint entry
• paint pantry
• fix laundry leak from the foundation people
• make stew
• quit early

LOL hubby and I spent over an hour looking for the miter box to do the molding and never did find it so we moved onto the next project until we get to Lowes tomorrow.

We love the new electrician!  He was able to fix what the last electrician broke and then some.  Our biggest concern was an outlet in the office area that shorted out when I plugged in the shop vac a few weeks ago.  Hubby was going to change out the outlet, but the insulation started cracking off on ALL the wires so we decided it was time to call in an expert. He found that someone (probably my grandfather) had made an outlet where there wasn’t one before by using the outlet in the next room and a length of cut up extension cord. He’ll be back next week for the next go round fixing the kitchen issues!

The water had been seeping under the linoleum for the past couple weeks and making a HUGE mess!  This place was already a fixer and didn’t need any help at being a project!

LOVE how they ran the pipes from the hot water tank above AND below the gas line hook up for the dryer.

It’s NOT pretty, in fact it’s REALLY UGLY, but at least it is somewhat clean now.

When the foundation people were here they broke 3 things concerning the plumbing.  The first was the main into the house and we got that fixed.  The second was the drain line for the washing machine under the slab and they fixed that while they had the hole open.  The third was (according to them) and elbow for the washer drain in the wall.  Today we found were going to fix that leak except it is not what they said.  The leak is in a piece of pipe that goes through the slab.  So, once again we are deferring to the professionals (if they ever call us back).  Bad news is that we are not going to b able to laundry here for awhile!

BEFORE

AFTER

Getting the pantry clean and then painted has been a real issue with both of us.  It also seems to have taken forever! There’s only coat of paint so far and it will get 3, but it feels beautiful already!

 A couple weeks ago hubby and I started the entryway by removing the 2 layers of old cat pee soaked tiles as well as some carpeting and tack strips.  We’ve been treating the area and FINALLY the smell is gone and the area is sanitized. I started the first coat of paint and can’t wait until we can get the new front door.  We definitely need one with some light for this dark hallway.  We also bought a new light fixture with a higher voltage to add to the lighting issue here.

Remember when hubby found the garage issues?

Well we found a temporary fix with pressure treated 2×4’s and Liquid nails.

I woke up feeling a bit more optimistic, even a little excited about how well things have been going.

 I was able to get the first layer of grout down fairly easily on the master bedroom closet floor.  The carpet installer came and measured the bedroom and said we might even be able to have carpet by next week! I also got my desk chair put together – it’s been in the box for 5 years! I also got 5 loads of laundry done, folded and put away.  I was able to put together a “rag” tote for hubby in the garage and today was trash day so spent some time hauling things out for our awesome trash guys.  They would take it all anyway, but with the beer/soda incentive they do it with smiles on their faces.

We were able to narrow down the paint color choice – FINALLY! We started with BEHR “Bakery Box”, but hated it after it was on the walls – too institutional.  Good thing each rooms needs at least 2 coats and 3 in some areas LOL.  Next we chose SHERWIN WILLIAMS “Greek Villa” but found it too plain despite what we saw in the store so it has now become the “primer” for the master bedroom and kitchen.  We finally decided on OLYMPIC “Arctic Cotton”. It will not only match the gray tone carpet, but also the whitewashed birch tone tile for the farmhouse kitchen and bathrooms.

I helped hubby move a few heavy things in the garage and that’s where our day started taking a turn for the not so great.  You’ll notice behind hubby what appears to be daylight near the floor.

Well, it not only appears to be daylight, but IS daylight.  The siding is rotting away and in about 40% of the areas not even attached to the studs so we’re looking at some serious reinforcing and rebuild in these areas.

After helping hubby and feeling so good about so much trash being gone, I decided it was time to tackle the master bath vanity in preparation of getting the new vanity.  The water was turned off due to a leak in this bathroom quite some time ago.  What I was afraid of is what came to light – mold.  We will need to tear out every wall, find the leak, change out the plumbing and build from the ground up so to speak.

I have NO idea how long the water leaked before it was turned off.  I also have NO idea why or even where it leaked so this should be loads of fun!

DAMN I was really hoping NOT to find that BIG black spot!

As it always is with water it will take the path of least resistance.  In this case it was a crack in the floor under the linoleum.

Like water, mold will follow that same path.  In this case it also traveled up the back side of the wall paper so ALL these walls will be torn out and replaced after the leak is found and repaired.

So we decided we needed a quite “special” meal and since we still don’t have a kitchen we broke out the BBQ! We added a baked potato and salad and it was perfect!

We no longer have a 5 second rule even for the dogs around here!  The things we have found and cleaned up have left us longing for a finished house. We have been in transition for so long here, but are finally seeing the end of the clean-up, at least in the house.  Under the kitchen sink and the master bedroom vanity are the only areas left to surprise – I hope! We were able to get a bit more of the kichen ripped out and was also able to get the wreath and Frosty up as decorations.

The foundation work that was done a couple weeks ago was a joke.  Their finish work on the inside holes left the fill 1/2 inch taller in the centers than the edges – NOT conducive to putting down a decent floor.  After we were able to get the owner of the company to see the problem last Tuesday he said someone would call later that day to set up an appointment for next week and we’ have at least 48 hours notice.  4PM yesterday I get a call saying they’d be here at 830AM today.  I told the woman 9 would be better since I have so many things to move out of their way.  They finally showed up at 10:15AM, didn’t bring what they needed to cover things again nor did they bring any new concrete mix.  They left for 2 hours to get concrete and “lunch” and finished the day at 5:45 effectively screwing up our ENTIRE day once again.  At least the new concrete is relatively flush with the foundation.  I did get a few new graffiti chances though.

Hubby notched out the shelving/shoe storage in the master closet for me so we could start the tile work.  We still need a few pieces though and will pick those up tomorrow along with the molding for the edges.  If all goes well, the clothes will be in the closet by Tuesday.

We have been working REALLY hard around here.  Our goal is to have the master bedroom finished by Christmas and a fairly livable living room.  It seems like for every step forward we are taking 7 backwards!

We keep encountering things like a loaded full freezer in the garage which we finally got open yesterday.  We were prepared to drill the lock, but it turns out it wasn’t locked, just frozen shut.  We can’t quite figure it out though.  Once we got the door open it was a solid block of ice.  Hubby started chipping away at it so we could bag the food for today’s trash.  Once he broke through the ice we found defrosted smelly food.  I think every Hickory Farms package my uncle ever sent her for Christmas was inside as well as bags and bags of smoked chili peppers!

Then we keep encountering outlets that look like this.  It’s a wonder this house never burnt down! We still have no light in the sewing room, spare bedroom closet or the office and the electrician has not returned ANY calls since he was here Tuesday.  I think it is time to find a new electrician!

On a positive note I was able to get the walk in closet painted!  Hopefully if all goes well I’ll lay the tile tomorrow afternoon.  Remember the foundation guys that created such havoc?  They called late this afternoon to say they’d be here tomorrow morning to break out the concrete they did wrong and redo it.  I was told on Tuesday they would call me later that afternoon to schedule something for next week.  I told the guy I needed at least 48 hours notice to move things out of the way.  So I got 16 hours notice and spent 2 hours after dinner trying to make things accessible AGAIN! As soon as they are done I will start tiling the closet.  I’m hoping to have the clothes in the closet by Monday.  That will eliminate A LOT of totes from the living room!

You can really see the color difference in this bedroom picture.  I had just a little paint left in the can so decided to start cutting in and covering some of the larger patch areas.  The nicotine stains are the hardest to cover.

We are ending week 5 on this project and are almost ready to begin the transformation – FINALLY.  We are still waiting for a large piece of furniture to be removed, but hubby took it apart today so it was ready for transport.  It wouldn’t have traveled all assembled because of its rickety and fragile nature.

We got A HUGE surprise yesterday when an early Christmas present arrived from my mom. We love our new TV – THANK YOU!! Last night we watched my favorite Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful life!

Hubby has been working diligently to get as much detritus out of the house before the dumpster gets here so that it is here for the shortest amount of time possible.

The electrician was here yesterday and disconnected the non-working appliances so hubby pulled those out today and our backyard is starting to look like the local dump. I can’t wait until the dumpster arrives and we are rid of all the crap. Hard to believe this was a “self-cleaning” oven.

At the end of the day the new kitchen shape is really taking shape.  Soffits and faux wall and all appliances are gone! Hopefully we’ve encountered the last rat’s nest, but we always wear our gloves and stay vigilant. 

 We have found so many oddities here that nothing surprises us anymore.

When we moved here we left behind some really wonderful friends, leaving them behind was even a deciding factor in the move.  They have 3 young munchkins that I just adore and miss SO much.  We decided to do “cousin” elfs and I post my pictures to Instagram so the kids see them each day.  We are really having some fun with this one.

475 combined hours and we FINALLY have a room ready, well ready like a blank canvas in the sense that we can finally begin the transformation.

Today we were able to finish removing the rest of the tack strip, wall paper and we not only bought the new ceiling fan, but we picked the carpet and paint color for our new haven to be. Deciding to do the master bedroom first I think will be our best decision.  We are SOOOO tired at this point that having a place to shut the door on the rest of what needs to be done at the end of the day will be a way to finally feel refreshed.  Sleeping in our own bed instead of the futon will be AWESOME! not to mention rejuvenating to not only our backs but also our spirits!

BEHR “Bakery Box”

These carpet rolls are only here waiting for today’s rain to stop and will get moved tomorrow to the junk pile, er back yard to wait for the dumpster next week.  We’ll only have the dumpster for 5 days total so we are trying to get as much wrecked out before it gets here as possible.  It will take us a full 8-10 hours just to load it!

The bathroom will take a bit more effort, but we hope it will go quickly after we remove the mold covered (on the inside) vanity and toilet, deal with the water leaks, put up the new wall board, paint the shower, add a can light to the shower and add a shower door. Yep, you read that right, add a light to the shower.  There is currently NO light in the shower so it is like a cave, but the attic is directly above it so the electrician will be here Tuesday anyway so we’ll have him deal with the shower too. It’s a large shower and with the added light will also be ready to be painted and sealed so it is like new. BTW anyone notice anything wrong (besides the obvious) in this picture below?

If you look closely you’ll see that the light fixture is 2 inches higher on the left hand side than the right and NO it is not an optical illusion.  We didn’t buy a new light yet, but we did narrow down our choices a bit today. We will be removing the mirror and adding recessed medicine chests with mirrored fronts.

Pretty sure this is the vanity we will be going with.  And one of these light fixtures will probably win.

We did leave our mark on the new concrete patch from the foundation work.  It doesn’t matter that it will be under the carpet, we’ll know it’s there.