Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Things have been NUTS over here!
It is a new year and so new house projects have begun! I found a small wet bar that was pulled away from somebody's wall and got the whole thing for $25 off of Craigslist! We took out the sink, put it on a platform to make it taller, covered it in beadboard, extended the top, tiled it, painted it and...VOILA! We created ourselves a dry bar for the dining room! We also had a new light fixture put in the dining room (thanks Kris!) that I bought last year from the Habitat home store. We had an electrician come out and add more receptacles around the house (3 in the kitchen...woo hoo!!!), two outside and then he moved our washer/dryer wiring to a closet in our room. (I'll explain more on that later) Before we moved into this house, Ben (and some wonderful friends) built a walk-in closet in the master bedroom by putting up a couple of walls inside Banner's room. Well, there was no light fixture in that closet (for almost two years now) and so we had the electrician run the wires for that. Now we have LIGHT!!!! Oh...the small wonders we take for granted everyday. I also found a (practically) brand new smooth top black oven and NICE dishwasher (both Kenmore) for 1/3 of what these would have cost me brand new! Because they were on craigslist, I had to jump on them and couldn't wait. We then sold ours for 1/3 of what we paid for the new ones! YES!! These are some of the "smaller" things we've had done (or are doing ourselves) and yet they each have created a huge mess in one way or another. Those messes are all cleaned up...ahhh...orderly and clean...for now!
So, the biggest project/headache/mess? We've had plumbing issues! Any of you that have owned a home probably can share my dread/pain. There are some things that we can live with (messes, inconvenience) and some things we can live without for a while (convenience, the biggest/best "whatever," and such). However, one thing that has to be fixed and just cannot wait is PLUMBING!!!
It all started with a quiet gurgle in the pipes. This is a noise that now strikes fear into my head when I think I hear it. Not long after, it followed with backup in the sinks, toilets and showers. YUCK!!! Thankfully, we have a home warranty which would cover a snaking of the pipes and a collapsed pipe. HOWEVER, we have to have a cleanout OUTSIDE the home. Our house is so old, they only have them under the crawlspace. Great. The price to have one put in? $400 WHAT?! So, I am thinking there has to be a plumber out there somewhere who would put one in for cheaper. Where do I turn? My trusty friend : craigslist. I found a plumber right off the bat who sounded so nice and professional on the phone. He came out that day and installed one for me for $125. He's from CA and was here for his grandfather's funeral. While he was looking for a new place to live in CA, he decided to stick around here and work to keep himself from being bored. Ha!
Well, while he was down there, he was telling us of all of these "dead" pipes we had under our house that were connected to the sewer drainage, but not connected to anything currently in the house. Our house is pretty darn old, so there have been renovations in the past. People here in SC think it's ok to just leave the dead pipes and not remove them. So, when we've had backup, this nice goop was overflowing into our crawl space!!! He said that would never fly in CA (they have TONS stricter regulations there than here) and so he went ahead and removed those for me. You should have seen the nastiness (otherwise known as old, rotting pipes) he pulled out from our house! Well, I take that back, you probably DON'T want to see it.
Anyways, he also told us that we had PVC to iron to PVC to iron, etc... with our sewage lines. We had been told this when we bought the house, but hadn't fixed it yet (seeing as we were quoted money in the THOUSANDS just to fix all this). Yikes! We also discovered that the sewage lines from the back of the house were actually moving UPHILL to connect to the pipe in the ground. Why? Because some...ahem...person decided to run the plumbing line from the back bathroom SITTING ON THE GROUND instead of cutting it shorter and having it run at a slope to the street. Nice. I have since discovered that you only need to know two things to be a plumber: 1) Poo runs downhill, 2) payday is on Friday. So...from this information I have deduced that whoever did the plumbing originally in this house was NOT A PLUMBER! Or they only knew rule number 2 about being a plumber.
So, all of this going back and forth and discovering one thing after another took a few days. When Brian (the wonderful CA plumber) kept telling me all of this, all I could see were dollar signs. I asked him that if we were going to have him fix all of this, if he could go ahead and move the plumbing for the washer to a different area of the house. (another project on our list which we were not planning on doing until later this year) He said, "sure! It would actually be best to do it now so it would be a lot cleaner in your crawl space." I braced myself for the huge ticket price and mulled over in my head how I could politely tell him "no thank you...not now." I kept thinking we would just have to wait until the pipes exploded and would just hope and pray it would be covered by insurance or the warranty. However, his price tag for EVERYTHING? Around $1400!!! (this includes what we paid him for the cleanout, and he installed a hard metal pipe dryer vent for us as well) We were quoted WELL ABOVE that just to have a 5 foot portion of piping replaced!!!
The end result? We have all new sewage piping up until it goes into the ground (and it is running at an appropriate slope and not sitting on the ground), our crawlspace is TONS cleaner with a plethora of dead pipe now gone, our washer and dryer are moved (hence having the electrician go ahead and move the wires for them), we now have a cleanout, and he also fixed a leaky toilet and dripping/cracked sink pipe. Our house is also a couple HUNDRED pounds lighter after all the old iron was removed and is now replaced with PVC. (or, it was just flat out removed if it was "dead") He has been such a blessing!!! Needless to say, my nerves have been shot. At one point I told Brian that if he came into the house and saw me in the fetal position crying and rocking myself...just ignore me.
Our neighbor recently had her entire front yard torn apart due to plumbing issues of all kinds. Our pipes were working perfectly until her work was done, and now I am slightly starting to hear gurgling again! GULP!!! So, we may not be out of the woods yet, but I am trying to take it one day at a time.
On top of all this mess? Banner caught some sort of head cold almost two weeks ago. Last Saturday (the 6th) he caught what we thought was a stomach virus. Thankfully, he only had it coming out the bottom end instead of both. But, then come Thursday he spiked a 102 fever that wouldn't leave. We took him to the doctor's and were told that he had viral tonsilitis and to keep him isolated until he was fever free for at least 24 hours. Well, his fever has finally started breaking today. WHEW!! He has been such a trooper through it all. He's only whined/fussed a little bit. Poor guy!
You know what though? I have to say that God has really helped me to see things through a different light. Normally, by now, I would need to be sedated with all the mess, mishaps, and "unplanned" money spent. However, I have come to truly realize how blessed we are! Bursting poop pipes? What a privilege to have a roof over my head and to have the responsibility of being a homeowner!! On top of that, what a HUGE blessing that God has provided for us this whole time!!! No credit cards or loans, just removal from our "emergency fund." Banner getting sick? What a blessing to have a wonderful son to take care of! What a huge relief that we have been blessed with the resources to provide for him! Messes, headaches, and longer "finish times" than planned for projects? What a blessing to have a handy husband and best friend who can work with me, laugh alongside me, and cherish each hectic day knowing we are in this together...poop and all!!!
