plumbing

last weekend we replaced all the plumbing. and when i say "all" i mean, everything but the waste line to the kitchen sink...and when i say "we" i mean, my friend matt and his dad. : )

check out their awesomeness!

the bathroom walls are back courtesy of my fabulous father! this pic is taken looking through from the kitchen...


this one is from the bathroom doorway. obviously the tub will go against the back wall, the toilet over the black pipe in the ground, and the pedestal sink to the left of that. note the gorgeous new main stack! ooooooo....


the old stack! eeeeeeewwww...
(does anyone happen to know if cast iron is recyclable?)


here's the new closet for the 2nd bedroom/office - the small section to the right is where the washer and dryer will be, then the larger closet will house the water heater and storage.


i bought a stack washer/dryer at the sears day-after-thanksgiving sale that are still sitting in boxes in my parent's garage, but at least now i have a new washer box! puuurdy...


hot and cold for the kitchen sink, as well as a brand new, easily-accessible shut off valve. matt used "pex" a flexible plastic piping and attached it to copper fittings. the awesome part about pex is that if the water freezes, it will actually expand instead of bursting, then when the water thaws, it will go back to it's original shape. pretty awesome stuff!


also, we installed a line for a refrigerator ice maker...faaaancy...
(i probably won't even be able to afford a fridge with an ice maker by the time i'm done with this, but it's good for resale value at any rate...)


i did install the new hose bib (practically) all by myself...but of course i forgot to take a picture of it...

thanks again to the lindstroms for all their help...and for saving me tons of money on this job!

up in the attic

about a week ago, while knocking down the wall between the bathroom and 2nd bedroom/office, we thought some rat droppings had fallen out of the ceiling. i called and had the company who cleaned my crawlspace come out and take a look.

luckily it wasn't rat poo, but it was some really weird, old insulation with tiny little black balls. the insulation guy wasn't sure what it was, so we decided to get rid of it...just to be on the safe side.

they came out on saturday and hooked up a giant vacuum...


3 hours and five GINORMOUS bags of insulation later...




there may just be some extra storage room up there afterall...

walls schmalls...

we've taken out all the walls between the 2nd bedroom/office and the kitchen since all the plumbing is getting replaced...because we had to cut the pipes to get to the floor boards...because of all the dryrot...because someone thought it would be a good idea to pour the concrete steps right up against the house with no vapor barrier...

because walls are over-rated anyways...

welcome to my studio home.

we've replaced about half of the floor joices in this half of the kitchen and bathroom. now we're puttingin new floor board.

we found what is *hopefully!* the last bit of rot..underneath the major load-bearing wall. good thing we found it...this could have been tragic farther down the road.


we just have to take out a section and scab onto the existing floor that's not rotted.
hopefully this is it for the demo...knock on wood...good, solid, nice wood...

well, indoor demo, at least....
my brother and dad tearing out the old deck. lots of fun stuff under there...eek!!


i'm thinking of getting this for the front door...you like?

overwhelmed...

now there's rat turds falling out of the ceiling and the house needs to be prepped for a complete plumbing overhaul by friday afternoon.

i can't deal today.

here are some blossoms from my apple tree. i need to add a little happiness...

*sigh*...dry rot

Dry rot refers to the decay of timber in buildings and other wooden structures caused by certain fungi.

The term is most commonly used in reference to the decay of building timbers. It refers to damage inflicted by either: Serpula lacrymans (formerly Merulius lacrymans) predominantly in the United Kingdom and northern Europe; and/or Meruliporia incrassata (which has a number of synonyms, including Poria incrassata and Serpula incrassata) in North America. Both species of fungus cause brown rot decay, preferentially removing cellulose and hemicellulose from the timber leaving a brittle matrix of modified lignin. Eventually the decay can cause instability and collapse in houses, wooden ships' hulls, and other wooden structures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_rot