17 June, 2006

First Round Goes to Me!!!

The first round of the plumbing saga is over... and I won!
It has been an interesting couple of days to say the least. Some of the plumbing in this old house is so old that it is lead. Thank God none of the lines coming in are lead, but a few of the drain lines are lead and the main drain lines are still cast iron. The trap that was leaking was lead as well. It had been fitted with a copper lip and lid, and after trying several ways to seal it, I realized that it was not only the seal, but the wall of the trap in one area was worn thin and leaking... so I had to start cutting pipes out and replacing them. I was afraid of what this could get into, but thankfully I was able to do it without having to tear out too much of the ceiling. I had to buy a few new tools, but I was going to need them down the road anyway, so, it all worked out well.

As I stated in my last entry about this, I really did not want to start tearing out the ceiling and all yet, because while we are planning to completely gut and remodel both of the bath rooms, we are not ready for this just yet. First, we are almost done with a remodeling job of Ashley's room that has been nothing short of a nightmare. One complication after another has come up in it, and then I had some major health problem and it had to sit for a long time. Then, Libby was working on it and was nearing completion and took her little fall down the stairs at work, so we have been on hold for over 2 months. If all goes well, it will be done in another week or so. Then the plan is to remodel Daniel's room; which should not (we hope) take too long. No major repairs there. A couple small holes and strip the paint from the windows (his room has 7 windows) and then repaint it and put in a new drop ceiling. My plan was then to do our guest room next... but that will probably have to wait now, because I have a huge hole in the ceiling of one of my bathrooms... and something tells me that Libby is not going to be too patient with me on that! When we start that project, it is going to be major. I plan to knock out the plaster walls and dry wall and completely redesign the baths. While we are at it, since the wall will be out, we are going to run the new wires to completely re-wire the upstairs of the house. It is going to be a major project, but it will be well worth it.

I will post pictures as we get going on this. Now all we need to do is figure out how we are going to PAY for all this!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

wow some Big jobs ahead for you guys!! if you all need help im available ,!!!

Sean McKee said...

I need some plumbing work done. When will you be over?