Plumbing Leak

Yep.

Wednesday night Kevin and I were working in the kitchen and he discovered this:

It's definitely difficult to see on our lovely cobalt blue countertops, but that, my friends, is a puddle of water of our counter.

How does that happen?

We had no idea, so we looked up....












And saw this:

If you ask me, not too threatening. Until...Kevin got out the stool and felt around by that teensy, weensy little brown dot in the ceiling.

Spongy.

Not good.

One guess as to what is directly above this spot in the kitchen.

Yep. The bathroom. The tub to be specific.



So, Thursday morning I called our good friend, R.P., who graciously offered to come over before noon and check it out with me.

He started by putting two small holes in the spongey area (with a bucket underneath) to release any water that might be standing there. Just a note: we will need to replace the entire ceiling when we remodel the kitchen anyway, so that's just fine.

Good news! No standing water.

So, then we moved upstairs to the bathroom. R.P. removed the tile panel on the half wall and we got a great look at the plumbing...and all of the wet floor and subfloor.

After initially thinking there might be a problem with the drain, we determined that the problem lies with the plumbing for the hand-held shower attachment. The plumbing wiggles, a LOT, and probably cracked in the very recent past.

Final determination: no using the hand shower attachment, but we are good to go with the tub.

Now, we need to detach the bad plumbing, buy new and reattach. That should be interesting. :)

Blood, sweat and tears

If you take a look at the house in the upper right, you just may notice the overgrown foliage all along the left side of the house.

It's ridiculous. Eventually, we'll be taking all of it out and redoing all of the landscaping around the house. But, for now. we just wanted to trim it back so it still protects the house through the winter but isn't so obnoxious.

All last Saturday afternoon, Kevin worked really hard to trim them back to get things looking a little cleaner. He started with the electric trimmer, but the bushes were so thick and overgrown, that he needed to switch to the hand trimmer. It's a good thing he's so tall!

We thought for sure, this was one solid row of bushes, but as it turned out there were just a few planted that had just spread out like crazy. So, after Kevin finished trimming one up, I would go underneath and trim up the stragglers and random stuff growing out of ground. After Ethan woke from his nap he come out to help too, and then our neighbor's son, N., came over to help too.

They were so great! N. went and got two little rakes that they used to clean out the underbrush and they had a ton of fun using the small hand trimmer too.

I was a complete slacker and didn't take any pictures during the process. Clearly, that's something I need to work on.

For now, just the "after" will have to suffice.

Ah! Now doesn't that look better? Not great, but definitely better. :)

Total bust

Well, after I was so excited to go to the auction on Saturday, we came home with nothing.

Okay, not nothing. There was another auction at the fairgrounds at the same time and I got a cake plate. :)

But, no toilet, no shower, no sink or vanity, no flooring. Total bummer. Now, it's not that they didn't have any of those things. There were several options, but we are just looking for something particular.

They had a number of really tricked out shower units, but this is what they looked like.

When your house is built in the 1900s, this isn't exactly the look you go for. It would have been totally cool, but it doesn't go with the rest of the house at all.

Ditto on the toilets. Although, if you were looking for a black or gray one, they had those. And the ones with a dual flush system.

But, alas, none that fit our needs. And the vanities and pedestal sinks were too big or the wrong style too.

So, we came home with a cake plate, and our bathroom remains as is for now.

So, it's been a little quiet...

Admittedly, it's been quiet on this here blog.

Why?

Um, did you forget that we just moved?

So, we've been unpacking and trying to arrange some furniture, rugs, and other random stuff that we seem to have accumulated. Oh, and plan. This house requires some planning.

That being said, I have my sights set on the bathroom on the main level. It used to be a full bath, and we have plans to make it that way again. We are headed to the Allen County Fairgrounds tomorrow for a big "home stuff" auction. I hear it is loved by contractors who are able to score some sweet, brand new stuff for super cheap.

Check out the auctioneers' website.

People come from all over for these auctions. I mean, seriously, they have a list of hotels and truck rental companies on the page. That's CRAZY!

I'm totally pumped. I CAN NOT wait!! I'm hoping to score some serious bath products: sink, toilet, shower and surround, flooring, etc. We'll see. We want to keep our remodels period-appropriate for the house so it really depends on what they have.

Wish us luck! And, I will be updating after the auction to let you know where we came out.

In other news, I've been setting up appointments with various companies to come in and do some quotes. Fun stuff. More about that later.