Glazin the Tub

Glazin the tub is nothing like praying the to the porcelain God; it's painting a new face on an old appliance. I did this myself with a brush-on epoxy paint. The tub was glazed once before the flood but, with moving it, the dry-out stirring up a lot of dust and dripping paint on it, the tub needed a new coat after the flood damage was fixed.

So, this is the final product. It doesn't have a perfect surface. If you could see this up close, you'd see brush strokes. If I were a perfectionist, I'd have a professional do this with a spray machine; it's the only way you have a chance at an even surface. And the fumes, forgetaboutit! But, this tub has never looked so good and, after all, I'm not going to serve dinner on it.

What a Waste!

Through some stroke of luck, my contractor put piping for the third floor laundry, toilet and sink at the top of his list. It might have something to do with him wanting to use the room to edit a tv show he's producing for cable - a cooking show. I am surrounded by genius!

Anyway, he broke through the stairwell to access the second floor bath pipes and this is what the waste stack looked like, crack, hole and all. Right there in my wall was this time bomb spewing gas! Here are the rest of the pieces from the wall. Just look at that joint!

Jamieson to the rescue: he not only ran all the plumbing from the second floor to the third, he replaced the whole waste stack. I was particularly impressed with his labels. What a nifty idea, anticipating someone would have to tear out that wall again to access the pipes. It better not happen while I'm here, though.

The Before Photos are Here

Go here to see pix of the house as it looked when I took possession:

New Floors,Ceilings and Walls!

The work began a few weeks ago but the biggest change has been this week. I moved out so Bluford-Jackson could recreate the original floors. They are doing a great job and boy, is it a lot of work. When I thought I was going to have to do it myself I was ready for the tedium but not for the amount of up and down and routing and sawing. Whew did I dodge a bullet there!

The second floor is completed and ready for sanding while the half-finished work is on the first floor.

Water - The Silent Killer

First, postings slumped during work. I was making progress and just couldn't justify taking time to write. Then, when it looked like there was only one or two weeks before the first floor would be finished, the water pipe to the second floor toilet burst flooding the entire second floor, first floor and basement in hours. Damage everywhere! We were gone only three hours for dinner and perfectly good plaster ceilings were vertical when we returned. The edges of floor boards were turned up making each a perfect little trough for water to flow from the one side of the house to the other. The water was lapping at each of the baseboard outlets. That's a sight I won't soon forget! Here's some post-flood floor pics:

Hired a contractor for dry-out. He said that on a scale of 1 to 10, the damage was an 8. I thought he was exaggerating until I moved back in. Amazingly enough, the place looked even worse after being dried out and stripped. I could see damage where you'd never think to look for it, in the trim, in the outer walls, etc.

Been living in the tear-out eight weeks now while my insurance agent and contractor squeeze my repair discussions into their vacations. If I weren't so busy at work, I'd be furious and would have taken care of this already. When the contractor called and delivered the final quote, it was less than $2,000 more than the quoted amount before he started negotiations. I asked him to get a quote on the flooring from the company that originally installed it - Bluford Jackson. The rep assured me he would. The manager or owner said they never did. The quote allows over $15 sq.ft. for them to lay and finish the new floors (the original flooring is all removed. I asked them to save the pieces I could re-use but they didn't). I can have Bella or similar installed for $9 sq. ft. I'm thinking they have a deal with the flooring person and don't care what I want.

Should I fire the contractor or have a very serious discussion with him?


These pix show damage from the bedroom and bath pictured in prior posts. The bedroom ceiling I worked so long and hard to strip and paint is now half gone along with the baseboard on the one wall (to allow air flow). There are also numerous holes in the walls because of the demo and need for air. Water flowed down all of the bathroom walls warping the "drywall" that we had just hung and staining the tile and grout. The picture of the closet is two days after the flood; the towels however showed much more damage a week later as the water and mold came through the walls and settled in. The chairs you see here still look much like this eight weeks later. The blue machine is a hepa filter. Let's hope it did the trick. The red ones were giant fans and there were even larger dehumidifiers all around.

Bath in Progress

Too busy working at the house and at the office to stay current. Never thought I'd see the light but it's looking close to finished. This bathroom was gutted six weeks ago. After the plumbing and electric were moved, we sistered all the joists and put in a new subfloor. It was great walking on it afterward. There was a world of difference; it felt so solid! Plumbing is not connected but the sound of a constant drip running through the pipes is driving me nuttier because I can't find it, the water is turned off, and it is not getting slower. Ghost water. So, now that the floor is laid, after the grout, all that's left is the rest of the plumbing and the trim.

YAY. We can pee!

Fun With A Lot of Hot Air*

Did I tell you? I didn't have electricity or heat so I was working in daylight and somewhat tolerable weather. Here's what the wall looked like when I started on Friday, Jan. 9th with the putty knife. See the shadow on the wall from the window? Honest, no light.

After scraping five hours, and BTW, thanks for the ladder Rob and Tina, here's what I was able to finish in 14 hrs.

The BEST thing that happened Friday was that Duke Energy came and turned on the electricity and gas. The furnace doesn't work (of course) but I had light and POWER.

Saturday I brought my heat gun. What a tool! Everyone recommends renting a steamer to remove paper. The heat gun did the same thing and for what? $25. It took me 14 hours scraping to clean this wall; I did the adjacent wall exactly like this in only five hours with the heat gun.

Please note times are approximate; I don't do anything for five hours straight unless it promises to pay a lot of money or a very happy ending. I stopped for food and whatnot; I'm not twenty.

* - Dedicated to the Honorable Peter B. Scuderi whose laugh and wry sense of indignation are permanently stuck in my head. He was also fun with a lot of hot air.