The Glade 4.0

Ok, so it wasn't enough that I just had to take out a dying tree. Or that I still need tires and brakes done on both vehicles. Or that it's time for the scheduled maintenance on my furnace and A/C.

No, I need to have water damage from two toilets and a shower. I thought I only had a problem with one toilet. I removed rotted subfloor from one bathroom tonight, and hope to finish the rest of the repairs tomorrow. Since I was going to be replacing the toilet anyway, I picked that up today so I can just do one installation.

Access to the other problem areas is a problem, and I don't feel competent to tackle those. I emailed a coworker's husband who has done work for me in the past. Hopefully, the job's not as bad as I think it will be.

Every time I start to feel like I'm getting caught up financially, something like this comes up! (And seriously, what the hell did the prior owners do when they "upgraded" their bathrooms?!? They did an absolutely lousy job!)

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When he's underwater does he get wet? Or does the water get him instead?

I've found out that the home owner repairs done before I bought the house vary from pretty dang good to they must have been drunk. Condolences.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

And it sucks because the master bathroom repair means I should do the other work that was on the horizon. Since I had to cut out a section of the vinyl floor, and all, why not just replace it? And while I'm at it, the vanity too, as the vessel sink I bought 3 years ago needs to stop living in my family room. And rip out the wallpaper and repaint, and...

But if the shower needs to come out to fix the floor underneath, I have to wait until that is done first, as I'll need to get new flooring. Sigh...

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When he's underwater does he get wet? Or does the water get him instead?

I've heard this story before, heck, I've lived this story before.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

My mother in law just went through this...

We found a "soft spot" in her kitchen floor, where something had been leaking and rotted through.

By the time we pulled up the floor, we found that the rot had spread to some of the supporting beams, and under the wall into the neighboring bathroom.

It ended up with a complete kitchen remodel, complete bathroom remodel, and pulling out and replacing the adjoining wall and plumbing. Thankfully, most of my wife's family are quite handy, so they did it all themselves... But it took 6 or 8 mos all told.

I enjoy some of the parts of home ownership and repair, but it can be a real drag sometimes.

I think the advice of setting aside ~2% of the value of the house per year for maintenance and repairs is generally a pretty good idea- some years you don't need it, and then some years you need to, say, get a new roof and use it up and more.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

My coworker's hubby (a contractor) stopped in, and he took a look. He thinks the shower is old damage, and not a current leak.

He's gonna replace the flange and some other bits and install the new toilet. And replace the lines to the cut-off valves (one is leaking, the other is "that's an interesting join"). And then he'll finish patching the floor (might as well, since he's getting a flat day rate + materials) put down new vinyl flooring, then install the new toilet.

THEN, he'll take off the hall toilet and see what's wrong.

I'd love to be able to put aside that much per year. In fact, I had been saving a decent amount. But it's been lousy in terms of home + car repairs since late 2009. I already had some of the masonry repointed & replaced windows over the summer. I was hoping that would be it for repairs this year and I could finally continue the upgrades.

At any rate, it's getting fixed next Monday. Or started. Or something.

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When he's underwater does he get wet? Or does the water get him instead?

New sheet vinyl for the floor has been acquired. Wow, nearly everything nice was special order only. And the one that I liked most couldn't be found in the computer, so couldn't be ordered. I didn't feel so special.

So I went with a lesser grade, since it was in stock and not hideous (even with the new white toilet vs. the bone-colored one that we ripped out). I can work with it, I'm just going to have to revise my eventual color scheme.

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When he's underwater does he get wet? Or does the water get him instead?

I have so many unfinished projects its insane. My current problem is that everytime I do yard work, it friggin rains 8 inches. I'm replacing my drain system out back and the damn trench fill keeps trying to wash out. I just need a bit of time to get everything dried out, compacted, and some grass growing. I think in the future when I do yard work, I'll call FEMA and give them some warning.

I need to figure out the sprinkler system in the house we're renting. Right now it puts out so much water that the grass grows at an insane rate; I'm hard-pressed to control it with weekly mowing, not to mention wasting water. Not only that but it attracts an endless stream of individuals who speak Spanish only wanting to cut the grass - which is especially problematic when I'm at work, since my oldest daughter is in college and we were the only 2 in the house that speak any Spanish.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Wow. So you hate Mexicans, AND you refuse to create jobs?

Oh, wait. Sorry, this isn't Hellfire, is it? My bad.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Not a problem, not a problem, my good man. Carry on!

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."