House Day Number 56

I just want to say thank you for taking time out of your day to read our blog. You are the only reason we do this.


Since moving in we have been discovering something new.

The bathroom is still not complete. So far we only have the cement backer board installed on the floor, and today all new electrical will be put in. We have already hit our budget for the month.

We currently have a problem with the only toilet in the house. Because it is in the master bedroom the floor has experienced water damage. As such the toilet is not the most stable toilet. I can see it now instead of me leaving the toilet set up. My beautiful wife is going to wake up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. Quietly sleepwalks through the house at 3 AM so she doesn't wake up anybody. Makes it to the toilet and as soon as she sits down.

CRASH!!!
The toilet along with my wife falls through the floor and into the crawlspace below the floor. She is going to be covered in raw sewage and her legs are going to be sticking up through floor and she is going to be IRATE! LOL don't worry I will take a picture just for you ;).

Plumbing
Since moving in we have stopped the leak in the shower on the cold water line, by cutting the line. The leak was coming from behind the wall in the nursery as such I just decided to put that project on hold instead of ripping out my son's bedroom wall.

We still do not have hot water. The hot water tank will light and heat the water but then it goes out after reaching temperature. Also the temperature and pressure relief valve leaks on the hot water tank. So we may have to purchase a new one. We have another water heater in the cottage that I may bring over to see if it will work.

We installed a under sink water filtration system. It was a breeze. The only thing is the water is not really cold. Which is normally fine except on the hot muggy days that Kansas City is known for. The dishwasher still has not been installed.

Electrical
The previous owners had ran a 240v Line out side to our back patio and left the wires exposed on the ground. Not safe at all. Currently the breaker is off to that particular Line. I plan to reuse the breakers as I re route the electrical for the other rooms. Which leads to the next discovery.

It turns out that the breakers are not labeled and that they do not follow any rhyme or reason. The kitchen for example has the lights on one circuit, half the plugs on a different, the other plugs on a third and finally the garbage disposal on a fourth! That doesn't even factor in the stove or fridge.

I managed to get power to the cottage, also figured out what the second light switch in the master bedroom turns on. It turns on a floodlight in the backyard. Who would've thought that! I now only have 1 light switch left to identify and 1 push button to identify. Also Today we got the doorbell to work. We also found the part to get the A/C working but we haven't tested it. So far we have only used the Attic fan.


Lawn
Our previous house only had a lot size of 0.12 acres. We now have over an acre! which we are thankful but that means the little push lawnmower we had before isn't going to cut it. On craigslist I found a 42" walk behind lawnmower for $350. It didn't have a brand on it anywhere. It had a craftsman mower and a generic deck. I quickly purchased it. Maybe a little too quickly. Turns out that the blades are so dull that while  cutting the grass it would leave random patches of grass uncut. I spent the last two days calling and driving around to find replacement blades because evidently someone was attempting to cut through boulders and the lawnmower blades were in terrible shape. Well it turns out that this lawnmower happens to be of a brand that doesn't have any support really around this city. I drove to multiple outdoor power equipment type stores before I found out I have a swisher walkbehind mower. Luckily today I found a place selling the blades for $8 or was it $18 .... I need to double check.


sorry for the long post I will be more diligent about posting so that they wont be as long.

Sorry it's been a few days...

It's been a few days since Phillip or I have logged on and updated this blog. So let's do a quick run down of what we've been up to.

First and biggest: We finally moved into the house!!!!

Saturday was the move date, and we had lots of help from family members. We used 3 trucks and 2 SUVs, 2 trailers (one small, one extra large) and was able to move everything in one trip, in less than 2 hours.

We started at 10:00am and had everything in the house and was just placing furniture by 1:00pm.

A few days before Phillip and I tried fixing up the master bathroom, so that we could at least have one bathroom, ready for us, but alas, it's going to be a complete tear out. :(

I'm sure when Phillip does his post, he'll go into more technical terms but for me it just was one problem after another basically.

So now we're in this new place. Next on the agenda: get the main bathroom up and running ASAP, since going back and forth to the old house to take baths will be getting old quick, Then finish the tear out of the master bathroom, do a full investigation of the roof and get started on that part of the house project....oh and somewhere in all of this unpack and host a house warming party.

....Busy people, I know.

This Weekend

SO... Here's an update on what's been going on with the house.

But before I go into the update I must mention that Phillip's Father had a stroke after his surgery last week, so Phillip's been taken on A LOT of family obligations to fill in the gap.

With that said...

1. Garage Sales- This weekend in Leavenworth, KS on the military base was a base-wide garage sale. So we drove the 20 minutes north and enjoyed getting throughly lost on base. We had a late start because this weekend was also March of Dimes walk weekend, but we did end up getting some great late day finds. See below:

a. Desk = $10.00

b. Floor Lamp that is also a side table = $5.00

c. Tons of "This Old House" Magazines = $2.00 (nothing like design inspiration!)

I know they don't look to be in the best condition, but give me some high gloss paint spray and some elbow grease and these old pieces of furniture will turn out to be some of the best furniture for us.

2. Circuit Breaker- Phillip labeled many parts of the circuit breaker, there are still parts of the circuit breaker that we still can't figure out what they run to. We'll have to keep trying to figure it out because bringing in a electrification will be astronomical!!!!

3.Plumbing (Toilet/Sink in the Master Bathroom)- The sink is still clogged. But the toilet runs fine. We found out from investigations that the drainage for the toilet and sink are different, so we might just need to redirect the sink's drain and tie it into the toilet's and maybe since the shower is tied into the sink, putting a boot on it for now until we get the complete renovation started.

4. Mystery Machine -We have a crazy looking machine that looks a little like a submarine down in the basement. We had NO idea what it was and could only guess it was an ancient sump pump. We do know that it was built in 1964 in Berkley, MN (that's from the label) but when we opened it up, all the wires were disconnected and the electrical tape on the ends appeared old. Kind of like someone unplugged it a long time ago.

5. Packing/Purging- At our current residence we purged almost half of our clothes, realizing we were about to pack stuff we haven't worn in months. That didn't make any sense to us so to donation company goes our old college clothes. We still have a TON of packing to go, but we are making small progress on a lot of the things we have in the house. Man, I didn't realize how much stuff you just collect over the years!!!!

This Week's To do list-

1. Finish clearing out the demolition stuff from the living room at the new house
2. Try to get the water going to the small detached addition so we can have a stable and safe area to use the restroom and wash our hands
3. Cut the grass if possible.(the grass is getting ridiculously tall)
4. Finish filling in the gaps in the kitchen floor with plywood and peel and stick flooring
5. Finish removing staples and nails in baby's room
6. Install water purification system in kitchen sink
7. Install dishwasher in kitchen so we can finally turn on the hot water tank and have hot water for the big move
8. Packing or Purging every single thing in the old house for the big move this weekend to the new place.
9. Try to figure out what the remaining circuit breakers go to