Renovating an entire house gets very expensive and there are lots of opportunities to make things better when you're down to the studs. Thomas has a favorite saying, "now's the time to do it," that is the reasoning in many conversations. (And he's usually right.)
Another line I often hear is, "So, we have this opportunity." One such conversation began with, "So, Walker is looking at a mini-excavator. It's a great deal and we could save a lot of money by using it." I know what all of those things mean..."can I buy a tractor?" Unfortunately, this discussion never happened because I was in the midst of getting some food ready for some kids. I just said, "I'd like to talk about that later." I didn't hear about the mini-ex until the next day when I asked about it and discovered that the mini-ex was already purchased!
As you can imagine, several marriage conversations resulted from that tractor. But truly, after all of the decisions, labor and balancing priorities of this project, I am so thankful that we are partners and doing this work of building a home together.
In November and early December we made a lot of progress on the downstairs dungeon renovation. We hired a mason to fill in the space of the old front door to become a window for my laundry room. And we had the concrete pad installed for the hvac units.
We studded up the walls, had an electrician rewire, and insulated.
Thomas hired out the sheetrock work, as well, to get the project done faster.
When it was time to pour self-leveler, we had a small disaster trying to clean the floor. Besides lots of dirt and dust, there was a layer of tar-like glue from the old tile. Thomas tried to clean it with a commercial concrete cleaner that just melted the tar and gummed up the machine. We tried every solvent we could find. And then gave up.
Walker came and helped lie out the heated floor wires. Pouring the self-leveler required a small army of friends to mix 40 bags of self-leveler with water in five gallon buckets, carry the very heavy buckets down the stairs, and pour it quickly so it could spread throughout the level.
A dear friend, Ellis, came for a very cold weekend of using a wet-saw outside to help cut and lay tile.
And then we were ready for trim! Several more friends and family helped with this endeavor.
Then we had a not too small disaster.
In mid December the toilet in the downstairs bathroom backed up. As Thomas investigated, he realized that a root was growing through the sewer pipe and was visible in the stack. He had asked the plumbers to scope the line ahead of time to prevent this, but it would seem that didn't happen. And once again, the only thing to do was solve the problem.
It was a huge problem! The line ran through the concrete slab in the lowest level. The same level we had just painted and trimmed. Worse still, we didn't know where the root entered the line or even from which tree. By far worse, we could not even find the sewer line outside the house! We dug trenches a quarter of the way around the house. Thomas rented special locating equipment. We asked the city and there was no record.
In mid December the toilet in the downstairs bathroom backed up. As Thomas investigated, he realized that a root was growing through the sewer pipe and was visible in the stack. He had asked the plumbers to scope the line ahead of time to prevent this, but it would seem that didn't happen. And once again, the only thing to do was solve the problem.
It was a huge problem! The line ran through the concrete slab in the lowest level. The same level we had just painted and trimmed. Worse still, we didn't know where the root entered the line or even from which tree. By far worse, we could not even find the sewer line outside the house! We dug trenches a quarter of the way around the house. Thomas rented special locating equipment. We asked the city and there was no record.
The week before Christmas was spent on a desperate search for the sewer line. Thomas' dad, Hugh, came and dug hole after hole. I prayed and prayed that we would find that line. On December 22 they did.
Now we knew what needed to be repaired and how to tie back into the main sewer line, but access was still a significant problem. We plotted a path through the area that was not yet carpeted and prepared to excavate. We draped plastic everywhere like a crime lab.
Then on December 29 we cut out the concrete. It was surreal.
Thomas carefully chipped tile in the bathroom so that the stack could be removed and replaced.
Once the new sewer line was laid, we filled the hole with gravel, plastic, and then cement.
By January 15, almost a month later, we re-poured the self-leveler and the sewer lines in the backyard were in place.
And we were back where we left off! As eager as we were to wrap up the chapter with the Johnston house, we were so grateful that we didn't have to move in the midst of this problem!
