Re: Project A Palooza (or, Get to work, Daan!)
OK haven't posted in a while. All 5 of us got the nasty flu that's been going around (and the younger 2 kids appear to be starting Round 2...please let it be colds and not the flu again!) Also, pretty much ALL of our appliances crapped out before/during Xmas. They were supposedly "replaced just before the house was put on the market" by the previous owner (this was 2010) The dishwasher died first, while looking up what a new pump was gonna cost, I found this thing was almost 11 years old. I should probably mention that the first year we lived in this house, we had to replace the well pump, the sump pump, the water softener and the washer/dryer. Oh, and have Radon Mitigation done. So I shouldn't be too suprized that everything else is dying, too. Anyway I pulled the old dishwasher out
and found out ALL the connections were done wrong, I'm suprized we didn't have MORE water in our basement. Now we have this
Next up was the sink. The plumbing had a slow leak, and the faucet needed the Vice Grip on it so water would actually come out (ghetto, huh?)
At first I was just gonna put a new faucet on it, but the old one was totally rusted to the sink (which was cast iron, and GLUED to the counter top
It was all scratched up, it was impossible to keep clean looking anyway, and I HATE "country" style stuff. OK I live in the country, but I don't have to like it...
I literally had to break the sink with a sledgehammer to get it out (and I F-ed up the countertop too, but that's getting fixed later) I can tell you cast iron sinks weigh about as much as I do, I think I gave myself a hernia getting it out.
I also found out the space for the sink was about 1/16th smaller than the sink itself, I had to bust out the angle grinder to make enough room for the new one. This sink project just kicked my butt. It looks REALLY nice now, the sink is normal sized (instead of being like 3" deep like the old one)
ALso the faucet is the right size, the plumbing is hooked up properly (no leaks, and we have BOTH hot AND cold water now! Yay!)
It's bone dry under there now, the dishwasher drains properly (and yes I know I don't have a "vent stack" on it, but as long as a "real" plumber doesn't inspect it, we're all good)
THe bathroom plumbing is kind of a nightmare, too. There's only supposed to be one bathroom, according to the plans, but they kind of wedged a second full bath by putting both the showers together back-to-back. SO in order to fix the one (of course the plumbing is F-ed up, and the wall behind the tiles needs to be replaced with the proper dry wall) I have to tear the other bathroom out to do the one, so that's gonna take some time (or me finding about $20K somewhere)
The sink, besides being ugly, didn't have the drain hooked up right and the hot water tap was broken off. I had to hacksaw all the old crap off, and spend pretty much all weekend on my back underneath hooking up everything properly, but now it looks nice, nothing leaks, and there's an actual drain plug!
THIS is next. Who the hell wants WHITE appliances? ANyway the oven shuts itself off randomly, it looks like somebody tap-danced on the stovetop with sandpaper shoes, and I hate electric stoves anyway. OF course it's installed wrong, too.
I ran a 110-outlet to behind the stove, there is a gas line too but I'm having a pro actually check that it's in properly so I don't burn the house down. We're getting a gas (LP actually) cooktop/electric oven which will be delivered this week, so once that's all in, I shouldn't have to work on any boring house stuff for a while. And maybe I built up enough credit with Budget WOman and can buy some more parts for my guitars...
Oh yeah, I had to run a water line to where the fridge is, for the water tap in it (dumb-a** PO had aquarium air hose line going to it instead of actual water line, no wonder it leaked. And he put the door on backwards so we can't open it up all the way because it's right up against the wall... stupid house stuff.
