House Problems…

You know we had a fun kitchen remodel / bathroom addition last year in the spring.  This spring, we are also working on some “fun” projects.

In January, Jeremy went to ride on the Peloton when he heard some sizzling in the outlet.  He shut off the breaker and checked things out.  The plug was corroded.  He investigated a few other plugs in the vicinity and noticed the same thing.  They all sat on the walls that are outside walls under the patio.  We sensed there was a problem with the patio and water.  So, we tried to temporarily remediate it during the snow and cold. 

We turned off all the breakers to the plugs and lived with a lot of extension cords coming from the few that weren’t affected. 

Then, one cold, rainy, Sunday we got home from church and encountered another situation.  Jeremy went down to check that the sump pump was working and stepped his sock-toed feet in squishy carpet – it was not working.  We had just had a plumber out in May to put a new sump pump in and install a back up pump (and we had a battery back-up in case the power went off).  We thought we were set.  However, the primary pump did not turn on for unknown reasons AND the secondary pump also did not start running for unknown reasons.  So, we had wet flooring throughout much of our basement. 

    

We called the plumber who put the sump pump in and he came on on a bitterly cold, harsh road conditions, Sunday to fix it for us.  It was a blessing.

We called the insurance company and were relieved to discover that we were covered – we had included the sump pump on our insurance with a decent amount of coverage.  ServePro, a remediation company, came out, ripped out wet carpet padding, and set up A LOT of floor fans and dehumidifiers to dry things out over the next week.  (This was a bit complicated by the fact half our plugs weren’t working in our basement!) 

Then, we had Travis Miller come out to rip off drywall to get a feel for the water/plug problem.  It was a problem…

    

We called a gutter guy to check to see if our gutters were a source of the problem- probably not, but they also weren’t carrying the water as well as they could.  We called a drain guy to see if our drains were backed up – he was pretty useless to be honest.  Because then we had my coworker, Kenton Lemon, come out with a rented scoping camera to look in all the drains with Jeremy to see if they could identify any problems; not anything serious. We called a concrete guy to ask about the patio.  And that seemed to be the root of the problem.  He said that the small section of our patio where the water was coming down through the block was dead flat.  So, water was entering the crack by the wall, but mostly because it wasn’t moving away from wall. 

Okay, so we got one guy to come out.  He started to chip away at the patio.  But our patio is apparently not the normal patio.  The concrete was 8 inches thick (which is overkill by the way).  It also had rebar anchoring it into the foundation of the house – seems like a bad idea.  So, this guy was having trouble jack hammering and sawing without shaking/vibrating the foundation.  (We did NOT want a crack in the foundation.)  We finally just said we would find someone else.  And this guy, Ryan, he was okay with it because frankly, we had a lot of crazy going on back there. 

We then called the original company back, but they were out a couple weeks; he gave us a name of a previous worker that had decided to start his own business that he thought could handle the job.  BRZ, three brothers, were able to come out and fix us up.  They were effective because there were three of them.  They also said they had never seen anything like this – built more like a bridge they said.  But they came, they had a plan, and they made it happen.

    

Now, we have a sloped patio.

Next week, we will have new outlets downstairs. 

The next week, we will have drywall, trim, and paint back on the walls. 

After Easter, we will have new carpet padding down. 

And then…. we will have our basement back in order!

Oh, and we have new gutters because why not…

Let’s Celebrate!

Our July 4th was pretty mellow.  We got together at Gloria’s with Jen and Arturo who were in town.  Jeremy grilled up some burgers and sausages wearing a custom made garbage bag apron!  We did not do fireworks or any parades this year.

Then, the next day, we went for a surprise 70th birthday party for Jeremy’s uncle, David.  Kristen and Luke hosted it at Cinnamon Lake.  It was fun to connect with the Brickers again.  It had been awhile!  We hadn’t ever met Greg and Maggie’s littlest, Nora.  The girls brought Nora’s older sister, Elena, out of her shell pretty quickly.  And they fawned over Nora as much as they could.  I got in on the baby holding action, too.  While I don’t want another one, they are pretty easy to hold. Luke and Kristen took some groups out on their new pontoon boat.  It was a relaxign time.  The lake is quiet and peaceful.

                    

We met up with Jen and Arturo at Farmstead Vintage Market, “a one-day summer market featuring farmhouse finds, handmade goods, vintage treasures, food trucks, and lot more!”  The girls found some cute pencil pouches made by one of Sandy’s friends.  And it was just fun to browse the tents. 

I went to see the Ohio Shakespeare Festival perform Much Ado About Nothing with Sandy and Katie.  We ate at Pub Bricco prior to the play which was pretty good.  Even though the night was warm, it was not uncomfortable sitting there.  I had not seen or read the play that I can recall, but I really enjoyed this one, particularly the first half.  The first half was more comical in nature; the second half, Shakespeare, of course, has someone (almost) die and the drama kicks up.  The actors did a great job. 

I am also celebrating that our remodeling is done (for now).  Apparently, the only comparison pictures I can find are the ones from the previous owners when we bought it.  Travis removed the chair rail in the hallway and throughout the living room/dining room.  The girls and I worked at taking down the wallpaper.  Then, Travis skim coated where the chair rail had been to help give it a smoother finish.  Finally, I picked out paint (Sherwin-Williams, Gossamer Veil).  Mom and Dad both offered to help me paint which significantly sped up the process and probably made it a little less sloppy as well.  Still need to hang some things on the walls, but I love it.  It feels bigger even though I know it is not.

   

I’ll leave you with a picture that Madison took of the sky one day.

Remodeling: Kitchen

So, our other major remodeling project was our kitchen.  We started the process of thinking about it sometime last summer.  Our driving force was that I wanted more countertop space.  The current kitchen design had appliance garages in both corners which cut off work space.  It also had the wall oven and a lower peninsula that wasn’t really usable work space. 

With that in mind, we talked with Mullet Cabinet about just restructuring a few things (adding and deleting some cabinets).  The price they told us was not as low as we expected.  In fact, they said we could get all new cabinets for not much more than just making a few adjustments. 

So, we met with Mullet Cabinets, who had done the original cabinets in our kitchen and still had the blueprints from them, about designs that included all new cabinets.  We met with Clazak Remodeling, who does everything – cabinets, HVAC, electric, plumbing, and flooring.  Both places gave us 3D prints to look at, met with us to go over them and make adjustments, and were very helpful.  We looked at even removing the existing wall to make a “great room” with our dining/living room area (also not much more expensive to tear a whole wall down!). 

There was a significant price difference between the two.  However, the more expensive one also said they would have it all done in 2 weeks and they would handle all of it.  That was enticing.  However, we went with Mullet Cabinet because we liked their cabinets previously.

    

We talked with Travis Miller about coordinating and doing the parts that Mullet Cabinet didn’t do – tearing out the soffit, pulling out the cabinets, hiring an electrician and plumber, doing the tiling work, etc.  He said he could do it all and work within the timeline that we proposed. 

With all my hesitation and questions about design and style, we met with JT Interiors, a company run by Jara Thomas, a former classmate of Jeremy’s.  She was very helpful.  We sent her some things we liked, showed her the countertops we had chosen, and talked about what we would be keeping around.  She helped us pick out the cabinet color (Sherwin Williams Greek Villa), the tile for the backsplash – and the grout!, gave us pointers on choosing hardware for the cabinets, and suggested flooring (see light color flooring in picture on the left) for in the future. It was worth the fee.

    

I moved our kitchen things to the basement where thankfully, there is a bar top and a small sink.  That was actually what saved our sanity during the remodel.  I had almost everything my kitchen had -- just not an oven… but I had an air fryer, a microwave, a countertop burner, crockpots, an electric skillet, and an electric griddle.  I definitely didn’t find myself complaining much.  Here is our set up and some other pictures.

   

So, cabinets came out the week of spring break (March 23).  The girls wanted to have some fun with our countertops, so they drew fun pictures with sharpies on them. 

              

 

Cabinets went in the Monday after break (April 1).

     

Then, we waited on countertops from Tower Countertop – decided on quartz Gray Lagoon with a concrete finish.  During the wait time, we watched the electrician come and go, Travis (and Ryan, his coworker) come and go, and things slowly come together.  Finally, the countertops went on! (April 17)

Then, the appliances we from Home Appliance went in.  I was most excited about my fridge – a not side-by-side – with ample space to hold more than 1 gallon of milk!  (April 22)

   

Travis worked to get the backsplash on so I could really move in – wipe off the dust and move in the stuff!

Finally, I took a personal day off school to unpack all the boxes and move things back in.  (April 25)  As I was opening boxes, I found this fun note that Madison had left in one of the boxes.

Almost 5 weeks, but it was worth it.  Before and after…