rebuild

It's time for another update from the wonderful world of the Kugler remodel.

We got a lot done yesterday, but of course still have quite a bit more to do in the way of tearing out. Our dumpster is probably about 2/3 full now.

All the wood paneling that was in the living room, upstairs hallway, family room, guest bedroom, and office is off the walls and out in the dumpster. It's what we found under the wood paneling that was the most interesting (or revolting, depending on one's perspective).

In one word: mold. More in some places than others. Under the windows in the living room there are panels of sheetrock with quite a bit of mold on it, and will have to come out. The wall between the family and guest bedroom downstairs had enough mold on it (on both sides) that the entire wall (save the studs) has already been torn out.

The worst mold infestiation, by far, has been the office. In general, the reason the mold has been so bad was simple physics and biology: 1) the previous owners vented their dryer into the house for 13 years, 2) wood paneling on sheet rock creates a very tight airspace; once the moisture in there, there is no airflow to remove the moisture or dry it out, and 3) mold likes paper, period. In the office, this problem was exacerbated for two reasons. First, the wood paneling was installed over wallpaper which covered the sheet rock. Second, the office shares a wall with the downstairs bathroom. It appears that one end of the wall in the bathroom was broken through from the office side (apparently for tub installation) and never repaired, so there was no effective vapor barrier between the bathroom and the office wall. Combined with the wall paper, what we had was, effectively, about as ideal a mold incubator as you could get. The wall paper in that corner of the room was so molded that it looked and felt like parchment paper. Pretty gross.

In other news, the kitchen floor is out, and it looks like a minimal amount of repair will be needed on the subfloor (pending inspection by qualified personnel, of course).

We will be doing more work on May 5th, and would welcome any help. There is plenty to do. Carpet tack strips to tear up; padding on the stairs; more moldy (or otherwise needs-to-be-replaced) sheetrock to tear out; tear out fake "bricks" in the kitchen; probably tear out the tub in the downstairs bathoom; removing linoleum in the laundry room, bathroom, and downstairs hallway and office. And just general cleanup. Bring tools, and a respirator if you have one. We'll provide particle masks if you don't.

Oh, and if anyone can recommend a good, honest, plumber, forward his or her name our way. We need one of those due to a few compromised pipes.

Last Saturday Crystal, Izzy, Rebecca, Fred and I went at the house and got quite a bit done. All the carpet and padding is out (except the padding on the stairs). The linoleum (all four layers of it, plus the rotten sub-floor) in the kitchen is almost all out. Some of the wood paneling is out, and yes, we did discover mold on the sheet rock behind the paneling. As a plus, so far all the insulation behind the paneling looks OK.

On Sunday, Izzy, Crystal and I spend some time at the house putting all that stuff in the dumpster we got Saturday evening.

A big thanks to Fred, Izzy, and Rebecca for their help.

But there is more to do. We'll be going at it again on Saturday, starting at 10:00AM. We have more paneling to remove, and some more linoleum to pull up. We'll welcome any help offered!

Crystal and I are almost done getting everything out of the house, and we're going to be ready to gut the house this weekend (the 21st). We'll be tearing out carpet and tearing off wood paneling. We'll even have a dumpster out front to complete the party.

So, if you like tearing things apart, drop us a line! We'd love to have help! You can e-mail us here.

If you go look at your water heater, it will probably have a little valve on the side connected to a pipe that goes down to the floor. That's a pressure relief valve: if the tank ever acquires too much pressue (steam, over filling for some reason, etc) it's designed to let go and release water rather than compromising the tank. Apparently it also works if the water tank freezes up.

As I mentioned yesterday, we had an inch of water (or so) in our furnace room, and about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of water in our laundry room (and out into the hall). I couldn't figure out quite where all that water had come from. While the pipes did freeze (more later) there just wasn't enough water in them to cover that much area (I'm pretty sure). While water may have leaked from the outside (the wall was wet near the bottom, but that was probably from the puddle inside: the wall around the chimney was dry), it does appear the valve on the water heater tripped.

As to the pipes bursting, a pipe in the upstairs bathroom probably burst, a pipe above the hot water heater appears compromised, and the pipe right after our water main enters the house froze. So, an interesting situation. We'll have to see exactly how much of the floor and walls we get to rip up.

It started out that we thought we needed to rebuild the house. As other posts have shown, it might just be a remodel. When our chimney liner collapsed, causing our heater to stop, and freezing the house, I thought we may have escaped broken pipes since water leaked into the tub down stairs.

I might have been wrong. In the past couple weeks it has really warmed up. Our water is off, thankfully, but it appears pipes leaked. We went to the house tonight to get some things, and discovered water in the laundry room, and out into the down-stairs hallway, some icicles in the down stairs bathroom (not sure which pipe leaked in the up stairs bathroom), as well as about an inch of water in the furnace room.

So, what I know or think I know right now:

1. Water has leaked in from outside (the "well" around the chimney has water in it)
2. It appears that possibly the water heater leaked after it thawed out.
3. A pipe in our up stairs bathroom leaked.
4. A lot of repair is going to have to be done, and a lot of walls torn off.

Well, God is in control. "For I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him." Just pray for us...we need it right now.