Our House {"Adventures" in Home Ownership}

Well, we finally moved into our house.  It took a little longer than we thought it would and we ended up having to spend a few nights in a hotel.  The oh so strong polyurethane smell from refinishing the floors lingered a little longer than expected.  Since I'm prego (see Christmas post below) neither Gabe nor myself felt comfortable with me being in the house un-ventilated.

Anyway, we finally moved in on January 1st and the next day (Jan 2nd) we decided there was no better time than the present to start with some major demolition.  We brought in reinforcements (Gabe's uncle's) to help us start the renovation on the main floor bathroom.  

The tub and tile wall surround need to be replaced or refinished, the walls need to be painted, the floors need to be addressed and the vanity just needed to go.  It was an original, built-in unit straight out of 1952.

The demolition went a lot quicker than we thought and before we knew it we were left with this.

Not so pretty is it? 

We have cleaned it up a bit and started preping the walls for paint, but overall it still looks like this.

Since it was a holiday my mom had the day off and was coming down to help me organize the kitchen and keep Miles entertained.  When she got to the house she said, "Umm, your front yard is flooded."

WHAT?!

Gabe and his uncles went to investigate. They seemed baffled, went downstairs to make sure we had turned the water off to the house and when they came back upstairs Gabe said, "The basements flooding and the water's coming in fast!"

WHAT?!

To make a long, oh-so-stressful story short during the process of our bathroom renovation and turning the main water valve on and off the main water line to our house busted. Yea, busted - after LIVING HERE FOR ONE DAY!  Our neighbors tried to make us feel better by telling us that ours was the last on the block to have the main line break.  Yea, didn't really make me feel better.

We had some plumbers come out and assess the situation. After getting a few estimates we found someone who was actually reasonable, only problem is they couldn't come back and fix the problem for 3 days.  So they hooked us up with "temporary" water until they could fix it for good.

Finally on Friday (a little later than expected) they brought in the heavy equipment to tear up our front yard and replace the main line.  

The pipe they removed was covered in rust holes and they suspected that it had been leaking for a very long time. We had also noticed that our water had a weird smell and taste, which has since been resolved. So in the long run it was probably a blessing that is broke so we weren't drinking contaminated water.

At least someone enjoyed the whole experience.

*PS - notice our beautifully refinished floors in the above picture. They make my heart happy.