As I reported, we met with the inspector Monday. Since then, we've also met with a roofer (Our skylight is leaking.) and a team of two plumbers on Tuesday, an electrician today, and if they show up, we'll be meeting another roofer and electrician tomorrow morning.
The electrician, David, who came to the house today kept looking at issues to resolve and commenting, "That's retahded." David seems like a straight arrow. One-hundred percent unrelated to his straight-arrow-ness, he kept his white Scotty, Murphy, in his big black truck while he walked through our house to develop an estimate.
Tony, the roofer, said he could fix our roof pretty easily. Our skylight is leaking and useless, so we're getting it removed, and we have to get that vent from the bathroom through the roof to the outside.
The plumbers have a lot of work to do. We have decided we are going to be redoing the fifteen-square-foot half-bath off the kitchen...
...in conjunction with the plumbers' reworking of the cast-iron below in the basement. They told us how, so after they left, we took the first step. We removed the toilet.
We also got some simple tile on clearance at Home Depot...
...that should complement the rest of the stark whiteness in the room. We're going to chronicle our efforts to uniquely cover the walls, and we have some secret plans to share at a later date.
About that sink, we wanted to remove it too, so we could rip up some of the flooring. Unfortunately, whoever installed the sink and cabinet did a pretty shabby job. This may be a little hard to explain, but because of how they did it, to remove the sink/cabinet, we'd either have to cut the cabinet or the wire to the light fixture over the sink. Have a looky inside the cabinet.
This is one of the things David called retahded. We agree. Since we have no main breaker, he recommended that we wait until he fixes it (runs the wire through the wall) to remove the cabinet.
Okay, so you probably want to know what the heck this entry's title means. Look back up there at the second picture. That wad of fabric (Sorry, Chevy Chasers and the Moscow contingent, Al's futon cover was ripped and had no zipper on it, so we sacrificed it to the demi-gods of home repair.) is stuffed into the toilet pipe.
Now, imagine the Jaws theme music again, and look back at the last picture in this post. That big curved pipe in the center with the brick under it... that's the same toilet pipe.
Our plumbers told us, to save money we could do some of the demolition ourselves. They suggested we buy a sledge hammer and hit that pipe because it was going to have to go away anyway. If we do it, they don't have to. Apparently it's going to shatter, and since it's a very old pipe from a toilet, we're talking about an... upcoming fecal explosion. The most disturbing part was, they were chuckling as they told us.
Sue's scared. Very scared. We promise we'll take pictures.
PS
Carrie and John, we counted it as a good sign that David had a dog named Murphy. We're heading to New Hampshire tomorrow after work for a whirlwind trip, so we probably won't be back to post until Sunday. Have a great weekend, everyone!
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