Lemme tell you, our bathroom’s wallpaper wasn’t its only problem-to-be-remedied recently. So brace yourself while we weave a little plumbing tale that spanned over the last few weeks (in fact it just wrapped up a few days ago). You know how we solemnly swear to share the good, the bad, and the ugly? Well, this one can be filed under “the bad” and “the ugly” with a side of “the gross.” So for everyone’s sake, we’ll leave out the graphic pictures.
During the process of buying this house we noticed a very small, dried out water stain on the ceiling in the living room, right below where the bathroom was. We and the inspector concluded it was likely from a toilet overflow from long ago, since the stain was only about 3″ wide and long dried up. So we weren’t too alarmed and just figured it was solved decades ago, so a little primer and ceiling paint were all that it needed. We never even photographed it, but here’s a hint as to where it was.
Then this fall, the toilet started to act up. Namely in that it would occasionally clog (this is your first hint to put down your breakfast) and when we attempted to plunge it, well, it would back-up into the shower. If that first hint didn’t work, something tells me you’re putting your breakfast down right about now.
Yeah, it was gross. And since a certain half of this relationship was already queasy from growing a tiny human, I was the only one on duty (a little pun to lighten the mood). Usually a bit more plunging and maybe a bit of snaking would fix the issue. I say “usually” because this happened more than once. And before you start judging our gastrointestinal prowess, I should note that this sort of back-up sometimes happened when the toilet wasn’t even involved – maybe after a shower or after I shaved in the sink. We googled for answers and contemplated calling in a pro, but the “incidents” were few and far enough between that we figured we could hold out ’til we remodeled the room.
But last month came the back-up that plunging could not conquer.
***PHOTO OMITTED TO PROTECT YOUR DELICATE RETINAS***
And in all of my furious plunging, I managed to create a new water stain in the ceiling below. I’d later learn that all the pressure of such vigorous plunging had compromised the wax ring and water started leaking again. That was our cue to call in a pro. He removed the toilet, ran an 150 foot snake and dislodged what he concluded was “years worth of paper build-up” way down in our pipes somewhere. Phew! Problem solved.
Except it wasn’t. Fast forward another week and the shower starts to back-up again. In fact, it happens as I’m using the tub to fill up the steamer during may latest wallpaper removal spree. So not only was that process miserable on its own, I was doing it with a less than fresh-looking (and smelling) shower nearby. Not to mention that we’re both beyond frustrated that our first call to the plumber didn’t solve the problem. So yeah, clearly the picture below was taken before the back-up happened. Just look at me all footloose and fancy free.
Remember when I called this post-wallpapered look: “gas station bathroom.” I was really thinking it was more reminiscent of that scene in Trainspotting. Yeah, you know the one. And if you don’t, well, I highly suggest that you NOT google it right now. Okay, maybe our bathroom wasn’t that bad. But it was bad enough that I was embarrassed that this was the state the plumbers would see it in.
Then again, things didn’t get much prettier once they arrived. Now that I think about it, I guess they’ve pretty much seen it all.
The plumbing company sent a different guy this time and, after explaining the series of events, he had a pretty solid theory. But it meant cutting into our ceiling to confirm it. Welcome to our crash course in two-story home issues. Kinda made us miss the days where virtually everything was visible from a crawl space or attic.
His hunch was correct. All of the bathroom plumbing was configured wrong. And it had been for 30+ years since they built this house. A key element – the slope of the main drain pipe – was incorrect. So rather than having gravity to help water leave the vicinity, it was actually sloped uphill – so water and sewage that should have been flushed down and out of the house would collect and pool and eventually back-up into the lowest opening in that bathroom (i.e. the shower). In the words of Clara: yuckaroo.
The only solution was to cut a bigger hole in the ceiling and have the experts replace all the plumbing. It even meant cutting out one of the load-bearing joists and reinforcing it with a new one so the new pipes could be configured at the right angle, so it was nothing that we dared to attempt ourselves.
Did we like having our house torn apart? No. But we were pretty relieved that the root of the problem was finally getting fixed. And I’ll admit that we were pretty entertained by the view through the floor.
It only took them a day to complete the task (they came back a few days after their initial diagnosis to get it done) along with a somewhat painful $650 check, but we were relieved that this hidden-behind-the-walls issue that had plagued this house for over three decades was finally solved. Which meant we could finally get back to our little bathroom update. And hey, while the toilet was removed, we were able to strip that small swatch of wallpaper that had been hiding behind the bowl, so that was kind of funny (very marginally at the time, but more so now).
But we were still left with that gaping hole in the living room ceiling well after the bathroom was trimmed out and painted.
We went back and forth about drywalling it ourselves – which basically involves mudding, taping, sanding, re-mudding, and re-sanding. Smooth ceilings are especially tricky (imperfections are a lot more visible up there) and we knew any remaining dents or seams would have bugged us forever, so we finally just pulled the trigger and called a highly recommended local drywall guy.
He fixed it flawlessly in a few hours for around $100, and was also very nice (he said Sherry looked like Topanga from Boy Meets World, which pretty much made our day). So now all we’ve got to do is prime and paint it.
Update: A few folks have asked if our home warranty would have covered this issue (that actually ran out before this fiasco) but it most likely would not, since this was an “existing condition” (the plumbing didn’t break after we moved in, it was configured this way for 30 years, so that’s not something typically covered by a home warranty).
These unplanned homeowner curveballs never feel good (especially when we’d rather be spending that money on fun updates that we can actually see and enjoy) but it’s nice to have things all put back together again. The irony is that we have another “oh the joys of home ownership” story unfolding (it’s still halfway-solved, so we’ll wait for the full resolution before crying on your shoulder). Please tell us we’re not the only ones. Regale us with some of your tales of woe in the plumbing/heating/other house systems arenas. We’re all in this together. Right?
Psst- The “Volume Two” part of this post’s title is thanks to this original leak lesson that we dealt with a few years ago at our last house. Best thing about that one is that it was something we could solve ourselves (read: zero benjamins).
Emily L. says
We are a military family so we end up doing a lot of little projects in our homes before we move to our next assignment. We were living in Las Vegas and we decided to mount the microwave above the stove. It went pretty smoothly, took a little longer than we thought it should because one of the screws wouldn’t go in. He adjusted the screw to a new position, hung the microwave and all was good. Fast forward 9not sure how many months later), we were driving through NM and the renters of our home in Vegas called us about a leak in the kitchen. Seems that when the hubby screwed in the microwave he punctured the pipe that drains from the toilet in the bathroom above. Yucky toilet water had been leaking down behind the drywall. We had to replace drywall in the kitchen as well as part of a kitchen cabinet.
Chelsea says
Gah, that picture of John peering up from the floor is going to give me nightmares. I don’t know why it’s so scary!
Cassie says
Well it isn’t home ownership, it’s renting, but here goes:
When we moved into this apartment two years ago, I mentioned that one of the floorboards in the bathroom to the side of the toilet was weak and went down a tad bit if you stepped on it. It wasn’t a huge deal because it was in the corner and we just put a laundry basket over there for dirty laundry. They didn’t do anything about it when I told them except tell me that the old maintenance guy didn’t put some rubber washer on the back of the toilet that is apparently supposed to do that, so it leaks sometimes. I really should have left then. Instead, we stayed and even renewed our lease. Fast forward two years later and we can’t wait to get out of this place. The leak is worse, the floorboard is worse, and there are bugs in the bathroom because of the water leak. It’s ridiculous.
Rhiannon says
I’m so glad you were able to get things fixed! We’ve been in our house almost four months and all of a sudden there’s a smell lurking in the laundry room after the washer drains. I’m hoping it’s a simple fix!! I agree that I’d much rather spend the money on things we can see and enjoy, but it’s such a relief to know things are working properly behind the scenes too :)
Emily says
So sorry for your pain, but glad it all worked out! And hopefully whatever you’re dealing with now will be over soon. My worst home disaster story happened three years ago. My basement flooded! TWICE! Within 2 weeks! And right before Christmas! We had a major snowstorm and unbeknownst to me the rain gutter off the back of my house had become detached and all the water was draining into my basement instead of the yard. About a foot of water was sitting in my house while I as away. I live in a townhouse so my neighbors on both sides also flooded (good thing they still like me). After hiring a disaster clean up crew to come get the water out, dry everything out, replace the carpet, and get all the furniture back in place…I’m not kidding, THE VERY NEXT DAY it flooded again. This time the little neighbor kid turned on their backyard hose and left it running…right into my basement. At least their homeowners insurance covered this disaster and paid me nearly enough to cover the cost of both floods. And thank goodness it has stayed dry ever since…knock on wood!.
Meredith says
We have almost the same thing happening to us! There was a spot on our kitchen ceiling where the popcorn finish (UGH!) had clearly been patched, and we thought it was from a pipe that once exploded long ago. Then, one Sunday afternoon, it just started dripping for no apparent reason. We cut away the ceiling (or rather poked it out, since it was so soggy already), and all we could see was the very wet subfloor of our master bathroom right above. And that’s where we still are – a hole in our kitchen ceiling and using the guest shower while we figure out if we want to call someone to diagnose and fix the problem or just redo the whole 1987-styled bathroom while we’re at it. Blergh.
Christine says
Oh man! I hope this is the end of your plumbing issues for a long time! You’re not alone, though – less than 6 months after moving into our new home, during the first Polar Vortex spell this month, we came home from the grocery store to water gushing out of our ceilings into the Living Room, our Master Bedroom and the basement. Our heating pipes on the 2nd floor had frozen and burst open, sending hot water all throughout the walls, floors and ceiling. It’s been almost a month and $25,000 in repairs and we’re currently staying at our in-laws until the floors have been repaired. It’s been a crazy start to 2014, that’s for sure!
Kristen T says
Even the construction process doesn’t reveal everything …
We moved into our brand new house a couple of days before New Years. After a day or so of washing dishes, doing laundry & showering we had a “not so lovely I’ll spare you the photos too” backup in our master shower…on New Year’s Eve!
Turns out the plumbing guys never completely removed the rags they use to block the drain pipes until the fixtures get hooked up (seriously?!?!?) and our cleanout was jammed full of rag parts, etc. Fortunately that was a gratis repair but I couldn’t look into my backyard for a loooooooong time.
Melissa Breau (@MelissaBreau) says
What happened to the hole in the flooring? You mentioned patching the ceiling, but if you had to break up the tiles in the bathroom… how did you replace those?
YoungHouseLove says
They weren’t actually broken, that’s just the plumbing hole that the wax ring and toilet sit on, so that pic was taken when the toilet was out and the old plumbing was removed (when it was put back down with new plumbing it was all good).
xo
s
Alexa says
Oh, the joys. Glad you figured out the problem. We were told our house had “good bones.” Well, in the nearly 5 years we’ve been in our 60’s ranch we’ve replaced the yard drainage (3 times!), water heater, heating and AC including all ducts, and about 1/3 of the plumbing. Ouch! It’s never the glorious stuff. Hope you have some home maintenance peace!
Cindy O. says
In the last 60 days we’ve had to replace the fridge (after the old icemaker flooded the kitchen and part of the basement), the washer (after various repair efforts and 30 very long days with no washer) and now a leaking bathroom faucet. Ouch! I’m ready for a nice long stretch with no big ticket purchases…
Bethany says
In our first year in our home (which was/is the first home that either of us has every owned) we replaced our fridge, washer/dryer, hot water heater, 21 windows (the only expected upgrade we had been planning in the first year – and we absolutely would have waited to do this if we had known what else was coming), 1 toilet, repaired another toilet leaking into our basement, replaced the upstairs heater and the downstairs HVAC system, and repaired a gas line that was installed with the wrong material under our deck. And no, our house was not a “fixer-upper”. We had no idea any of this was coming all in a year. Sure we knew many of our appliances were getting towards the end of their lives. But we didn’t know they would all die the first year. Our first year in the home all I kept saying was “what is so great about owning? What was so bad about renting?” Looking back now we are very happy and we love our home. But home ownership can definitely feel like a battlefield… “a battlefield, a battlefield, a battlefield.. better go and get your armor” …. (okay sorry I couldn’t help myself and I thought you guys might appreciate that other people bust into song when typing also!) :)
YoungHouseLove says
And now I’m signing that with you! Haha!
xo
s
Charlotte says
We just recently dived into the worst kind of home ownership issue – Structural. I actually was just reading one of your older posts about putting the sofa table behind Karl and you mention your wavy floor and your home inspector assuring you that any settling you had was normal. Our inspector told us the same thing, unfortunately in our case, he was wrong. We had some major sinking in our foundation that only got worse in the 8 years we were living there. We finally had to bite the $20,000 bullet and call in the professionals to dig out around our house and pier the foundation back up and stabilize it permanently. Let me tell you it wasn’t a pretty picture, emotionally or aesthetically. We are happy to finally have the issue resolved and move forward, but it wasn’t without a lot of heartache.
Our biggest recommendation to anyone buying a home that looks like it might have structural issues is to hire a structural engineer to inspect it. If you really love the house it is worth the investment to find out for sure before purchasing the home. Most home inspectors are not qualified to tell you if the settling is normal or a much bigger issue.
YoungHouseLove says
Great tip Charlotte!
xo
s
Jamie P-M says
Are you planning on keeping the bathroom floor tile? With the new update, I’m really liking it!
YoungHouseLove says
We actually really like it too, but we eventually plan to combine this small choppy room with the sink nook that’s next to it (so we have one big room) and that space doesn’t have this flooring (it used to be carpeted!) so we’ll probably have to retile the floor eventually to make that two-rooms-turned-one space look cohesive.
xo
s
Hillary says
We actually just had a very similar drywall issue–overflow in the toilet on the 2nd floor caused staining and buckling in a 10-20′ radius on our (completely open) 1st floor ceiling. I wanted to try attempting the drywall work myself, but hubby says no so we’re about to have to call a professional and probably will have to repaint the entire 1st floor ceiling as well :(
Rachel B says
I had a pretty interesting plumming issue at my house last spring. We get a lot of snow in Iowa which means lots of melting in spring so just about everyone has a sump pump in their basement. Apparently the people that owned the house before me put the sump pump in themselves and had the pipes connecting to bathroom plumbing rather then going out the basement- which is what code requires (and I’m sorry to say my inspector did not notice). Everytime the sump pump would run (about every 15 minutes) the force of the pump would bring the water up through the tub drain. My roommates and I affectionately refered to it as Old Faithful until I was able to have someone come out and fix it. It’s kind of funny now, but at the time we were not amused. Just imagine trying to plan your shower around Old Faithful and not getting ice cold snow melt in the bottom of the shower while you’re in there.
YoungHouseLove says
So funny!
xo
s
krys72599 says
Okay, so you win in the grossness category, but I have a waste pipe story for you, too. Let’s start AFTER the upstairs bathroom leaked into the kitchen, immediately above the counter where I set my clean dishes to dry (no dishwasher in my house).
Let’s start when I opened the spare room closet door one cold, rainy winter day last year, turned on the light, and started to pull out Rubbermaid bucket after Rubbermaid bucket, looking for something that completely slipped my mind once I saw the ugly brown, rusty stain on the wall and the falling ceiling panels.
(Never knew I could yell that loud!) Hubby came up and I had to empty the whole closet. Let’s see: 6 20g Rubbermaid buckets full of pocketbooks and shoes, an entire closet’s worth of clothes (including my wedding gown and all my long formal dresses), my Christmas wrapping papers, a Sterilite drawer unit with Christmas ribbons and bows, and from down o the bottom, in the back, my high school and college yearbooks, clearly dripped on, ruined, dry and moldy.
Ugh.
Hubby tore out the ceiling and we found a 6 or 8 inch waste pipe, clearly previously repaired. (We have a bathroom in the attic.) Except there were no holes in it, and we don’t use the bathroom in the attic – our entire attic is basically just storage. We called a roofer because my husband was convinced that the leak was water finding its way inside from outside.
Except that it wasn’t. They came, they saw, they confirmed we have no leaks.
So we flushed and flushed and flushed, only to see no leaking. Great, you would think.
Until the day we came home and – yea, it leaked.
And apparently the pipe is not appropriately pitched, so the water sits in the pipe and basically rusts through. It holds the water. Until it doesn’t anymore.
So we cut and patched the pipe – there’s no way we can possibly re-plumb the entire house. It took a month but I finally repainted the closet and put everything back (did I mention the rolling rack I bought for the clothes, the one that collapsed in the middle of the night? No? Oops, I forgot.).
That was a year ago.
Two months ago I went into that same closet for our Christmas stuff and there’s another dried brown rusty stain on the wall, with a collapsed ceiling panel.
Want to buy a house?
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no! So sorry Krys!
xo
s
Leah says
Five days before I was scheduled to be induced with our first, our septic started backing up into our basement. Let me tell you, my sensitive pregnancy nose could not handle it. We had just bought our house a few months before, so we had no idea what the problem might be. I was having visions of our yard being torn up to have a new septic put in, scheduling it all around our baby’s arrival, but thankfully it was just some roots that had grown into the pipe. They were able to grind them out and it was a much easier, cheaper fix than I’d been envisioning! And my wonderful hubby cleaned the whole basement mess up himself.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh Leah, I’m so sorry! That sounds wretched! I’m air-gagging for you.
xo
s
Brigitte says
Funny, I was going to ask how you got the wallpaper off of the wall behind the toilet. Little did I know it meant a huge scary plumbing detour and removal of the entire toilet, etc.
This is the unbudget-able part of home ownership. Scary. But still worth it.
Stephanie says
We had a clogged kitchen sink last spring, after trying to plunge/snake it ourselves we called the plumber. He discovered that the cast iron pipes under our basement floor were corroded shut and needed to be replaced. We ended up jackhammering up our basement floor (did I mention we had just finished a basement remodel about 6 months prior??) and replacing the cast iron pipes. They were literally paper thin and came out in small pieces – we hauled them out in buckets. Ahhhhh…the joys of home-ownership!
Nicole says
Thank you for posting this. And hilarious timing too – I was just bemoaning to my husband last night, “ugh, how come the young house love people never have to sink a bunch of money into crappy stuff? They just get to do the fun stuff!”
We are in the midst of getting all the poly-b water lines in our home replaced after some pretty major water line bursts. We have holes everywhere, a weekend of drywall repair ahead of us, and a hefty repair bill. So, I thank you for posting about some of the uglier and unexpected parts of home ownership. As they say, misery loves company :-)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, just wait for our next tale. It’s like the house decided to get us this month. Haha!
xo
s
Caitlin C says
I can’t even imagine that much sewage! Double thanks for avoiding posting pictures! Ha
Could you imagine if you opted to wait and avoid the bathroom? I know with my luck I would wake up needing to use the bathroom, as I did about three times a night with my little man, be half way done my business and realize what I’d just done! Short walks to a bathroom this far along in pregnancy make this fix much more convenient.
YoungHouseLove says
Seriously! I think we would have forgotten and rinsed our hands or brushed our teeth or something at the sink. It’s so crazy how connected all of those things are!
xo
s
Amy E. says
you are definitely NOT alone in your homeownership woes. our house wasn’t even CLOSE to being 30 years old when we bought it; it was about 11. but it had a hidden water leak, too.
the floor of our master bathroom shower when we bought the home was fiberglass. poorly supported fiberglass. fiberglass that had a hole we didn’t notice until one day when my husband was outside enjoying our patio while i took a shower and noticed a river coming from the outside wall where the shower was.
and no, the 1 year warranty that came with the house purchase didn’t cover that, either.
we ripped it out right away to avoid making things worse. (we have a 2nd bath with a tub/shower.) we took a few months to watch some how-to videos and pick out materials, and then got down to fixing the thing. throw in a planned vacation and some shipping delays, and the whole thing (from discovery of the issue to being ready to use again) took 9 months. NOT fun. but now it’s beautiful, properly functioning, better than when the “professionals” did it the first time!
Emylee says
Freaking insurance and “pre-existing conditions”! We are currently waiting for warmer weather to tackle our home’s issue. The furnace part of our air conditioning unit is in our attic (dumb thing #1) and is just balancing on two rafters (dumb thing #2) and is fitted with a two small drip pan (dumb thing #3). So of course it’s leaked through the insulation and attic ceiling and has effected a ceiling span so large that it reaches into three rooms (kitchen, living, entry). All of THIS caused the ‘texture’ on our walls that wasn’t properly applied (dumb thing #4) to literally peel off like strips of wallpaper. So yay! I love my house (she says through gritted teeth)!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no Emylee! I feel for you, girl!
xo
s
Molly W says
So glad that everything has been fixed! The bathroom updates are beautiful. My husband and I have an inspection scheduled for this weekend to give us an idea if it’s in the cards for us to purchase the family home we’ve been renting. We’re a bit nervous! The home was built in ’51 and had quite a few years where it wasn’t given much love. We’ve done plenty of cosmetic work, but we’re eager to see what’s hidden down below-finger’s crossed for safe, positive feedback!
PS- Everyone has always said my doppelganger is Topanga and I get just as excited! Last week it was the cashier at Target in Forest Hill. Now, if only my husband had Cory’s curly hair…
YoungHouseLove says
So funny!
xo
s
Jordan says
We are sort of in the stages prior to the unplungeable clog stage. We bought our 1980’s house fully renovated (somewhat regrettable now, but we were moving in with a five month old and had never really reno’d or DIYed before), with the exception of the master bedroom floors. So before we moved in, we continued the same hardwood from the hallway through the master and couldn’t have been happier with the results. Then, about a month after moving in, our master bathroom toilet flooded without a lick of warning. We managed to keep the flood contained to the bathroom and called in a plumber the next day who snaked our pipes and said there were roots in the line. We fixed that problem (or so we thought) and were on out merry way.
Then two months later, the toilet flooded again. Only this time, it flooded the bathroom, our closets, the master bedroom, the hallway and half of the nursery, too. We had to hire in experts to salvage our floors with big noisy fans and dehumidifiers, all while I managed a sunburn from hell. So the three of us (baby was now 8 months) lived out of our guest bedroom for two weeks while we got our house put back in order. We have yet to find exactly what the problem is and are kind of terrified of how expensive it may be to fix, but we’ve not had anymore flooding in almost a year now. And yes, I am knocking on wood.
Lena says
I’m so sorry to hear about having to deal with that. I’m just really glad you decided to post it today as I just found out bad plumbing news in our house. They are here to install a tankless water heater and I found out we have some PEX plumbing that there is a lawsuit about and we couldn’t really find fittings to connect to it. Got a quote to replace all of it or to buy these super expensive fittings to tie into it. Well the cost of the fittings are around $400 and to replace just the main trunk with another more standard PEX is $3400. Plumber said he is not seeing any signs of failure. I talked with my husband and we decided to just go with the expensive fittings for now and then we can replace it ourselves later or save up some more money to replace it.
If we had only decided to just get a regular replacement water heater instead of the tankless we wouldn’t know. Better to know and monitor I think at least.
Lee says
Same thing happened to us a few months into living in our 1960s house…the toilet would back up and there was a lot of unsettling “gurgling” going on. Turns out that huge tree in the front yard (that we thought was so charming) had a big ole root grow under the main line going away from the house and screwed up the grade enough that it was coming back into the house on occasion (ew.). It took MULTIPLE plumbers out to our house to finally settle on the issue but we were so happy once things were fixed…even if it did mean having them dig up the front yard. And the home warranty didn’t cover that fix either – the coverage stops at the building of the house so they were unable to fix a grading issue 1 foot away from the house. Boooooo.
Lynn says
We just spent a night away from our house because we had raw sewage backing up in our floor drain in our basement. We weren’t able to flush a toilet or run the water more than a few ounces without it backing up more in the basement. The 24 hour service couldn’t come to the following morning. $250 and 12 hours later, we find out that the anti-backup valve on our basement bathroom toilet was actually causing backups. YUCK! We spent the whole day Saturday mopping the basement floor with bleach and spraying everything down with Clorox cleanup. Luckily we only lost a wicker laundry basket and a (new) cheap IKEA rug. The sewage water stopped before it got to the brand new carpet in the rec room, thank goodness!
Whitney Shafer says
We just bought our first house last April. There’s a pretty trashed hot water/heating system in our house called “complete heat” made by Lennox. It was leaking when we were in inspections. But our furnace inspector told us that the water leak would be super expensive to fix and not worth pouring money into the failing and crappy system. Plus, the furnace was still working despite the leak and we have an unfinished basement with a concert floor so the leak wasn’t damaging anything in our house. He said the system could last one year or maybe 10 years…. Who knows. Well, here we are 9 months later with a dying water heating component and having to replace the WHOLE system. It didn’t even last a year. Luckily the seller paid for a home warranty at closing but our type of system was only covered up to $1500. At least we got a little bit out of the warranty but now we’re left with several thousand dollars coming out of our pocket. Boo! On the bright side, we’ll have a brand new furnace and water heater and won’t have to worry about any huge problems with heating for another 20 years! Hopefully….
Jessie G. says
never fun having these type of updates. I too would rather spend my moola on fun updates that we can actually see and enjoy. But it’s gotta get done
Carly S says
We moved into our first home at the end of November (and are still sleeping on an air mattress in the master bedroom while we renovate). We’re still coming across existing conditions here that we are trying to remedy, including improper studding, poorly installed toilets and other weird shortcuts the previous owners took in their own renos. Luckily, no toilet backups yet…Knock on wood.
I am loving going through our journey at the same time as you guys! We’ve even been tackling similar projects as you post them completely coincidentally!
Susan in Colorado says
Just have to comment on the Topanga thing.. my husband has a thing for her (yeah and it was creepy when she was younger and he is an old man… MEN!) .. I guess I shall introduce him to this blog (he really isn’t a reader of blogs though)… But I will ask him.. so does that chick (Sherry…) look like anyone you see on TV??? :) :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! It’s definitely the first time I ever heard it (my hair was down too, and I’m all swelly and pregnant, so that might have worked into it) but it made us laugh so hard!
xo
s
Adriane says
So needed to read this today! We are on DAY 8 of no heat. The repair man has to come out tomorrow for the third time to see what the problem is (since the first two fixes should truthfully be called donations to his company). LUCKILY, my Mom is about an hour away and my husband, 1-year-old and I have been staying with her. But driving an hour to and from work, living out of suitcases and having multiple service appointments is getting old.
Erin says
My son turned 4 on Monday so we had dinner at our house to celebrate. During dinner, water started dripping into my sister’s plate. We all look up to see water dripping out of our chandelier and it was picking up speed. Turns out a heating pipe in our guest room above froze and burst. My husband turned off the shut off which minimized the damage. We were actually quite lucky that we were eating in there when it started leaking or else it could have been really bad!
YoungHouseLove says
OH MY GOSH! What crazy timing!
xo
s
Care says
You had me at ‘footloose and fancy free’ lol!
Brenda says
Yikes! I’m irritated on your behalf at the person who built the house and put it in all wrong to begin with. That stinks. My parents had some leaking drama over Thanksgiving. I drove to their place on Wednesday, and that afternoon when my mom got home from work she went downstairs to put in some laundry. Only to discover water all over the basement floor (including soaking a bunch of the fabric she had there in her sewing area). I determined that water was bubbling out of the top of the water heater, and when the repairman got there, he determined that it was leaking below, too. So they had to get a whole new water heater installed. Plus the repairman said that there was a period of time in WI where the regulations for copper piping were different, so my parents’ entire house is piped in copper that is really too thin, so pinhole leaks could be a problem down the line. Made me glad that day that I rent because it all felt so overwhelming.
Andrea says
The only plumbing lesson we’ve learned is that Charmin is the very worst paper possibly for plumbing, as are little children who use a lot of it at once.
The main house woe we are still experiencing 19 months after moving into our brand new house is squeaking/cupping hardwood floors. They’ve been fully replaced twice, and next week they will be here again for the 5th repair. They have also rescheduled twice because they either ordered the wrong color wood or the materials didn’t arrive. I’m thinking it’s 50/50 on who exactly is the problem – the people who built the house and installed the floors or the floors themselves. I could go either way.
We are in the beginning stages of finding land and building a custom home and we have given it a lot of thought. I think we’d rather have concrete or tile floors. Our love of wood is pretty much over.
MaKaela says
We have been remodeling a house and when the time came to finally turn the water to the house on, no water came on… Turns out the guys that laid the new water line had placed a backup shut off valve in, and by miscommunication it got buried six feet underground. A mini excavator had to be brought in, the ground dug up and the valve removed and pipe replaced. All of this so we could have a working toilet. I hear your pain!
YoungHouseLove says
That sounds like such an ordeal!
xo
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Mamaw says
What a bummer! But, look at the bright side…it’s FIXED CORRECTLY. You shouldn’t have to worry about that again.
Megg says
Currently experiencing a joy of home ownership issue, random water marks are showing up on one wall of our unfinished section of our basement, and the first basement guy was only able to confirm that it’s not a pipe leak. Second basement guy is coming tonight, and hopefully will provide more insight!
Lensey says
Oh boy, my parents had a similar plumbing issue; however, their issue came after an upstairs bathroom remodel. They re-tiled and updated the jack-and-jill bathroom upstairs which happens to sit right over their master bath. Somehow, the plumbing was not connected properly in that job, and a few months later they noticed a “water leak” in the ceiling. Turns out it wasn’t only water.. and it wasn’t only in the ceiling. Long story shorter- they are in the process of ripping out their master bath. Mom’s happy because she gets a new bathroom… Dad and his wallet are crying inside.
jennifer r says
That pic of John and Burger made me laugh so hard – it looks like John is a little bird in a nest on the floor. So weird!
Our house is 30 year old two story that we just bought in Nov 2012. So far so good except a few issues with the HVAC. It is looking increasingly likely that we will be dropping a cool $3K or so in the next few years on a new unit. Luckily we have a good friend in the business so it’s much cheaper than it would be.
In some ways, fixing these things just makes me feel like an official adult. Like “yeah, I can take care of this!” That makes me crazy.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! Taking care of bid-ness. Adult-style.
xo
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Julie says
I just went through this with my upstairs master bath. It was “raining” on my Christmas tree but thankfully it was bath water ;) The whole hole in the ceiling to fix the plumbing is rather scary… and right before Christmas! Acck! Luckily I have a great all in one plumber/remodel guy to handle the whole job. oh the joys of two story home ownership!
Annette says
My man is a construction engineer. He works on big building sites, not single houses, but just judging the stories he tells, it’s pretty much a miracle that any building keeps standing upright…
So no, you’re not the only ones with problems.
erin says
I know this is wrong, but John’s post made me laugh so hard( which I really need today.) So, I’m sorry you had such a sh*tty experience, but thanks for the maybe-not-100%-intentional funny post.
Kelly G. says
I feel your pain.
*raises fist in solidarity*
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! Fists in the air, y’all!
xo
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Jackie says
Hi, sorry if you’ve already answered this, but I didn’t see it in the comments so thought I’d ask. What did you do with the hole in the tile flooring? Were you able to keep the tiles intact and replace?
We just moved into our first two-story home in July. I couldn’t even tell you how many crazy things we’ve found here already in the short 6 months we’ve lived here. All dumb fixes that the previous owner DIY’d himself which he had no clue what he was doing. The funniest thing we found (funny now, notsomuch at the time) was when replacing a ceiling fan that didn’t work in my 3 year old son’s new bedroom. When the hubs removed it, he found an orange extension cord dangling down from the attic. Our 1960’s home was not wired with any ceiling lights when built, but the previous owner “installed” them himself. By running extension cords in the attic and pulling them thru a hole in the ceiling. SO not safe. So not to code. And we can’t believe the inspector didn’t notice! You wouldn’t have believed the electrical nightmare that was going on in our attic. Glad we caught that disaster as soon as we did though. And SO SO glad my hubby knows so much about this stuff (he’s a carpenter by trade). Anyway, I should start a blog of all the crazy things we’ve found in this house so far because it would be hilarious to read. :) Oh, we also found extension cords running from the attic to the basement THROUGH THE LAUNDRY CHUTE! LOL.
Glad you’re bathroom situation is solved. Nice to have the peace of mind that it’s done and fixed CORRECTLY! :)
YoungHouseLove says
The floor tiles in the bathroom weren’t actually broken or removed, so that small hole you see is a regular plumbing hole that’s under any toilet (the wax ring and toilet sit on it). That pic was taken when the toilet was out and the old plumbing was removed, so it looks like a hole, but when the new plumbing was in and the toilet was put back down it was all good!
xo
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xo
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Mary a says
Hi so this may be an off topic question but are you guys planning to keep the same car when baby arrives? Would you think about trading in for something bigger or adding a second vehicle? I know you have always been proud of being a one car family but with two little ones it makes talking car seats out to lug suff around harder and might be a tight squeeze day to day! If it’s about being eco friendly many vans and SUVs are nowdays! Just wondering as I just bought a new sedan and am planing on starting a family with it as I don’t see how me my husband and a baby need and 8 seater van but if we have 2 I think I would go with something larger!
YoungHouseLove says
We’re definitely thinking about selling our current car and buying something with a little more space for kid stuff and car seats, but I think we’ll stick with one vehicle (just getting a little more room would be awesome). Not sure when we’ll make the upgrade though… we tend to find some great deals in Nov, so we might wait a while.
xo
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Peggy says
Interesting…. Our main floor toilet (bungalow with a full basement) occasionally inexplicably clogs too. And sometimes comes up in the tub or at least glubbing can be heard in the tub drain. Sometimes the tub will glub on its own when no one is even in the bathroom. Hmmmmm. Something for us to consider.
YoungHouseLove says
Good luck Peggy!
xo
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