Kitchen - Plumbers again . . . electricians too

It felt like a construction zone today.  The electricians showed up to wire the kitchen and the plumbers were working the same area putting in the new sewer pipe.  I made sure everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing and went off to play pickleball.  Nothing for me to do here except supervise, which no-one needed or wanted.

Richie and Homey finished up the new sewer pipe and left me a trench to fill with concrete and the washer and dryer to be put back.  

Here's the old wiring.  One circuit for the whole kitchen.  Four switches at the door and only one worked.  It just goes to show you how modern we've become with about 6 circuits.  It's always amazing to me that it worked and we didn't have any real issues. 





Here's the new wiring in the next three photos.  Not much to look at, but the outlets are "laser" leveled so they look nice and straight in the end.  The rough-in boxes are well secured.  Wires come through the block and then out to the boxes.  They cleaned up after themselves.   Groves Electric did a very nice job and they're located just down the street from us.  I must admit that it seemed a little expensive - $4100.  But they had 2 to 4 guys working on it from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and finished in one day.  I was a bit horrified, but ML said it was time for me to buck up and hire it rather than doing it ourselves.  I think she was right.

This two pictures were taken a few days later - the new blocking and low voltage wiring is in.

Leaking sewer gas Fixtime!

After Pete the Leak Tracker found our sewer gas problems, which happened to be just under the garage cement slab, Alpaugh Plumbing arrived to solve the problem - jackhammer in hand.  I explained to Richie and Homey that it was their lucky day, since half of it was under the kitchen floor.  I can tell you that it's a long crawl under the slab from the crawlspace opening to under the kitchen, so they were pretty pleased they could just lift the plywood and get to the sink sewer pipe. 

Not a great picture, but here's what they found.  I don't know how anything drained from the kitchen sink anyway with a pipe full of junk!  And that wasn't even the problem!

 


I see I have nothing to indicate a scale for this picture.  You can see the step from the kitchen door to the garage on the bottom left.  At the top is the folding doors into the "laundry" room.  I would guess it is about 6 feet in the picture and then it goes on another 5 feet to the back laundry wall.

There's a pile of sand on the right side of the trench ready to be put back after the new pipe goes in.

Since it was the same work area, I didn't get anything done!  We couldn't even wash clothes!

Kitchen - Final tearout and Bagster Arrives!

Hannah is off to NYC.  Time to tear out the rest of the old kitchen.



 The oven cabinet is almost gone.  The nice pink tile of the countertops is bedded in a thick layer of mortar - as is the pink tile backsplash.  Very retro, but I don't feel too bad about getting rid of it. 

The tile is almost all gone except for just below the window.   I still have to break out the one inch "concrete board" and the layer of mortar on top of that.  It's not hard to remove at that stage, but it's dusty, gritty, and dirty.

Bagster is here just in time.  Louis didn't mind if we packed up our bag as high as it would go.  Plus, he dragged it out the driveway far enough to lift it with the crane.  Nice operation and Louis was great.  Bagster cost us $30 for the bag and $119 to get it picked up.  In general, not a bad deal and easy to deal with.  Louis told us we could get the bag at Amazon for $24.  Good tip.


Now we have a kitchen with nothing but bare walls and half a floor.  Hmmm.

Break Time - Visit and Palm Island

Hannah is in the Columbia School of Social Work Masters Program and she had a long weekend.  We cashed in some Delta miles and brought her down for a visit.

On Monday we hooked up the boat and went down to Palm Island, about a two hour drive.  Bob and Glenda were staying there. 

There's an expensive little ferry to get on the island so the rif-raf stays away.  It didn't keep us away - we just hand loaded the trailer on the ferry and Bob picked us up with the golf cart!

Hannah took advantage of the pool "environment" at the "cottage."  Nice.  She actually did some school reading.  Now that's self-discipline.

We took off to the beach for some shelling - or more accurately collecting shark's teeth - of which there are numerous.  Even I found one.

When ML and I walked back to the cottage, the bridge railing was hand painted!  Now that's class.

It reminds me of the time a friend and teacher of mine, Mr. Short, showed me a newsletter from a retirement community that he was considering.  They had a nice little article about waxing the stop signs . .  .








Bob and Dwight (a friend) get a little late afternoon gentle breeze.  Cute, huh?

Kitchen Remodel #7

Time to get serious before Hannah gets here.

First, decision time.  Part of the fun and hassle of remodeling is all the decisions.  The work is easy.  ML and I decide it's crunchtime and we need to make some decisions on what plumbing reparis we're going to pay for, whether we're going to pay someone else to do the rough-in electrical, and what we're going to order for a stove hood and flooring.  ML tackles the stove hood and flooring.  More on this process later!

First, another trip to Home Depot for the plumbing supplies that I think I'll need.  Back home again, I pried up the next 4 foot by 12 foot section of 1X6 inch subfloor.   I also figured how far back I was going to have to move the "closet" wall to accommodate the new location of the refrigerator.  I wanted to install the water connection for the frig water and ice maker while I was plumbing.

I cut a hole in the wall big enough to drill a hole through the plate and subfloor and accommodate the "fixture."  The wall where the sheet rock is cut out on the right will be removed and moved back 7 inches after Hannah departs.

Pipes can look rotten and not be, but you don't really know.  Water is expensive in Tampa and we don't really want to owe for thousands of gallons when a pipe bursts while we were away for the weekend.  Time to fix part of the problem, which is to replace the pipe leading to the right in the picture.  It goes to the kitchen sink.

There are so many things that I don't know, it amazes me.  I start to tie the white pipe into the tan pipe (which is the main supply) and it wouldn't fit into the fittings I had!!!  OH NO, Hannah is coming in 3 hours and we won't have any water!!!  Panic!!!

I brush off dirty sand as best I can, cut a small section of both pipes, and rush over to the hardware store where I can ask someone.  "Oh, you need hot water fittings . .  .  they're slightly different in diameter."  All I'm thinking is "WHEW, I won't have to call a plumber for an emergency at 4 p.m. on Friday night."

Ten minutes later after I get back to the house, we're glued in and I turn on the water.  Miracles occur anytime - no leaks.

With 12 feet of plywood screwed temporarily, the skeletons are safely in the sand beneath us and we're ready for Hannah. 

Kitchen Remodel #6 - Sewer Gas News

The plumber shows up for an estimate.  Pete was right.  $2380, not including a 15 foot long by 18" wide gap in the garage concrete floor that I'll have to fix.   OK, do it - but not until Hannah's visit this weekend.  Quite a Valentine's Day surprise.

Back to the kitchen.  Talking about plumbing, in our house "inspection report," it was recommended that we replace the kitchen sink pipes.  It's easy to do, but you have to crawl 30 feet in the crawl space which I don't mind doing once in a while.  But hauling all the pipe and gear and forgetting something at least 5 times was not on my "to do" list.

Although the 1" by 6" diagonal flooring was in decent shape, it squeaked fairly badly and the floor could not be called flat.  I decided to take it up, fix the plumbing, and lay down some plywood.

I cut along the walls with skilsaw or sawsall and pried up with my new best friends, two, two foot crowbars.  It was pretty easy going. 

Pretty much right away, I looked down into the crawlspace under the floor and there was a possum skeleton.  That must have smelled good.

I wondered what I had crawled through the 3 or 4 times I had wandered through the crawlspace checking one or another thing out.

Doesn't look like much, but it's a start.  Plus, I had to go to Home Depot to get the plywood, so I have some excuse. 

PETE the LEAK TRACKER!!

Time out from the kitchen, although not really . .  .

Since we bought this house a couple of years ago, we smelled sewer off and on.  It wasn't ever consistent and often coincided with an offensive odor outside.  So we suffered for a couple or three years.

But, a couple weeks ago, ML was wandering by our neighbor and saw water coming down the sidewalk.  They called the plumber, who looked at it and said: "You'll need Pete the Leak Tracker!"

They were at work, so we volunteered to meet Pete at the house.  He was amazing.  He gets out his air compressor and attaches it to the water system.  He gets out some listening device.  Finally, after goofing around awhile, he says, "It's right here."  He gets out his mini-jackhammer and goes at it awhile.  Then he says, "Yep, that's where.  Call the plumber.  Tell him he'll need a 60 pound jackhammer."

A day later and we meet the plumber.  He showed us the leak right where Pete said it was.

Meanwhile, we talked to Pete about our sewer leak.  He said, "You just need a smoke test.  Let me know if you want one.  It'll cost $250.

A week later, we gave in and called Pete.  Of course, the only day he could come, Bob and Glenda were going to be there.  But they're flexible.  He shows up and walks around the house.  His helper gets up on the roof, stuffs a rag in all the air vents but one, and uses a bucket, a smoke bomb, and the top of a shop vac to force smoke into the plumbing pipes.  Pete checked all the pipes.  He says, "I just saw a few tiny leaks - they're probably not what you're smelling but it could be.  I'm going to check that other vent stack just in case."

A few minutes later, we looked into the kitchen from the porch and it was absolutely filled with smoke.  Pete says, "We found it!  It's a rotten pipe just as it goes under the garage concrete slab.  It's gonna cost you!"

$250 lighter, we thanked Pete and off he went.  Clearly, this will be continued!