Day One--Closing and Water On...Then Off!!!

Well, it's official!!!  I am the proud owner of a new house!!!  I closed at 11:00 A.M. this morning, and my truck was FULL of repair items for the house!  I loaded up all my tools and items purchased from last week, headed to closing, then back home to pick up some more tools, then headed for the house.

Today's goal was simple:  Turn the water on, and make sure I had no leaks!!!  AND finish the master bathroom (lay linoleum, change showerhead, grout cracked lines).

I had an appointment at 2:00 P.M. with the Public Works guy, so I started tackling the bathroom.  I removed the toilet (they are SO heavy by yourself!).  I made an awful mess on the floor and carpet trying to carry out the toilet by myself...it was really bad!  So I had to clean that mess up.  The flange and floor was a little bit worse off than I had expected, and I also didn't like the slow-leaking shut-off valve, so I decided to replace that, too.

I then started tackling those ugly yellow-porcelain tiles in my master bath.  I was happy to find that they came up fairly easy.  It just required the old-fashioned method:  hammer and chisel.



The yellow tiles just had to go!!!

Tedious but methodical work.  The ol'-fashioned hammer, chisel, and patience.

Thankfully, the tiles were coming up fairly easily.

Somewhere in all the mess, the Public Works guy showed up.  He slowly turned on the water, and I heard a waterfall somewhere in the house.  I had turned off what I thought was EVERYTHING.  Turned out I forgot about the washer and dryer valves.  AGH!!!  I had two water lines spraying in!  It was pretty bad.  After I closed those, we still had water running...I found a leaky toilet, so I shut that line off.  Still water.  I tracked it down to the water heater filling up.  After it was full, though, we still had water!  I tracked it down again to my dishwasher inlet valve shooting water all over under the dishwasher (those ALWAYS break on foreclosures).  After I shut that off, I still had water moving!  And we couldn't find it.

We looked outside, inside, outside, inside.  And then during my mad rush through the house, I found it:  I stepped right in a massive puddle in the kitchen!  AGH, THE ICEMAKER LINE!!!  It was amazing just how much this was kicking out.  I had water ALL OVER the kitchen floor.  sigh.

That little item ended up being quite a bit of work!  The shut-off valve in the crawlspace was so corroded that it was worthless, so I decided to cap it.  Well, that cap didn't work (it was leaking before the outlet!).  So I decided to just buy a replacement crimp for leaks.  That didn't work, either!  After a couple of hours, the public works guy had to go, so I had him just turn the water off again.  This was NOT how my day was supposed to go!!!

I finally bought another icemaker line and tried to line up the puncture hole on the copper line with the needle on the new one.  I was happy to learn that it worked!!!  I turned the water back on, and it didn't really move that much.  I still wasn't confident on leaving the house unattended with the water on, so I shut it back off, especially with the toilet valves pooling up little balls of water.  But I should be able to tackle those tomorrow and get the water on!

I met Dad at my house to load up the refrigerator and washer and dryer.  It's going to be nice to have my garage back again!

Dad stayed to change out the two-prong receptacles to GFCI-protected three-prong receptacles.  My entire house is wired in 1970...as in two-prong.  We are able to get two changed out on one circuit.  I counted the circuits:  16!  We also did 90% of another circuit, but I need to get 15-amp GFCI's instead of 20 for that one.  Needless to say, we have our work cut out for us on that project.  But then the house will be safe and updated!

A new GFCI receptacle!

A new 3-prong receptacle downstream of the new GFCI, so it's protected, too!

I went back to removing the bathroom tiles, and I was able to complete that project.  I also removed that toilet and vanity (I was not planning on the vanity) to get all of the tiles out.  I need to replace the shut-off valve in the master, too...it's so rusty.  I'm not sure if it will come out or not.

All in all, it was an ok day.  I did not get anywhere close to getting done what I wanted, but it's still a step in the right direction.  Tomorrow's goal is now to get the water on.  That should be very doable.  And then we'll start tackling projects from there!