Day Five: The Forest is Officially Gone!!!

Dad and I met back up at the house again today to tackle a few projects.  I was hoping to have a plumber come out to turn the water on, and he still had a small electrical project to tackle.  "Small."  ha!  We should know better by now.

But first!  The tree trimming company showed up before me!  Dad had arrived a bit before 9:00 this morning, and I was showing right on time, and he let me know that the tree guys were there!  Woo hoo!!!  I was hoping they would take all of the wood in the back since we added to it, and what I witnessed was just a wonderful crew at work.

I take pride in what I do.  I was raised that a man's name is on his work.  Whatever you do, your name is attached.  So I seek to the the right thing even when it's hard.  Well, this company showed up, and the crew went straight to work.  He chose to stay on the street rather than back up to the pile in the backyard (I was not expecting that at all).  But he said his truck would hit my front tree, and he didn't want to do any damage.  With the neighbor's yard being used if he DID drive through it, I was quite happy with his decision!

And I watched four hard-working workers walk back and forth from the street to the backyard, hauling brush and branches with every pass.  It was work!  But Dad and I watched as they cleared out the yard, branch by branch.  We tried to wonder how much it was costing me per branch ($1 a branch?!), but regardless, they had that backyard cleared out of large branches in about 30 minutes.  Of course, I wondered if they would clean up the yard, and I have nothing but good things to say about their work.  They literally worked WITH each other, one guy raking, the other guy scooping up every leaf and twig into a trashcan!

I mean, they were METICULOUS!  I took such joy out of watching them work.  THIS is how crews should be!  THIS is how teamwork should be!  THIS is how professionalism should be!  They had my yard in tip-top shape in about 45 minutes!  The good news is that the branches and brush are now 100% gone!!!  What a great feeling!!!  It came a day later than expected, but what a great feeling!

I paid the gentleman his $200, and I commented on the work ethic of his crew.  I know when to call someone out on a job well-done.  "And, sir, your workers did an absolutely wonderful job of cleaning up the yard.  THANK YOU."

With the branches gone, Dad and I were able to clean up the rest of the yard now.  You could walk in the backyard!!!  We actually found quite a bit of surprise stumps and volunteer trees in the fenceline and around the deck.  They were now more visible with all of the branches gone.  But some of them were so big that I had to get the chainsaw back out!!!  I cleared off several more little stumps!  This backyard was just untouched!

Looking in from the gate.  The branches are gone!  Hopefully grass will grow here now that this area can receive sun for the first time in years!

This deck will be super cute!  Small yet totally functional.  AND the sun now shines on it!  Just needs power-washed and stained!

The branches are gone!  The deck is visible!  The Japanese Maple is beautiful!

It's nice to look out and see no branches hanging over the deck.

With the stumps all removed, I mowed the yard!  The house is now going to become a home!  The wild yard is going to be tamed!

The yard is mowed!

We also noticed a ridiculous amount of untouched growth between the two fence lines with a neighbor.  A push mower fits quite easily between the two fences (just two passes), but it was obvious neither owner cared.  The poison ivy, volunteer trees, and weeds had grown so out of control that it was now impassable.  So we chopped down the trees in both fences and mowed the little strip.  C'mon, humans!  It's not THAT hard to have a beautiful yard!

Hopefully the tenant carries on the pride in keeping a decent yard.

With the yard wrapped up (and what a difference from a week ago!), we started to head back inside.  But not before we got a little bold.  My plumber was not able to show up today, so Dad and I took it upon ourselves to turn on the water to the house.  I showed Dad the large area in the crawlspace that I had seen when I did the initial walk-through that I thought would have a huge leak from the main line.  I then figured that the house had not been winterized right away, so I would probably have frozen pipes elsewhere.  I budgeted $2000 for the plumbing repairs in the home.

We opened up the manhole cover (oddly enough with the specialized tool found in the bushes of the front yard!).  I will be keeping that!  And wouldn't you know it, the arrow pointed to the house...right inline with the pipe.  I could scarce believe my eyes!  "Dad, the water is already on!!!"  I had him verify, but sure enough, the water was already on to the house.  Wait a second!  This meant that my huge fear of the main line being broken was...unfounded!!!  This meant that the main supply line was working!

I found the water shut-off valve in the house (at the crawlspace entrance) and slowly turned it on.  We had already done our walk-through to make sure that all of my plumbing shut-off valves were in the closed position.  I turned the water on.  The water pressurized, then seemed to stop.  Excellent!

Well, mostly.  As we navigated the house for leaks (bathroom ok, second bathroom ok, kitchen faucet ok!), I heard a sound.  Hmm.  Where?  I traced it down to the bottom of the dishwasher.  Agh!!!  I had had a previous experience very similar to this with the house in Rochester.  I took off the bottom cover, and sure enough, water was just pouring out the bottom of the dishwasher.  I quickly ran and turned off the water to the whole house.

Upon further verification, I traced the leak down to the inlet valve.  I was hoping it just needed a new washer.  Unfortunately, this afternoon after grabbing a new washer, I would learn that the supply was good, but the inlet valve itself was completely cracked.  I couldn't see the crack since it was behind the mounting plate, but once I removed the valve from the plate, it was instantly obvious.  It likely froze in the winter.  I this identical situation with a previous home, too!  When turned on, the water leaked from there.  But wow, did it leak!  It was like turning on a hose!  We had a mess to sop up.

But the rest of the house was holding the water fine!  And since the dishwasher had its own cut-off valve, I was able to leave the water on!  What a tremendous feeling!!!  The rest of the house was good to go!  I was ecstatic!  Especially after prepping for $2000 in plumbing repairs, I was just simply ecstatic!  Here's to hoping it's a simple $30 inlet valve fix!

I was hoping this supply line just needed a new washer.  Unfortunately, the entire inlet valve was cracked through the plastic.  A $30 fix (hopefully).

Well, the rest of the day was not so enjoyable.  Dad had a very small wiring job.  The light above the kitchen sink did not work.  We learned that the previous owner had a bar light there.  Once that stopped working, he/she simply hung a lamp fixture to the bar light.  Literally.  Tied a knot with the cord.  They then strung that plug-in down to the receptacle.  Rigging at its best.

The old bar light now had a lamp fixture tied to it.  Unbelievable.

It simply amazes me just what people do in a house.

It was obvious the previous owner didn't understand electricity, either.  This was their way of grounding the Romex wire.  Just screw it into wood, right?!

So Dad and I were simply going to change out those two fixtures for a new one.  Project complete in about 20 minutes.  Or so we thought.

Well, as I dismantled the two lights, I quickly learned that something was askew.  The Romex wire coming out of the wall above the sink was taped up.  And I mean taped up.  About 8 inches of tape.  And it had a protrustion.  I knew instantly what that meant.  The wire to the light was cut short, so instead of running new, they just added 8 inches of extension to the wire.  Breaking electrical code.  Against my Dad's work ethic.  And against mine, as well.  We had to replace it.

So the question we faced was...does the wire pull easily?  Could we tie a new wire onto the old wire and pull it through the wall?  The answer was a resounding no!  The wire wouldn't budge.  It almost felt as if it were stapled into the studs.  We have faced that problem before.

So to see if we had at least a LITTLE bit of hope, I climbed up into the sultry attic.  Sure enough, I found the wire that came up from the switch and that went to the fixture.  The problem was that neither budged.  At all.  The wire was stapled to the studs!

Also, it was probably 130 degrees in the attic.

Well, we needed parts, so we headed into town to get parts for the electrical project and for the dishwasher.  We used that as a time to break for lunch.

Once back at the house, we formed a plan.  Because we couldn't run new Romex through the walls easily, we would mount a junction box up in the attic.  I would then take the old wire from the switch to the junction box.  I would then take a new wire from the junction box and feed it down through the studs and out the wall to the fixture.  Feeding this new wire proved very tricky, but we finally succeeded.

Dad then mounted a slick, new recessed light above the sink, and voila!  We had a new fixture!  I bought another LED light, and it provided a great light over the sink.  The whole story is fairly short, but it was a royal pain!  That tiny little 20-minute project took us a few hours (with travel, buying parts, etc.)!!!  And it was HOT in that attic!  I was only up there for 15 minutes for the last install (I was up there a couple of times before that to get a gameplan), but that was plenty long.  You could easily get in a world of hurt in that heat.  Pretty unsafe.

But we had a light!!!

The problematic install was finally complete.  A very nice recessed light which puts out a great deal of light above the sink.

This afternoon I also found the reason for the clog in the Master Bathroom tub.  Mom had tried to clean up the stains in the tub earlier in the week, but she couldn't get the bath tub to drain after she filled it with water.  The following day, however, the water was gone.  So it drained SLOWLY.  Very slowly.  Well, I couldn't stick a drain clog removal tool down the drain itself, so I decided to take off the plunger and pull the drain block out to see if we could figure out what was causing the blockage.

My, oh, my.  Words just can't describe what I saw really.  I literally pulled out ONE FOOT of hair blockage!!!  As for how it was between the drain lever and the drain itself is beyond me.  I don't know that I will ever figure that one out.  But I definitely found the blockage!  So gross!  I had purchased a new drain lever (the old one was broke), a drain hair cover (a novel idea), and a new drain linkage set.  But I figured if the hair was all removed, the old one was still in great shape and set to the proper depth.  So I ripped all of the old hair off and re-used the piece!

The mess of hair after I pulled out the blockage from the drain lever.

The foot-long clog!  So gross!

Literally a foot of hair!!!

Before...

And After!

The tub drains perfectly now!  This house just had no maintenance!

We also tried to set the closet doors in the bedrooms back in place.  This was a $666 repair from the contractor that I was elated to be able to complete ourselves.  I still need more parts, as a couple of the doors are kind of falling apart at the hardware areas, but the job looks manageable.  Hopefully I can have those doors fixed for less than $10!  One of the doors in the smaller bedrooms is completely missing, though.  So I will have the contractor replace that.

We found the closet doors!  This saves me $222.

Unfortunately, the other two doors need some work where the hardware mounts.  But it's doable.  I'll save $444 by being able to use these two closet door sets!

Dad was understandably ready to call it a day after the light fixture since we had had a very laborious week!  But quite a tremendously productive week!  He needed to head home to take care of his OWN home (mowing and tilling).  But what a week!  The house is taking shape!  Most of the rest of the jobs are going to be handed over to a contractor (paint, floors, bathroom remodels).  I really feel like I am over the hump!  And that is AMAZING considering we are only five days into the "flip!"

Before he left, though, I had him to a simple fix to a broken receptacle I had found.  He is good!

The broken receptacle in a bedroom.  A quick fix.

Because I wanted to get some more work done, I pulled out the power washer and power-washed the front of the house.  I was only going to do the front sidewalk area, but I saw instant results, and it's hard to stop.  So I did the front walkway, the front porch, and the entire front windows!  I did the gutters, too.  I wanted to keep going around to do the north side of the house (so much algae there), but I was ready to call it a week, too.  Besides, there is always tomorrow!

The algae by the front sidewalk.

The algae is gone!

The entryway Before...

More clean and welcoming!  No more algae!

The gutters cleaned up nicely, too!  Notice the left (before) and right (after!).

Before and After in one picture!

I started on the north side of the house but was ready to call it a day myself.  Tomorrow is another day!

So I called it a day.  But another great day.  The electrical is basically wrapped up outside of installing the new light fixtures when the painters are done.  This house is going to be beautiful!

Aggghhhh!!!  I was called at 7:40 P.M. this evening to be advised of a trip I have tomorrow.  I have been working on-call this week without getting called, but I wasn't ready for such short notice!  Tomorrow is definitely off as far as the house goes!  Back to the OTHER work reality!