Ow, 51 year old plumbing can hurt a gal….

Well, I know, I know, I've been missing from my blog for months but I knew it would "hang on" without me, but I'm back and boy, when I come back it's a doozy! I'll try and catch you up on some of all the rest of my life since my last post but this one had to be seen to be believed. I guess, really, it was inevitable but that doesn't mean it's not still truly shocking as well as truly expensive and truly a little overwhelming, but when you buy a house that was built in 1959 it's going to need new plumbing at some point in time and unfortunately, that time is NOW! It all started on the morning after the first day of Hurricane Season, when, in our neighborhood we had a small tornado hit but that's another post that I'll catch you up on next. The following morning, I awoke early to go to the restroom and heard a "hissing" sound in the walls and unfortunately it's a noise I've heard before and I almost instantly knew what it meant: we have another leak in the plumbing in the concrete slab of our house.

So, we called the plumber at 7:00 a.m. to run the scenario by him and after some turning on and off of the hot water heater, the shut off valve at the street, etc…we determined it was our hot water line again somewhere in the house and the plumber couldn't determine exactly where it was without bringing a jackhammer in the house and starting to drill up the foundation from in the house or start just cutting holes through random holes in the house. So, under our plumber's advice and after some soul searching and reviewing the financial costs, we bit the bullet for a total re-plumb of the house.

What you see next are images of the "aftermath" of the project: This is the guest bathroom before the drill and jackhammer…Love this original tile..

This is how it looks right now, the "after" or should I say "in between"

(before we get it fixed)

This is the carport, we had to cut a panel out of the wall and the ceiling to run the pipes into the kitchen. They did it this way so they didn't have

to mess up our kitchen that we had remodeled last year; yes, I would have cried if they would have had to pull out my cabinets or countertops. Thanks Wooten Plumbing for helping spare me on that one.

These are the pipes in the utility room that then run up into the roof to go across the house. The temperature in the roof today fluctuated between 120 and 130. Poor Derrick, I don't know how he does it. He's awesome!

I was so gld this didn't take up much space as I store a pile of junk in this utility room…

Next, let's take a look outside to see what the Ditch Witch did. They have to dig ditches around the house to get water to the city's waterline coming to the house and then run it to the outside spigots and the utility room which is under our carport. Take a peak.

This machine is unbelievable but will whip your tail! I thought I might try my hand at it and run it out to our utility shed to run power out there but it took 2 grown men all they had to maneuver this bad boy when they have to turn it around. It's unbelievable. I didn't take their pictures while they were running it as it was crazy hot out there then.

Oh, I forgot to show you what we found we pulled out the vanity in the bathroom. I was SO excited to know the original vintage 50s tile was under there.

 I'd love to restore it and I'm going to have the plumber bust out the new tile and see if I can save this. I'd love to but they're not sure I can do it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I love this gray mini tile. I have the same stuff in the master bathroom in beige and we were glad it didn't have to be touched in this process. What knucklehead covered up this awesome feature? It's a dirty project….

So, we've been without water for 2 days and thanks to dear, dear friends who let us use "their facilities" it hasn't been too bad. Oh, let's end this entry by sharing with you our temporary "loo"….You know, it could be worse. They haven't found any mold, no termites and our house is solid, you know, like rock solid. Check 'em out, you know you want some…

Well, this is a very tiring project and I've got to turn in to start tomorrow; thanks to this lovely "issue" with our home, I've missed two Saturdays of "treasure hunting": Oh, but they did find one awesome "treasure" up in our attic. It's an original sign from the builder who built this house in 1959.

I was so, so excited about this little treasure right in our own attic. So amazing, right?!

I'm going to contact this builder's son and email him this photo too as his son is still running a business here in construction and I think he'd love to see it.
Enjoy and talk to you later.