A Good, Old Fashioned Disaster

See, when things go wrong, it is you housebloggers that I think about. A couple weeks back, we had a nasty cold snap. It was below 25 degrees for about a week here in Arkansas. My renter was good and left the faucets dripping, but when it's that cold and the house doesn't have real insulation, it just isn't enough sometimes. Oh, and the renter wasn't home when this happened.

They discovered it when the neighbors called because they were concerned about the lake in the yard.


Note, the builders of this gem of a house decked the floors with chip-board. On the upside, this probably saved the whole house from flooding. Once the floors in the bedrooms were ruined, the water drained straight through it and into the crawlspace.

Some of the tear out heaped in the carport.



Condensation on the ceiling from all that lovely moisture.

Oh, and did I mention that our insurance doesn't cover this kind of damage. Driving rain? Fire? Tornado? Yes. Burst pipe in the bathroom? No.

So, this is all out of pocket (and being documented for a monster tax write-off next year). So far, all new plumbing, new bathtub, new sub-floors (approximately 400-500 square feet), new carpet, new vinyl, new drywall, three new doors, and . . . counting.

On the upside, this should all be finished next week because I hired the whole bleeding mess out. See! I learned something!

But plumbing is still the Devil.

"I See Window Treatments"

After four years, it's finally happened, "I see window treatments." More importantly perhaps, we actually have some.

My mom was kind enough to make these for Gideon's room. Unfortunately, my lack of math skills and total ignorance of sewing prevented me from accurately estimating how much material we'd need to do both windows. I'll be heading back to the fabric store soon.

They look purple in the picture, but they actually are very dark blue in person.

And, as an extra bonus, I did some remedial caulking around the window trim before I hung the curtains. It's definately keeping the room warmer.

Breeze In My Bedroom

Here is the corner in question from the previous post. You can't tell in the picture, but the spider webs were flapping.

Funky

A couple of weeks ago, we had a very windy night. I was getting ready for bed when I noticed a spider web fluttering in the wind high up in the corner of the bedroom. That is right, the wind was fluttering something inside the house.

I'd originally planned to caulk, spray foam, et cetera the corners of the room before the appraisal, but we ran out of time. As always. And, even though we had insulation blown into the walls, this corner apparently did not receive the treatment. My guess is that the void between the wall studs is less than 16 inches wide, maybe as little 10 inches or so, and the insulation guy missed it. There are no exterior cracks in the corner. So, this probably means that even though Kenny blocked off the bottom of the wall voids before the insulation blowing, it probably isn't air-tight, and, when the wind blows hard enough, it funnels up from the crawlspace, up the wall, and out through the crack (If you want an explanation of Devil Queen air-flow, see this post). That would also explain why this room and only this room smells a little musty and funky when the weather warms up. Nothing says home like warm crawlspace funk with a touch of musty-in-the-walls.

Here is a half-ass diagram of the funky wind-chimney in the corner.

As you might imagine, plugging these cracks has moved near the top of my priority list.

Bay Window Room

These pictures were taken right after the appraisal. This is what the bay window room looked like before we dumped our storage room into it. A sure way to hide unsightly holes in the wall for an appraisal? Hang a picture!

People, Better than Zombies

This weekend my mom, Jack & Fidge, and Laura spent Sunday afternoon helping us paint our nefarious mistress' main hall, foyer, and Gideon's bedroom. I spent most of the day trying to finish off the prep work with my lovely wife's assistance.

Here is a hall wall before we scrubbed it down.

Again, closer.

And after a good scrub and de-tacking.

The first bit of priming. In case you are wondering, rollers worked like a charm on the wall boards.

A shot of the hall with two coats of primer on the wainscotting & trim and one coat of paint on the wall.

Again, with me lurking in the background.

Fidge at work in Gideon's room.

Some people keep skeletons in their closets, Gideon has a grandpa in his.

Gideon's room.

The cold I spent all of last week fighting came back with a vengence Saturaday. I'm just now starting to feel better albeit exhausted. I'll try post some more when my brain isn't cased in cotton.