Oh man, I was so excited for this week’s Kitchen Renovation update! I had hoped to share the new drawer fronts in place, with the shiny new hardware. Not to mention, a gorgeous new faucet, a mounted dishwasher, and perfectly aligned pendant lights. But alas, we had another hiccup that dashed those dreams.
Well actually, last week’s problem was a hiccup…this new speed bump was full blown projectile vomiting. Keep in mind we’ve only been in the house two weeks and are just now digging out of boxes. Here’s a peek from the Kitchen, looking towards the front door.
Things are starting to pull together, right?! Gorgeous new floors, updated wall color, photobombing pup…it looks like real people actually live here. But look a bit closer, and you’ll see the bubble that popped up in the floor last week.
Let me back up a bit in this story…lay some very important and relevant groundwork. The main family room in this house has a great corner cabinet, with pull-out shelf for the TV, and doors that hide it, as well as all the components. ‘Perfect!’ I declared. ‘No way!’ insisted the boys (Mr. SP and the teen).
You see, apparently it’s unacceptable to have your TV on an angle. According to them, you must sit directly in front of it, with the sound pointed right at you. #majoreyerollingonmypart They wanted to mount the TV on a side wall, but that would put the fireplace at our backs…so we ‘compromised’ by mounting it above the mantel. And with it went one of my favorite places to style.
Of course our old TV was too small in proportion to the new fireplace, so not only is the new TV unnecessarily in broad sight, but it’s obnoxiously large. Awesome. Once it was mounted, with all the cords wired through the wall, the boys pounded their chests and grunted happy sounds. I rolled my eyes. (But was secretly pretty excited to be able to watch TV without my glasses!)
Now we’ll fast-forward to last week…when the bubble appeared. I immediately called Lumber Liquidators and they insisted that shouldn’t happen, and said they’d send someone out the next day. And by the next day, two more bubbles had appeared and I was ready to read them the riot act. After all, this was nothing of our doing!
But as they started cutting out boards (a tedious process since they are snapped together and glued down!), it became clear the flooring wasn’t the problem. ‘You have a leak, ma’am’ they said. ‘That’s impossible,’ I replied, ‘there’s no plumbing in the fireplace wall!’
Shows what I know.
I smiled politely at them, and breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn’t gotten on my soapbox yet! Once they left (it was no longer their problem), water began to seep under the wall and I started to panic. Fortunately, Mr. Rockstar-Contractor was able to come over that afternoon, and after taking one look, he said, ‘We’ve got to open up that wall!’ That’s not something you ever want to hear, especially as a new homeowner!
My beautiful new floors…my freshly painted walls! And just when I was starting to get the house clean from construction dust!!! #waaaahhhhh #Iwantmymommy
The wall separates the family room from the living room, and houses the fireplace box…and apparently a plumbing pipe. That just so happened to be on the other side of the fireplace.
And so we opened up another wall. Awesome. Fortunately the leak was so visible he knew exactly where to cut. That’s right…between the precious new TV and the cabinet where the cords were routed!
Oh lookie there, a big ole hole…drilled right through the pipe. The plumbing pipe connected to one of the upstairs bathrooms! For grins, our contractor had my son flush the upstairs toilet, and we all watched in horror as water poured out the holes.
And that is what’s been happening, with every shower, toilet flush, and teeth-brushing, for the last two weeks! It’s amazing we have so little damage, actually! This very high-tech system of a box fan has been helping to dry things out for the last five days.
The pipe was repaired and the wall patched back on, as well. Once everything is dry, they’ll come repair the walls, and replace the warped baseboards. So needless to say, not much else happened in the way of progress last week. There’s got to be some kind of moral to this story, don’t you think?! Well, definitely a lesson learned…fireplace walls do contain plumbing! And men will do anything for their TV!
And just so I can add a little pretty to this post, here’s a peek at the new fireplace tile. While the boys are staring at the TV, I’m gazing at the tile.
The Kitchen drawer fronts and hardware are back on, and I’ve been trying out some rug options. The backsplash is so dominant, I’m having trouble deciding what kind of pattern to use.
And a fabulous faucet has been ordered…so hopefully the next Kitchen update will be the last!
Tell me, what sacrifices have you made for the guys in your house?
