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?
So sorry about the leak! Lucky you didn't have more damage. I love checking your blog each morning while I have my coffee. Unfortunately, I think I had 4 or 5 pop up ads reading just this one post.
ugh what a bummer! but thankfully it didnt do too much damage. xo jillian – cornflake dreams
That's my worst nightmare, as something similar happened to our neighbor a few years ago. We lived in a three-unit building and the top floor owners were installing shelving in a closet and hit the sprinkler system line, which is pressurized. It took several minutes to locate and shutoff the main water supply for the house; they got it repaired quickly, but we heard water dripping in our walls for days (and we lived two floors below them). Good luck drying out.
Love that fireplace tile!
Yikes!! Was it caused by the installation of tv or was it always there?
Oh no! I hate to say it, but I am with your boys! I love having our TV above the fireplace mantle. While it would be fun to decorate, I enjoy the TV there more 🙂 I have had to give up brighter colors for paint and decor because my husband likes things that are muted or pastels 🙁 I did win with our red dining room though 🙂
I am so sad for you–the TV above the fireplace. 🙁 You will find many other areas to decorate I am sure! We moved into our tri-level 5 years ago (love it!) and the lower level had a neat little "built out" for the TV and some shelves. They did that to hide a pipe that sticks out in the room. The pipe that goes to the upstairs bath. My husband went to hook up all his electrical equipment and heard a noise…drip, drip, drip. The pipe was totally rusted out. Luckily, he heard that and didn't hook up anything and saved his equipment. We had to dismantle the shelves and rebuild. What was interesting was watching the plumber squeeze in behind the one foot deep opening to fix the pipe. And luckily they had sent out the skinniest guy!
So not fun. Praying it was an installer's fault and they have to eat the cost for that one! I am thankful my hubby is NOT for mounting a TV above the fireplace, for many reasons. The most obvious is that electronics and heat/fire/ash do not play well together. Secondly, in most case scenarios you have to look up (crook your neck) to watch the TV. Remember, your guys didn't want to watch at an angle. They still have one, just a different one. It does distort the picture you are looking at. And lastly, in some home it just looks architecturally wrong!! I know everyone is doing it, and to each his own. Just not for us. I love the tile surround you chose!!
I'm with you and would have loved, loved, loved to hide the TV – as a matter of fact, I spend many an hour gazing at the TV over our mantel, dreaming of ways to disguise it. Don't even get me started on the lost decorating space! Mind you, as much as I'm not a TV head, I do enjoy the few shows I do watch on the big screen and surround sound.. not that I'd admit to that.. 🙂
Oh no- I hate that for you, but I'm glad its being repaired before more damage occurred. Let's see, for the boys in my life, i have ceiling fans in our bedrooms. I dream of beautiful bedroom light fixtures, but my sweaty boys will hear nothing of it!
Well at least your have a little extra cash flow on hand compliments of our favorite, Nordstroms! That sponsored post came at just the right time! You go girlfriend!!! Haters will hate, but you deserve that money from your readers. People may think those sponsored posts look too staged, but it is hard work and you deserve that money, my friend!!!
xoxo
RCH
Oh boy! It's good there wasn't much water damage.
Oh boy! It's good there wasn't much water damage.
Oh my goodness I feel your pain. While I am not in a new house we are having issues with Ice Dams where we live and we have buckets in the living room collecting the water. There are bubbles of water forming in the walls and there is nothing we can do till the snow melts outside before repairs inside and out can start. Water issues are no fun. I am glad you found the problem and are able to get it fixed. Hope this will be the only issue and now you can enjoy the your home/ dust free.
Yikes!!! I'm sorry for what has happened to your home but thankful your contractor found the leak quickly!! Very random comment to your story!! I said exactly what you did when we got our overly large TV," I don't have to wear my glasses to see it anymore!" Trust me, WEAR YOUR GLASSES!!! In one year only, my vision was worse than ever b/c my eyes weren't correcting b/c I didn't wear my glasses to watch TV! Trust me..Don't!! You'll not like how fast your eyes become worse! Just my story & the year before our Big TV….I was able to~after years~I passed my Driver Eye Test to drive w/out glasses when I had to renew my license!!! I won't again, they are worse than ever….:0(!!
Oh how stressful! Thank goodness you guys found the leak. Do they know what caused that massive hole in the pipe (…cause it kind of looks like someone may have gotten a bit too excited with a drill at some point in time)? At least the fireplace is a beaut and your kitchen is awesome! When we were remodeling and all these fun "Oh shooooooooooot" moments happened (gotta love A Christmas Story), I just found myself a lovely glass of vino and repeated "Serenity now. Serenity now. Serenity Now!" And with respect to giving up on design elements for the husband – I have a massive 60" TV above my fireplace too. Joy! 🙂
I so feel your pain with this. I think these kids of disasters are just inevitable when you start doing remodeling work. So glad you didn't have too too much damage! But no fun, nonetheless. I LOVE your fireplace tile! It's so cool. And I love the rug in your kitchen shot – can you tell me where it's from?
OMG POOP WATER!! My biggest fear is putting something into the wall and hitting the poop water pipe!! In case you haven't already, soaking down everything with 2% bleach will kill all the nasties that have now invaded your walls and flooring.
Too bad about the TV over the fireplace, too. But, this means you can win in another decorating dilemma.
Oh my! I do have to say the TV looks nice mounted above and the tile is gorg. Hang in there girl!
Oh no! I guess that is part of renovating and getting settled in, glad the damage wasn't worse and hope you'll be back on track soon! In the meantime….that tile…..awesome!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, what a bummer! So glad you found it fairly early! Hopefully that will be the worst snafu you'll have to deal with!
Ohhhh…girl!! Always expect the unexpected I guess when doing any kind of renovations but goodness that was crazy. The cord to the fridge ice maker busted at our house once and because of the tilt of our house the water was going under the wall into our entry closet which had carpet….no telling how long it had been leaking when I started noticing water seeping through the laminate flooring. We weren't as lucky….it had already seeped so far and within days all you could see was all the warping. Bonus I got to replace the unloved laminate with beautiful new floors in 3/4 of my house!
Oy vey. I think you deserve a mambo taxi for dealing with all that.
HOW DID I NOT KNOW ANY OF THIS????? AWFUL! JUST AWFUL! But I love everything I see. 🙂
What?! So sucky. I am so so happy you all caught it before it got much much worse. Thank goodness for the little bubbles. Leaks are my biggest fear. We have had three over the years and have had to rip apart so much. I feel for ya. On a happy note, house is looking so pretty. Love seeing the front door from the kitchen.
Oh-Ma-Gawd. All I can think of is thank God it was your husband's fault and not yours, lol! Glad to hear things are on the mend. And from what I can see of the living room, it looks AMAZING 🙂
Oh my!!! I'm glad you found the problem before too much more time went on! I gotta admit, I never thought about this possibly happening. From now on whenever there's resistance while drilling into a wall even if I know it's a stud, there will be a minor freak out! The house is looking really nice, look forward to seeing what you do with it.
Luckily that mess was caught early! Thank goodness for your eye to detail, and your rockstar contractor! http://www.lovelylifeofliz.blogspot.com
The joys of remodeling, but so lucky that they caught it before it was everywhere! Your home looks amazing and can't wait to see the kitchen!!
Aww man!! So sorry that happened, but glad you got it taken care of before it became more devastating. We are in the process of reno & moving so I feel your pain of wanting it all done and cleaned up so we can prettify all the spaces!!
Rosita the leather/two-person/rocker/recliner is THE SACRIFICE I am making for my guys–one of whom lives clear across the country, going to school, and is demanding that I make room for her. "Mom, you CAN'T get rid of Rosita!"
#inserteyeroll
#IhateRosita
I knew something had to be off because I was anticipating yesterday's post! Glad everything is better and I can hardly wait to see the new house! ;-))))
I picked Hickory for my house too. I think you got the same or very close to what I got, its so pretty. Sorry you had such a mess, but luckily it was caught early on.
I picked Hickory for my house too. I think you got the same or very close to what I got, its so pretty. Sorry you had such a mess, but luckily it was caught early on.
AH MAN! I was gripping my mouse this entire post. I'm so sorry this happened to you! I am also shocked the damage wasn't worse. Luckily you caught it early(ish)!
Hi again Cassie. Oh man alive you poor sweetie having to deal with a leak as described. If I'm honest it's my top worst nightmare….drilling though a wall & hitting a water pipe! My hubs (bless him for all his attributes but DIY is sadly not one of them) so we wouldn't have any useful tools like those machines that can detect metal behind a stud wall. And god help me I'm just waiting for the day when I drill through one! I'm crying into my vino blanco at the very thought of it! But I'm glad you sorted it, sometimes they can be such a small leak it takes ages for the water to come out, you were so lucky you're damage wasn't the whole floor! Eeek. Even so I'm sure your nerves are totally stretched. I hope the house dramas settle and you get to enjoy the beautiful space you have been dreaming it would be. Bless you all. x Martina
Oh My Goodness. I cant even imagine. I would've been a hot mess. Thankfully you were able to fix it early on. When we moved my wife also insisted on a rediculously big TV and since she also insists on sitting directly across from it she nixed my idea of mounting it so we could have more seating options. Im like the darned thing is so big you can see it from the back of the house…does it matter if the sofa isnt right across from it! Your tile is gorgeous:)