I need to vent. I'm sorry.
I love my house. The location. The age. The style. I love it. But, being over 100 years old its falling apart. It should... its old.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
Its been in my husbands family since the twenties. Perhaps longer than that. His grandmother lived in it when she was a child, his parents lived in it when they first got together and now my husband is starting a family in it.
Its got my dream front porch, a huge oak tree in the front yard, a nice large back yard with a creek running along it. We have plans to build a green house, a small barn, and a pond, along with a new detached garage/storage. All after we fix up the house.
We first moved in November of '08.
It was infested with cockroaches, spiders, and mice. By December, we were roach and mice free.
SPOILERS! (Click to view) Also, in December, we started remodeling our bathroom. It was about 7ft wide and 12ft long, with only a toilet and an old cast-iron tub. The walls were originally wood, but the tenants before put styrofoam sheets up. The wood was rotted, almost completely. The floor, which also was wood was covered in, which hopefully, dirt left a terrible smell.
Now we have a gorgeous bathroom.
SPOILERS! (Click to view) Three times as large with a shower, sink, toilet, two windows, even a closet. My husband is amazing.
When the bathroom was being done we also had noticed our foundation. We have sort of a basement (deep enough to walk upright) One of the cement "walls" is leaning almost touching the opposite wall. Wood beams... of course rotting. So we replaced the wood as best as we could.
2009 was a long and busy year which left nothing much done to remodeling our home. We had a wedding and many funerals to attend.
Our next project... a kitchen. We started this right after the bathroom but because of our busy 2009 still haven't done anything besides tear down a wall.
So anyway.
Our sewer pipe goes out to the city and like our house, its just as old. Its made of clay. Yes.... clay.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)The genius who put it in decided to plant the big oak tree right on top of it. As it grew, the roots made their way into the clay pipe leaving our bathroom unusable. Along with our kitchen and laundry room. It took a week to hand dig a 75ft long trench, with the deepest part being about 4 feet. It wouldn't have been so bad if the roots weren't as big around as a small soccer ball.
The brand new pipe took about a day to put in. We wanted to wait to cover it just to make sure nothing leaked.
Bad idea....
SPOILERS! (Click to view) This storm thats been coming down hard this week has made the pipe rise our of the trench and bend
We couldn't use any water otherwise it would just plug up and come out of the toilet and shower.
And because of all this rain our "basement" is completely flooded.
SPOILERS! (Click to view) If you were to go under the house... you'd have to swim and unless you're 7 feet tall, you wouldn't be able to touch the ground. The wood we replaced... ruined..
My father-n-law brought up the fact that because the bathroom foundation is in the most open part of the basement... it could collapse.
So the bathroom we just redid could be short lived.
During the first storm of the season, back in October, left us freezing.
SPOILERS! (Click to view) Like this time, the basement was flooded. We have a floor furnace that goes under the house so if its flooded under there... the heater gets wet. The electronics go out. Because our furnace is over 80 years old the parts have been well discontinued and finding the things we need is hard. It took me weeks to get my hands on the right gas valve.
Just like then, we need it again. We're left with a 40 degree home.
So to recap and make this long story short.
This storm has flooded our 7 feet high basement, which also ruined our 80 year old heat/furnace that we JUST fixed and the new sewer pipe we layed has risen over the trench pushing all the nasties back into our toilet and shower.
I love this house... but PLEASE.... stop making it so hard on us.
I wish you the best of luck with things.