A flood...

Way back April we started a bathroom renovation that still had not been completed.  Hubby just didn't have the time to do it, so we were going to hire a contractor to complete it as well as replace our kitchen flooring an counter tops.  We were waiting for the estimate and I was going to paint the bathroom before they installed the new shower and vanity.  I was done primer coat and this particular day I was going to paint the final coat, but somehow got distracted - happens alot around here!

Anyway, that night I stayed up a couple hours later than normal.  Just wasn't tired and got into a good show or movie or something.  Well when I finally decided to go to bed I walked into the kitchen and stepped in a big puddle of water.  What in the world?  A bunch of things happened very quickly...

Turn on a light
see a bunch of water
follow it to the laundry
no house or tv noise so now I hear water running - lots of water running!  
Grab towels to throw on the wet floor
Yell at sleeping hubby - "Honey! Honey wake up!  HONEY WAKE UP we have a flood!"
Turn laundry taps to off - still hear water running
Run to bathroom (which is the other side of the wall)
OH MY GOD!  The entire bathroom is flooded - there is a water fall coming out of the side of the wall where the drywall comes down to the shower base...
Hubby runs outside to turn off water, I don't know what to do so I grab camera and follow him...
He take photos and a video of the crawl space, I am too upset and do not take any pictures (but now the blogger in me really wishes I had taken some!)

Notice the short pipe directly to the left of the plastic. It is completely under water.  The plastic was there so when my dad and hubby were crawling around under there they would not have to crawl on the dirt.  It is supposed to be dry under there!  Here is the video...not even the lovely night sounds were calming to me at the moment!

Once the water was shut off, the huge flood in the bathroom mostly drained down the register and the shower drain.  I knew that we were in big trouble when I was mopping up the water at the edges, you could see that the floor under the laminate in the bedroom was wet.  We were able to mop up most of the water in the laundry and kitchen area and that was about all we could do until morning when we would call insurance.

In bed I suddenly realized that I was very thirsty but at that moment I wanted nothing more to do with water. My darling hubby then says "Well, look on the bright side."  To which I snarl "There IS no bright side" and I roll over and go to sleep!

The next morning we were already seeing damage.  The floor in our bedroom was expanding and pushing up the laminate so much that I could no longer close the door.

Hubby called our insurance and within two hours ServPro was there assessing the damage, then started to pull up the floors! What a mess!

They pulled up all the wet areas all the way down to the subfloor and left us with huge dryers and dehumidifiers that were with us for several days.  I hated those noisy things and they made it very very hot in our house.  Did I mention that this was the end of July when it is 50 thousand degrees outside!

Meanwhile, the kids thought it was a brand new adventure and were thrilled to have a big storm in the house...

And me, once I got over the initial shock and realized that I was getting new floors, well,  let's just say I was not quite as upset as I was.  I will never miss that kitchen flooring!  It was not exactly how I pictured a kitchen renovation, but I still got to say Goodbye old ugly floors!

New beds

In our move back to our house we changed rooms around.   When we were here before we were all in the two bedrooms upstairs, us in one room and all the kids in the other room.  Well now that they were a bit older we decided that we would take the much larger room downstairs and then the boys could have one room and Carlee could have the other.  We still do not have a spare room so we also decided that we would put Carlee in our old queen bed.  That way whenever we do have guests they would have a decent and comfortable place to sleep.

We bought twin beds for the boys and then I bought new bedding for all the beds and added the I spy quilts I made for them. I was thrilled with the sheet and comforter set for Carlee's bed - so cute! I think they all liked their new beds!!

Renovation Part 1

Here is a couple photos of the bathroom when we moved in.

Eventually I painted it...

However there were still many issues that needed to be fixed.  Painting the bathroom was a bit like putting a mini bandaid on a gaping wound.  There was a big hole in the flooring where they made the door frame bigger and the shower and vanity simply needed to be replaced.

At some point hubby & I were at Lowes and he spotted some corner shower units.  We figured that would sure make a huge difference in the layout of the bathroom and we could solve all of the big issues.  Only problem was that the whole wall would have to be removed and the shower plumbing would need to be moved to another wall, plus the shower drain would probably need to be moved as well.  Yikes!!!  That seemed to be too much to take on, and too expensive to hire a plumber to do all that work.

But then, my dad decided to come for a visit and I joked that he would be able to do the plumbing for the bathroom renovation.  The joke turned into a reality and he even brought some plumbing tools with him!

When he got here he had a good look at what I wanted to do and decided that it could be done.  The demolition began and so did the problems.  Of course problems are too be expected, but as they are happening sometimes it seems a bit much!  Here is the progress so far:

Step one: Tear down wall and remove shower. 
Problem:  Apparently the house was built around the shower because it was too big to fit through the door.  Hubby had to cut it into pieces.  Anyone want a used shower? slight damage, but real cheap LOL

Step two: Remove sink and toilet
Problem:  No major disasters!!  Well except the poor sink was chipped when a tool fell on it.

Step three: Remove old flooring and damaged subfloor
Problem:  When removing the section of subfloor from near the sink a pipe broke and we had a water fountain in the middle of the bathroom.  Now as much as I like water fountains I certainly did not include one in the plans for the renovation!
Bigger Problem:  The only main water shut off that we knew about was in the ground at the street.  Hubby ran out to turn it off and I soon saw him digging handfuls of dirt out of the hole.  I ran to help him and we soon discovered that the shut off valve had no handle.  CRAP!!  I ran back to the house to get a wrench and on my way I tripped over a Tonka truck and crashed into the edge of the carport cement.  OUCH OUCH.  Nothing serious just a big scape and bruise and a whole lot of whining.  Anyway, we got the water turned off and had enough plumbing parts to fix the pipe.  PHEW that was crazy!  We since have learned where the shut off valve is at the house.  Probably a good thing to know about prior to starting any work in the bathroom or kitchen!

Step Four: Replace Subfloor
Problem:  A tight fit means several trips back to the saw

Step Five: Move shower plumbing
Problem: Moen has the worst ever instructions I have ever seen in my life!  Still don't know if it will be right??
Bigger Problem: While the plumbing was being worked on we had the water turned off.  Then I discovered that the chicken we had defrosting in the fridge had leaked all over the bottom of the fridge.  YUCK.  I cleaned most of it up with Clorox, but I wanted to wash the glass shelf with soapy water but the water was shut off so I left it balanced on the sink, not noticing that the taps were wide open.  When the water was turned back on the kitchen water went all over the counter and floor.  What a mess!
Even Bigger Problem:  When the water was turned back on there were no leaks in the plumbing that had been moved, but another pipe started to leak.  Another trip for plumbing parts and that should be fixed up soon - I hope!  My parents are only here for another day!!

Step six:  Replace and repair drywall
Problem:  Part of this step was already done and a sheet of drywall is already up on the wall.  This shows an interesting discovery.  Where the wall used to be they used 1/2" drywall on the right and 5/8" drywall on the left.  Worked fine when there was a wall there, not so good when we are trying to make a nice smooth wall to put a shower onto.  Not sure how we are going to solve this dilemma yet!

to be continued....

Painting...

Now that we are moving back to our house in North Carolina, I decided that I wanted to paint the kitchen cabinets to try to brighten it up. I also wanted to do something fairly neutral because we still want to sell at some point.  We decided on simply painting it white.  We still have some work to do including

-attaching the knobs

-painting the window frame, I have to open it to paint and it was too cold to do in January!

-painting the walls

-new countertops and backsplash

-new flooring

-change the fridge with our white one

But for now, here is what we accomplished...

Before

After