Change of Plans

Home remodeling gone wrong! Notice the cereal boxes in photo number one.
Then look carefully behind the table toward the pantry and notice the two guys standing there. One is my plumber; the other his assistant. This sad little tale of woe began some 23 years ago when I purchased a home from AMREP, a local developer. Well, seems that this company was known for affordable pricing, which they achieved through the use of substandard materials! In this case, plumbing constructed from polybutylene pipes. As the house aged, first one leak and then another appeared, first in the walls, then beneath the floors, and finally in an area that wasn't accessible. My plumber, Earl (who is fabulous beyond belief!), had already installed a flow restricter to ease the pressure on my woefully inadequate pipes, but the leaks continued unabated. After the last adventure, Earl replaced the faulty pipes with copper, from beneath the slab to up through the ceiling to service the kitchen and laundry, hence photo number one.

Moving on to photo number two, however, what didn't get done last time was to change the pipes in the bathrooms at the other end of the house. Well, this week, while I was conducting raptor surveys at the Armendaris Ranch, my new housesitter and his father called to leave a message! Hmmm! I knew that didn't mean good news. Yep! It happened again, this time the cold water pipe into the bathroom, behind the wall, behind the vanity, and behind the sink. It was a fast leak this time, and by the time it was discovered some 50-100 gallons of water oozed from between the walls into my hallway, seeping into my bedroom, the guest bedroom, and soaking my sewing room. The best news about all of this is that Earl, being the most wonderful plumber in the world, answered when I called from T or C, New Mexico, trucked on over to my house, removed the hidden key because he already knew where it lived, and he fixed the leak before I ever got home! He left his bill on the counter. Now, how many plumbers to you know that would do that for you?

So, leak fixed and all is well. Except, what I didn't notice when I arrived home about 10 p.m. was that the sewing room was thoroughly drenched. In fact, the carpet was still squishy this afternoon. So, my partner in quilting, and instigator of good ideas, Donna, suggested that she and I just remove all that carpeting -- today! And sew we did, most of it by noon. Being of the creative sort, our minds were as busy as our hands as we worked hard removing carpet, carpet tacking strips, and ruining our cuticles. Check out the fabric stash carefully tossed anon into the guest bedroom. It didn't look so big when it was all stacked, color coordinated, on the shelves.

Have you heard of creative concrete floor painting? Well, we looked it up on Google today, and decided that it will be just the thing for our remodel job. Donna's daughter, Katy, also of an artistic bent, is going to make the sewing room her final art project for her senior class. I aspire to lower heights, and plan to paint the hallway floor.

What began as an aquatic atrocity will, we hope, become a delightful decor! Katy is even going to teach me to splatter paint. Stay tuned for the final photos!