The new electrician arrived about half way through the bathroom remodel and I was happy to hear he agreed that the other guy was taking short cuts and that it would be fixed. He began by relocating the service panel to a much better location, one that met code. From there, all of the wire had to be pulled to the second floor through an existing chase and up to the attic and over to the rooms. It made it much easier with all of the ceilings opened. If I failed to mention it, the entire original structure (minus the addition) is brick. That means there are no walls to pull the wires through. Most of the second floor outlets had to be dropped through wire channels.
Since we were on a septic system and we really didn't know what condition in was in, we decided to fork over the money to tap into the city sewer system. After receiving 2 quotes of $12,000 and $14,000 to trench, lay 200 feet of sewer line, and crush the old tank, I found a small company in the outskirts of Central Ohio that was much more reasonable. I am always a little concerned with going to the cheapest guy, but he seemed like a good guy and he knew what he was talking about. Given that it was going to cost us an additional $6000 paid to the city just for the tap, it was a no-brainer to go with the least expensive excavator.
Brad, the excavator, scheduled to come out at 7:30 AM one week day. Now I have had enough experience with contractors to know better. I was delightfully surprised when Brad arrived, with back hoe in tow, promptly at 7:30. Good sign. He was ready to work and I had to be on my way to work as well. He guessed he'd be done with work by the end of the day.
I got a call at work a few hours later. Brad said the tap that was supposed to be in our back yard wasn't there, the drawings from the county were wrong. He went on to say that he already called the county and told me what our options were. I was delighted that he had taken the initiative to address the county with the problem. The first option would be to tear through the neighbors yard because there was a right-of-way. This would mean destroying the neighbors lawn and sprinkler system. Brad was not comfortable with this and nor was I. The second, more promising option, was to dig down to the bottom of the manhole and tap in there. While it would keep us in good graces with the neighbors, it meant Brad had to dig to the bottom and then I had to get a concrete boring company to come bore a hole and set the boot.
I gave Brad the go ahead on option 2. He dug, I called a concrete boring company. I got the boring company to come out in an hour. The hole was dug and the the guys got there to drill. They requested Brad bench back the dirt, but with little room to work, that was impossible. Brad made some calls and hopped in his truck to get a frame to drop in the hole for safety from collapse. When he returned, he dropped it in and started pumping the water out of the hole because the drilling company would be back soon. The pump broke. Brad called and told me the situation. He said he would have to finish in the morning.
First thing the next morning, Brad was back, with his pump working. He said he was up late into the night fixing it (not whining about it). The drilling company came out, the pipe was laid, the inspection was complete (with compliments from the inspector) and Brad was on his way.
I tell the whole story because it is so rare to get that high quality service, especially at 1/3 the price of the competitors. I will give props to Blacksten Excavating in Utica, OH. The company agreed to complete the job, and no matter the obstacles, they did just that, unlike the roofers and the electrician.
We weren't sure yet how to handle the furnace situation. We knew the second story furnace was not in any shape to be utilized safely, so replacing it was inevitable. After talking to our electrician, we found out that his father-in-law did HVAC. We had him come out and give us a quote. We needed all new ductwork on the second floor, ductwork repaired on the first, a new second story furnace, a new hot water tank, and for shits and giggles we had him quote us on two central air units as well. The whole thing cost only a little more than what we had budgeted, so we went for it all. Afterall, none of the windows have screens, so summer could get brutal.
The three HVAC guys were retired police officers who did this for a little extra income. They really worked at their own pace and they were quite chatty, but they did finally get it done.
I was finishing up the bathroom by now and since most of the electric upstairs was done, I was able to address the ceilings. Something I had noticed as I was tearing the ceilings out was that several of the ceiling joists had twisted and sagged. The front bedroom was the first and least sagging. We were able to hang all of the drywall without any additional framing. When we moved to the back bedroom, the story was a little different. The difference between the highest and lowest joist was near 3". I decided to reframe the ceiling a few inches below the old one in order to level it. It worked out great and we continued the same process on the other rooms.
In late September, we had some unwanted visitors come into the home and take things that didn't belong to them. I was sick to my stomach as I lost a circ saw, lawnmower, brand new Echo weedwhacker, brand new power washer, tons of yard tools, a compressor, and a few other things. I was grateful that they didn't take the 2 Little Giant ladders, my compound miter saw, or the thousands of dollars in bathroom fixtures. At the height of copper theft, they did not take 3 new spools of wire. So while it was a setback, it was nowhere near as bad as it could have been.
We tightened up our security and made a huge effort to finish up faster. Then we found out we were going to lose our month-to-month apt in 30 days. So much to do, so little time. We were able to squeeze a couple extra days out of the Apt Management, but our departure date had to be before November 10th. GAME ON.
Immediately we started planning the living situation. We figured the easiest way to work was one floor at a time, so we decided we would make the living area the first floor only, except for the bathroom. There was still a ton to be done before we moved in.
With the ceilings complete and the weather turning cold, we had to have the attic insulated. I decided that the cost difference in having someone do it was negligible and time was at a minimum, so we outsourced it. We had bigger fish to fry. The walls were still dirty, the floors were covered in the waxy paint and all kinds of dirt from the renovation.
My wife, bless her family, decided to have her sister and cousins come over for a painting party because we had to coat every wall with a primer to seal any potential lead paint. Paint, wine, socializing. It was quite amusing. It was conversation first, paint second. They worked in herds. They would paint whatever happened to be next to them and the person they wanted to talk to. It was random at best, but we got it done eventually.
With one week until the move-in, we had to get the floors finished. We rented two drum sanders (none of us have ever used them) and 2 edgers. My wife's cousin and brother-in-law helped me sand the warped, cupped, damaged floors down to the bare wood. It took a lot of paper, many passes, and 2 whole days to get it all sanded. We spent the next 3 days staining and sealing. That gave us exactly 72 hours for the urethane to dry. That is the minimum for placing furniture on it. Whew. They are no perfect, but they were done on time and they have the character you would expect from 150 year old floors.
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