ShawnaAtPlay

So, while emptying the finished family room of stuff we had thrown in there until we finished making the upstairs livable so that we could paint, we discovered some mould growing in one corner and the carpet in that area was damp. So, of course we opened the wall in that spot and discovered the sewer cleanout, that comes out of the concrete wall about a foot off the floor was not sealed around the pipe. What we thought was a simple groundwater leak,turned out to be a bit more than that! I was filling some holes in the walls while I did a load of laundry and saw soap suds coming out of the hole. To make a long, expensive and frustrating story short, We had the sewer pipe camera’d and discovered that when the deck was built at the back of the house, (the house is only 12 years old and this is the original deck) the footing was poured directly over the join in the sewer pipe right next to the foundation squashing the ABS pipe at the top – so no solids ever came out, just bath water, laundry etc. But this had obviously been happening for 12 years and when previous owners had the basement finished, they just built a wall about a foot away from the concrete and over the problem. Not only was the deck footing squashing the pipe, there were rocks making the pipe bulge inward, mostly from the bottom, but some from the top up to 16 feet from the house. So, last week we unfinished the entire wall of the family room and had a new sewer pipe put in. Our previously landscaped yard had a trench in it 20ft long by 5ft deep. That is a writeoff until next spring when everything settles. There is now no way we can afford to do the things we thought were all we had to do to the house, Being that it is relatively new we had wanted to put single lever faucets in the bathrooms and change the kitchen counters – more decorating than renovating. It will not take much to re-finish the family room (I was able to bleach the carpet adequately to save it) and continue with moving in. So we are somewhat delayed but will get it done.

replace door jamb
cover carpet
tape baseboards
fill holes
patch concrete leak
re-glue carpet
remove hardware
paint bathroom
paint cielings
paint walls
touch up trim
add trim to half wall
take 2×6 off pony wall
make closet organiser
change curtains
clean carpets
set up bookshelves
unpack

I moved recently and have never had many friends so a new place means a new start.