We took a week off and enjoyed our vacation.  We are now back home and ready to tackle the challenges of repairing and restoring our home.  Everything came to a screeching halt while we were away.  First order of business, get the master bath in working order.  The antique tub is the only functioning fixture in the room at this time.  The master bath is an active construction site at the moment so you can’t even enjoy the tub.

The plumbing problems have been the most challenging thing we have dealt with so far.  When the previous owners had the water turned off to the house we should have suspected there were problems.  They kept promising that all plumbing would be in good working order before closing and all work was being completed by a licensed plumber.  Four days before we closed we finally discovered that the plumber had not completed any of the repairs he was paid to do and most of the plumbing was not in working order.  In fact out of 36 fixtures in the house (toilet, faucet) only three were actually working.  The sellers had contracted another plumbing company to complete the work and gave us the money to pay them out of their proceeds of the sale.  We went forward with the purchase and hoped for the best.

We moved in two weeks later and had only slightly more functioning fixtures.  In fact, the first two weeks here a cold shower or a hot bath were your options. My kitchen faucet leaked (still does) and the sink didn’t drain.  The washing machine drained into the kitchen sink which did not drain.  I am sure you can imagine how that worked out!  Some sinks had cold water, only one had hot.  Four of the six toilets were working, that was a plus.  Where there was hot water it took 20-30 minutes of running the water to get it to the faucet because of the way the plumbing runs in the basement.  The water goes a long way before it reaches its destination!

The good news is much of the plumbing is now functioning.  The bad news is most of it is not functioning that well.  The master bath is the current priority.  Hopefully this week that project will pick up speed and get wrapped up.

We returned home from vacation relaxed but the restored part has a long way to go!