of pipes and men

As we put our house on the market, we went ahead and did a sellers inspection, just to see if there were any "issues". We didn't want to be blindsided in the middle of closing.

Funny thing happened, we got blindsided anyway...

* foundation issues (12 new issues/piers to be exact)
* a broken (and now newly replaced) dishwasher
* a leaking toilet
* buckling subfloors in both living areas
* and a mysterious leak... unnoticed by the pest control guy, an inspector, plumber #1, plumber #2, foundation guys, an electrician. We finally got a friend who wouldn't give up.

Can you imagine our delight as the inspector said the guest bathroom sink had a leak, which might require the whole cabinet to be torn out, only to find out it didn't? It was the toilet, leaking sewage under the house. And the A/C with too much condensation going on around the freon lines.

No wait, not the freon lines. It looks like the water is creeping along the underside of the subfloor from the direction of the kitchen. Could it be the dishwasher we just replaced? No, looks a little more from the direction of the washer...but why is this puddle still here? Why is the subfloor covered in water droplets?

It turned out to be the drainage pipe from the kitchen (sink, dishwasher and washing machine). The brackets that held the 40 yr old cast iron pipes broke. And so did the pipe, when it hit the ground.

Everytime I ran my appliances or the sink, water was pouring out under the cozy room. Pouring out on the ground. Darren tells me this is called a libation.

So why is the sub floor all wet? Because all that liquid was evaporating and condensing beneath the subfloor...who was eagerly sucking it up and warping. Which makes the vinyl floor all wavy and bubbly (not in a good way) in the cozy room and the big room.

Subfloors take longer to dry out than any of the other work we've had done. People have even told me that the subfloor may dry out and shrink back to it's normal size.

So now I wait. I wait for the subfloor to dry. I wait to see if the vinyl will lay back down. I wait because Jesus told me to start packing. He said it was time to move. So now I wait for Him.

In the meantime, I am cutting and taping with Amanda, laughing with Claire, training my dog to "leave it", helping Jacob with homework, loving my Darren, eating Katy's homemade blueberry buckle and chicken stock (not together) and holding Emily and Becca at bedtime. This small house just keeps us closer together.

PS - The broken, backwards, oversized, ancient backdoor is being replaced on Thursday. That's really the only thing we thought we were going to have to fix. Maybe that's all our buyer is waiting for, too.