Surprise plumbing issues! #oldhouseproblems

Over the weekend, we discovered we have a cracked plumbing stack. Fun times! A mysterious mildewey smell + some water leaking down into the basement + a running upstairs toilet tipped us off to a problem that (apparently) has been going on for years and years. Lucky for us, it's on the second floor and doesn't affect the function of our main bathroom.

My stairwell wall stripes had to be torn up. The upstairs shower also had to be taken out in the name of investigation.

Full disclosure, this shower was already a goner. It leaked, and we weren't 100% sure why. Turns out it likely had multiple problems, including a drain pipe that wasn't even glued into the stack! We stopped using it years ago and resolved to fix it someday. So this is not really a loss of a shower, but more of a head start on a forthcoming bathroom renovation. I'm trying to turn lemons into lemonade here.

We have a couple of plumbers coming today to give estimates on replacing the stack. Cross your fingers it's less than I've mentally prepared myself for.

It's official. We own a money pit. It's a good thing we're happy here, because we've sunk too much time and money into this house to ever leave.

Strip painted hardware with nail polish remover

My latest old house pet-peeve: painted hardware. There are only two screws in this strike plate, yet someone who lived here before us was too lazy to take it off before painting the trim. I have a whole collection of these in my house along with some splotchy hinges. The hinges are a project for another day, but the strike plates could be dealt with rather swiftly.

But I didn't feel like dragging out the stinky paint stripper and chemical resistant gloves. This strike plate wasn't totally covered, and I knew I didn't need something that heavy duty.

The answer was hiding in the bathroom closet. Nail polish remover!

I poured a little in a small lid and let it soak for a few minutes. The layers of paint just slid off. Be advised that it will also remove any lacquer on the metal (like that on super shiny brass).

After all the paint was gone, I rinsed it off with water and patted it dry.

Clean antique brass. Not perfect, but perfect for an old house. Four down, a bunch more to go.

You'll notice I also tackled another crazy, sloppy half-done door frame, painting it a clean white. Slowly but surely, I will conquer them all!

p.s. I often use polish remover to get spray paint off my fingers too. Just another little tip for you.

Stairway update: Drywall and ugly plaster

The stairway project has been a bit slow going, but we are making progress! Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of pretty things to show you yet. We are almost back to square one with the upper walls. The drywall is up, but still needs to be taped and mudded.

And on the lower portion, I started scrubbing the walls, cleaning off all of the leftover wallpaper paste. It's a tedious job, but I've been surprised at how clean the walls are after using only diluted vinegar.

Check it out... I went from these cruddy, sticky walls post-wallpaper removal...

...to this! Oh vinegar, is there anything you can't do?

But really, this step isn't just about making the walls look better. The walls need to be clean and smooth-ish or the primer and paint won't stick.

But in cleaning the walls, I've discovered there are a few plaster repair patches that are pretty uneven and ugly. Upon closer inspection, it seems like someone laid plaster on top of bits of wallpaper they didn't care to remove. I'm talking about remnants of old wallpaper underneath the layer that I removed.

I'm going to try and scrape them off and see what's under there. If I have to repair the plaster, I think I can make it look better than what's there now. I'll have the patching plaster out anyway because there are multiple other damaged spots that need attention.

So that's that the boring, cruddy update. The good news is I finally seem to be getting my design plan for the space together. I was drawing a complete blank for a while, but now the color palette is starting to come together in my head. More on that soon!

See all the stairway updates >>

Stairway makeover: Removing the wallpaper

First step in my stairway makeover is removing the ugly, stained and torn wallpaper. But this space has high ceilings, and I'm not prepared to tackle it alone. I'm bringing in my dad to help on this project.

There are two areas here: above and below the trim dividing the two floors. My dad's assignment: remove the wallpaper above the trim. My assignment: scrape off the bottom portion.

Above the trim, the walls are drywall. Below the trim, they are plaster & lathe. I'm only telling you this because we decided to take two separate strategies with the two types of wall.

First, we did some wallpaper removal experimentation. Just trying to peel some of it off to see if it would be easy or not. Turns out, it's wasn't going to be quick or easy.

On the upper half, there was another layer of wallpaper behind the wallpaper. When my dad started peeling all of this off, it took the drywall paper along with it.

It was here that we had to make a decision. Spend a bunch of time peeling wallpaper while perched above the stairwell on makeshift scaffolding only to discover that the surface wouldn't be in good enough condition to be paintable...

OR try something else.

I told my dad I would be fine if he covered up the wallpaper with another layer of thin drywall or even panelling (that I would paint) since the upstairs is painted panelling. But he doesn't take shortcuts.

I told him that since he was doing the work, he could make the decision. And the walls came down.

Well, just the upper portion, of course.

But there was one more factor that figured into the decision to demo the walls. I forgot to show this in the "before" photos, but the plaster ceiling above the stairway was also sagging from old water damage (before we owned the house). That was coming down regardless, why not round it out and take the walls too? A stretch? Maybe, but like I said, the decision was out of my hands.

The wallpaper removal on my section (the lower part) was a bit less dramatic.

I peeled off the top layer of the wallpaper then scraped off the under layer after soaking it with a 50/50 solution of vinegar and water. It worked pretty well, but I don't have anything to compare it to. Still, you can't beat the price!

All in all, it took me around 7 to 8 hours of mom time over two days to scrape off the entire bottom portion. (Mom time: interrupted no less than every 15 minutes.)

When I was done, it looked like this:

And the playroom where Elise had been looked like this:

Both on the scary side, for sure.

See all the stairway updates >>

I found a hidden note!

I cannot believe I forgot to include this in my post about our bedroom's repainted register. (Well, yes I can. I've been forgetting everything lately.)

After I removed the register cover, I found this little slip of paper in the vent covered in dust bunnies. Who knows how many years it's been there. Oh Amber, such violence!

Even more backyard treasure!

When my dad was digging the trench for our new drainage pipe, he just kept running into all sorts of things. Chunks of concrete, old bricks, rocks, plastic bags, trash, etc. This is the norm around here. You can't stick a shovel down more than about six inches without hitting something.

So let's have a little show and tell so you can see what we found this time.

First, like I said. Loads of broken concrete, rocks, etc. Enough to fill those three plastic flowerpots. I know it's hard to judge the scale of things in photos, but I can barely lift any one of these plastic pots. I wrote "buckets" above, but they are 2.25 gallon flowerpots I'm re-purposing for rock storage.

And then there's the more exciting stuff. The pretty stuff.

Pieces of a green ceramic bowl. It seems so strange to think that the course of action for a broken bowl would be to bury it on the side of the house, but I suppose it's almost the same as what we do now. We just do it communily, with trucks and pick ups and a heck of a lot more garbage.

And a retro Pepsi cap in perfect condition. I thought this was old given the short ingredient list, but according to Wikipedia, this logo was in use from 1970 to 1997, so maybe it's not all that old.

And since I'm on the subject of buried treasure, I'll show you what else I dug up a week or two ago while transplanting some perennials. An old rotting timber! Exciting! My resident backyard woodpecker was so happy with me for digging this up.

I know it looks like it just shot up out of the ground, but it was horizontal underground and I lifted one end up 90 degrees. Elise is about three feet tall, and I think the fence is around six feet, so that gives you an idea of how big this thing was.

Want to see what else I've found in my backyard over the years? Of course you do! Click here!

Why you shouldn't paint over wall paper...

Because many years from now, when the wall has been painted over a dozen times, the paint will start cracking and someone will turn around and find their child peeling chunks of wall off the wall.

Hello fake wood grain wallpaper.

The rest of the wall is still intact, and this spot is fairly inconspicuous down by the baseboard, so for now, I am not fixing this. Instead I am going to be "fixing" this, probably by regluing this large paint chip back on the wall and then painting over it.

Someday when I've run out of projects and have nothing better to do, maybe I'll tackle repairing these walls the right way. You know, because that just sounds like so much fun.

Stupid old house. I love you, but you are definitely stupid.

How to patch plaster and hide a water stain

Remember the collection of ugly, embarrassing things I showed you last fall? This small leak above our fireplace was probably the most embarrassing for me. Maybe because you could see it as soon as you walked through our front door. Maybe because it nagged at me everyday.

It never gushed water or anything. I'm guessing there was a tiny crack letting in a drop at a time and, over many months, that led to bulging plaster.

But now that we replaced the roof (and all the other stuff) in December, I'm going to assume the leak is now fixed. And after letting everything dry out for over a month, I decided it was time to take care of the cosmetics.