Home Improvement?
Jan A. Cordes
pulling wallpaper down and creating a bigger job for herself. Though
I felt bad that there was more work to be done I did find it slightly
humorous (sorry) as I pictured her pulling the paper off. Well, I did
until today anyway.
When I came home for Onyx's lunch feeding today my husband informed me
he had good news and bad news. The good news was that he had started
some of the fix-it things on his list. He went on to tell me a long
story about the bathroom faucet. I had to finally stop him and ask him
if we were still on the good news or if we'd moved to the bad news.
Turns out we were on the bad news.
DH decided to replace our leaky bathroom faucet today. He bought a
new faucet that came with a new sink plug thingy. The old plug hadn't
worked well at all so he decided to go ahead an put the new one in
because if the faucet came with one it must be somewhat easy to replace.
Wrong. Apparently, when the old one was installed it was installed
incorrectly and there was no way to get it out in one piece. He showed
me the bathroom and the sink had been removed from the vanity. He had
tried a variety of things to separate the sink plug part from the sink
without success. Of course, our house is 42 years old and the sizes of
new sinks at the hardware store didn't match the size of the whole where
the sink used to go in our vanity.
Later, when I arrived home after work and a meeting that kept me out late
I got the rest of the story. Apparently, we have a new vanity sitting
in the garage. Apparently, the vanity that was in the bathroom was
not made to be easily removed and is now sitting in pieces on the patio.
The new vanity is still in the box in the garage. So, we have a big
gaping hole where the vanity is supposed to go. DH also asked me what
color I would like the bathroom to be when he's done. It appears he
will be removing some mold that recently began appearing in the corners
and will be painting to make the new vanity installation look nicer when
it's complete. I'm hoping it will improve the bathroom (though that's
a tall request given the brown vinyl floor, gray shower base, pink
tiles, blue paint and the now missing vanity that had a formica top).
Maybe we'll also end up replacing the old oak-look towel racks and
medicine cabinet and the white metal cabinet and magazine rack too.
That would really help the look.
So, the bottom line is that this quick fix-it job is like to take at
least another day which is making DH unhappy since his list was
somewhat long and he was hoping to get through it all this week.
Jan (who's going to hate coming home to find a bit dumpster sitting
on the street in front of the house tomorrow too...DH is finally
getting rid of all the concrete, lava rocks and junk that he
has been removing from the back yard)
--
jan(at)panix.com http://www.couchtigers.com
...................................................................
:Silicon Valley Friends of Ferals : CAT: A pigmy lion that loves :
: http://www.svff.org : mice, hates dogs, and :
:Mary Kay Cosmetics, Inc. : patronizes human beings.:
: http://www.mymk.com/jcordes : --Oliver Herford :
:.................................:...............................:
Lynn
old house. I laughed as I read your story Jan, because we did just
about the same thing last year. What started out to be replacing the
bathroom floor ended up to be a complete bathroom remodel. I've only
had 2 hours sleep so I won't go into every thing that we did but let's
just say it involved many MANY trips to Home Depot and Wal-Mart at 3am
to find parts to make other outdated parts fix correctly and many
arguments with store employees who would be determined that part A
*would* fit part B...when part A was older than the store employee.
Lynn
Jan A. Cordes
today.
This morning when I went to the car I found a large metal bin in our
driveway next to my car. DH had called to have one delivered and
delivery was expected at 2:00pm. DH had parked his car on the street
in front of our house to reserve the space and when the company delivered
early and didn't find space in front of the house they just left it in
our driveway. Hopefully, DH will finish the bathroom repair and get that
thing filled and out of here within a few days.
I'm still wondering how they did this delivery without us hearing them
and without them destroying my car in the process.
Jan
Lynn <ly...@inlink.com> wrote:
> Things do have a way of working out like that, especially with an
> old house. I laughed as I read your story Jan, because we did just
> about the same thing last year. What started out to be replacing the
> bathroom floor ended up to be a complete bathroom remodel. I've only
> had 2 hours sleep so I won't go into every thing that we did but let's
> just say it involved many MANY trips to Home Depot and Wal-Mart at 3am
> to find parts to make other outdated parts fix correctly and many
> arguments with store employees who would be determined that part A
> *would* fit part B...when part A was older than the store employee.
> Lynn
--
HollyLewis
>a tall request given the brown vinyl floor, gray shower base, pink
>tiles, blue paint and the now missing vanity that had a formica top).
LOL!! I can hardly imagine this color scheme. :-) What color is the *new*
vanity top? Orange?
OK, sorry, I'm done now.
Didn't Drew know that, 9 times out of 10, *any* small improvement project
requires at least twice as long as you expected and three times as many trips
to the hardware store? :-) Or anyway, if you expect it to be that way and it
*does* turn out to be an easy job, at least you're pleasantly surprised.
Holly
Jan A. Cordes
>>I'm hoping it will improve the bathroom (though that's
>>a tall request given the brown vinyl floor, gray shower base, pink
>>tiles, blue paint and the now missing vanity that had a formica top).
> LOL!! I can hardly imagine this color scheme. :-) What color is the *new*
> vanity top? Orange?
I haven't seen it yet. I'm hoping it's a shade of white, off white or
ivory.
> OK, sorry, I'm done now.
No problem. I've been wondering myself. It's still in pieces. The
vanity has made it into the bathroom but no further. We have a new
problem. There's a board in the back of the vanity (that supports
the drawers) that is right where the pipe needs to fit. Drew is
hoping to get some elbow pipes and go around it. We'll see how that
works. In the mean time, the big metal bin has been opened and pieces
of concrete have found their way inside. When I last saw him he was
in front of the computer. I asked which part of the fix-it list he
was working on now and he said "recuperating".
> Didn't Drew know that, 9 times out of 10, *any* small improvement project
> requires at least twice as long as you expected and three times as many trips
> to the hardware store? :-) Or anyway, if you expect it to be that way and
> it *does* turn out to be an easy job, at least you're pleasantly surprised.
I think he may have forgotten.
Jan
Mike and Heather Oviatt
stories in the near future as the house we are buying has all kinds of
things that we will need to do to it. Right now our bathroom is all
ripped out and the only "old" thing going back in it will be the sink
for now....I know we'll want to replace that, but right now the cash
just isn't around.
We're still trying to decide how much carpet to replace right now.....
Heather
Jan A. Cordes
> Wow Jan, that's quite a story! I have a feeling I'll have some similar
> stories in the near future as the house we are buying has all kinds of
> things that we will need to do to it. Right now our bathroom is all
> ripped out and the only "old" thing going back in it will be the sink
> for now....I know we'll want to replace that, but right now the cash
> just isn't around.
We have a new vanity in the bathroom now. Drew was able to figure out
how to get the elbow pipes to work around the vanity. However, the
vanity is just there. It doesn't have fixtures and it's not completely
installed. Drew has been side tracked with vet trips for his cat. The
new counter top is white, bright white. I'd sure like to end this week
with a completely redone bathroom. I hope he doesn't run out of steam
too soon.
Jan
Jan A. Cordes
> In article <8pkpg1$8hf$1...@news.panix.com>,
> "Jan A. Cordes" <j...@panix.com> wrote:
> Rule 3: There are only five prior owners in the world who did repairs
> correctly, so the odds that you bought your house from one are not good.
We sort of had a clue about this based on some of the scarey wiring we'd
pulled out of the house last year. I can't believe this guy wired security
systems for a living and could get away with such shoddy jobs.
> Rules 6 & 7: A house isn't a home until it's had a gaping hole
> somewhere inconvenient. Always assume that all jobs will involve
> repainting.
Well, this is comforting. We have a home now. :^)
> I'm hoping it will improve the bathroom (though that's
>> a tall request given the brown vinyl floor, gray shower base, pink
>> tiles, blue paint and the now missing vanity that had a formica top).
> While that vanity is missing, this might be the time to rip up the brown
> vinyl floor and replace it with new sheet vinyl or vinyl tiles. A
> black-and-white checkerboard pattern would look nicely retro with your
> pink tiles (especially if you did light pink paint with a black, white,
> and gray checked border, maybe with a yellow accent color). Since
> bathrooms are usually small, they're not that expensive to refloor.
> Vinyl tiles are a DIY project. (Sheet vinyl requires a very smooth
> subfloor and is more difficult to fit around fixtures -- it can be DIY,
> but I personally wouldn't.)
I've been working on this. I was informed last night that he found extra
of the ugly brown tiles in the garage in case I wanted them installed
anywhere. I'm really working on him to agree to let us yank the floor
tiles out now and replace them.
> Rule 8: Until and unless you're very experienced, there are no quick
> projects. There always turns out to be something you didn't have the
> savvy to predict, and aren't equipped to handle without considerable
> thought and another trip to the hardware store.
He is getting to know Orchard Supply Hardware and Home Depot pretty well.
Yesterday he went to home Depot to look something up in one of their fix-it
books.
>> Jan (who's going to hate coming home to find a bit dumpster sitting
>> on the street in front of the house tomorrow too...DH is finally
>> getting rid of all the concrete, lava rocks and junk that he
>> has been removing from the back yard)
> I'd welcome a dumpster if it meant we'd done anything about our back
> yard this year!
Well, the driveway kitties thing the dumpster is a cool thing. They are
hiding under it and walkin on top of the rim. Because Drew has been so
absorbed by the bathroom stuff and vet visits with his cat the dumpster
isn't getting filled very quickly. It will be nice when all the lava
rocks, old concrete from the removed pond waterfall (it was ugly and
leaky and another example of the former owner's work) and all the other
junk he's been storing on the side of the house are gone. Unfortunately,
it's been stored on the opposite side of the house away from the dumpster
and gate so he has to haul it around the house to get it all out.
Now if we can just get rid of his old mattress (the one I wanted him
to take to Salvation Army) that he's stored on the side of the house
for the last year I'll be thrilled. Unfortunately, this dumpster is
only for rocks, concrete and stuff and not for furniture and other junk.
Jan
drw...@my-deja.com
"Jan A. Cordes" <j...@panix.com> wrote:
> drw...@my-deja.com wrote:
> > In article <8pkpg1$8hf$1...@news.panix.com>,
> > "Jan A. Cordes" <j...@panix.com> wrote:
>
> > Rule 3: There are only five prior owners in the world who did
repairs
> > correctly, so the odds that you bought your house from one are not
good.
>
> We sort of had a clue about this based on some of the scarey wiring
we'd
> pulled out of the house last year. I can't believe this guy wired
security
> systems for a living and could get away with such shoddy jobs.
Did I ever mention the duplex in St. Paul where the additional phone
jacks had been wired with doorbell wire? The phone company was *not*
pleased. That was also the otherwise cute building where the finish on
the hardwood floors never quite dried properly -- it was always slightly
sticky and attracted dust.
> I've been working on this. I was informed last night that he found
extra
> of the ugly brown tiles in the garage in case I wanted them installed
> anywhere. I'm really working on him to agree to let us yank the floor
> tiles out now and replace them.
If all else fails, a really big spill of nail polish remover will
usually wreck your bathroom floor sufficiently that it has to be
completely redone. It was a genuine accident that I removed part of the
upstairs bathroom wallpaper, but only when that came down did Phil admit
that he wanted to redo the whole room completely.
> It will be nice when all the lava
> rocks, old concrete from the removed pond waterfall (it was ugly and
> leaky and another example of the former owner's work) and all the
other
> junk he's been storing on the side of the house are gone.
What I especially want to remove is the concrete walk in back. And now
I'm not sure about *any* free time during the remaining warm season
because the other Unix server geek at Phil's work was just let go. So I
don't know how that's going to affect his hours, and I can't very well
deal with heavy stuff by myself. Oh well. If this sort of thing was
easy, more people would be doing it.
> Now if we can just get rid of his old mattress (the one I wanted him
> to take to Salvation Army) that he's stored on the side of the house
> for the last year I'll be thrilled.
Then there's the junk dump in our basement stairwell--stuff Phil claims
he's going to do something about, but we have reason to believe it will
not be accepted with regular trash pick-up. Maybe if I just get rid of
that, it will improve things. (But I'll probably then do something
stupid and reckless like ripping up the Awful Pink Carpet down there.)
Wende
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
HollyLewis
>Repair Demons, who come getcha.
>Rule 2: Starting the fix-it list often *is* bad news. Ignorance is
>bliss. It may be bliss that eventually causes your house to fall in, of
>course, so we all get ejected from Eden eventually.
>Rule 3: There are only five prior owners in the world who did repairs
>correctly, so the odds that you bought your house from one are not good.
>
>Rule 4: Standard sizes aren't.
>
>Rule 5: All badly done home improvements by prior owners were designed
>to be permanent. They may not have had taste or the ability to follow
>manufacturer's instructions, but they believed in building for the ages.
>
>Rules 6 & 7: A house isn't a home until it's had a gaping hole
>somewhere inconvenient. Always assume that all jobs will involve
>repainting.
>
>Rule 8: Until and unless you're very experienced, there are no quick
>projects. There always turns out to be something you didn't have the
>savvy to predict, and aren't equipped to handle without considerable
>thought and another trip to the hardware store.
LOL! I am going to keep this list around. It is all *so* *true*.
Are there convenient locations for gaping holes? :-) Actually, I think my
favorite is Rule #4. *Especially* in a 70-year-old house, there is no such
thing as standard size.
Holly
HollyLewis
>> Now if we can just get rid of his old mattress (the one I wanted him
>> to take to Salvation Army) that he's stored on the side of the house
>> for the last year I'll be thrilled.
Wende mused:
>Then there's the junk dump in our basement stairwell--stuff Phil claims
>he's going to do something about, but we have reason to believe it will
>not be accepted with regular trash pick-up.
Does *everyone's* DH have some junk like this stored away that he seems unable
to deal with? :-)
Mine has an inoperable Honda scooter. He used it in college. It's been dead
for almost as long as I've known him -- which is, uh, ten years. He keeps
saying the problem isn't that major, he can fix it and sell the scooter. I'm
still waiting.
Holly
Mieko Sunbury
>>Home improvement Rule 1: It *is* funny. But chuckling excites the Home
>>Repair Demons, who come getcha.
>
>>correctly, so the odds that you bought your house from one are not good.
Only 5? I was hoping if we ever had to move, we'd have a chance at getting a
house with slightly better remodelers. :( Oh well, it can't get much worse.
Examples: We have fake brick on the walls in the kitchen. Well, the previous
owners decided they'd try to paint it white. They got 1.5 sections done and
quit. There are at least 4 spots in our home where someone took a paintbrush
of white paint, did one stoke, and stopped. Don't know if they changed their
mind or what.
>>Rules 6 & 7: A house isn't a home until it's had a gaping hole
>>somewhere inconvenient. Always assume that all jobs will involve
>>repainting.
Uh oh. We haven't had a gaping hole yet. We haven't replaced face plates in
our computer room that we repainted a year ago, and we're finally getting
close to finished in our upstairs loft - but no holes.
Mieko
Jocelyn
HollyLewis <holly...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> Does *everyone's* DH have some junk like this stored away that he seems
unable
> to deal with? :-)
As we live in a one-bedroom apartment, the amount of junk DH has stored here
is minimal. However, in the last 18 months or so, we've started getting
irate phone calls from both of his sisters, his mother, and most recently
*my* father about when DH is going to move/pick-up/dispose of the junk he
has stored in their various homes. I'm afraid to even ask what all this
stuff is. :-)
OTOH, my father also has the contents of my last apartment in his basement,
the entirety of my Peanuts collectibles collection in the closet of my
former bedroom, and all of my college and law school textbooks in his attic.
So I can't point fingers at DH too much!
- Jocelyn
--
Change not to net to reply.
drw...@my-deja.com
> pulling wallpaper down and creating a bigger job for herself. Though
> I felt bad that there was more work to be done I did find it slightly
> humorous (sorry) as I pictured her pulling the paper off. Well, I did
> until today anyway.
Home improvement Rule 1: It *is* funny. But chuckling excites the Home
Repair Demons, who come getcha.
> When I came home for Onyx's lunch feeding today my husband informed me
> he had good news and bad news. The good news was that he had started
> some of the fix-it things on his list. He went on to tell me a long
> story about the bathroom faucet. I had to finally stop him and ask
him
> if we were still on the good news or if we'd moved to the bad news.
> Turns out we were on the bad news.
Rule 2: Starting the fix-it list often *is* bad news. Ignorance is
bliss. It may be bliss that eventually causes your house to fall in, of
course, so we all get ejected from Eden eventually. (WHY is my overhead
light flickering? We have a pretty good electric supply on this floor.)
> DH decided to replace our leaky bathroom faucet today. He bought a
> new faucet that came with a new sink plug thingy. The old plug hadn't
> worked well at all so he decided to go ahead an put the new one in
> because if the faucet came with one it must be somewhat easy to
replace.
> Wrong. Apparently, when the old one was installed it was installed
> incorrectly and there was no way to get it out in one piece.
Rule 3: There are only five prior owners in the world who did repairs
correctly, so the odds that you bought your house from one are not good.
(Why ours had new parlor windows installed without screens, we'll never
know. But we now cannot insert the screens in the installed windows,
which means that the house's natural cross-ventilation doesn't work.)
> He had
> tried a variety of things to separate the sink plug part from the sink
> without success. Of course, our house is 42 years old and the sizes
of
> new sinks at the hardware store didn't match the size of the whole
where
> the sink used to go in our vanity.
Rule 4: Standard sizes aren't.
> Later, when I arrived home after work and a meeting that kept me out
late
> I got the rest of the story. Apparently, we have a new vanity sitting
> in the garage. Apparently, the vanity that was in the bathroom was
> not made to be easily removed and is now sitting in pieces on the
patio.
Rule 5: All badly done home improvements by prior owners were designed
to be permanent. They may not have had taste or the ability to follow
manufacturer's instructions, but they believed in building for the ages.
> The new vanity is still in the box in the garage. So, we have a big
> gaping hole where the vanity is supposed to go. DH also asked me what
> color I would like the bathroom to be when he's done. It appears he
> will be removing some mold that recently began appearing in the
corners
> and will be painting to make the new vanity installation look nicer
when
> it's complete.
Rules 6 & 7: A house isn't a home until it's had a gaping hole
somewhere inconvenient. Always assume that all jobs will involve
repainting.
I'm hoping it will improve the bathroom (though that's
> a tall request given the brown vinyl floor, gray shower base, pink
> tiles, blue paint and the now missing vanity that had a formica top).
While that vanity is missing, this might be the time to rip up the brown
vinyl floor and replace it with new sheet vinyl or vinyl tiles. A
black-and-white checkerboard pattern would look nicely retro with your
pink tiles (especially if you did light pink paint with a black, white,
and gray checked border, maybe with a yellow accent color). Since
bathrooms are usually small, they're not that expensive to refloor.
Vinyl tiles are a DIY project. (Sheet vinyl requires a very smooth
subfloor and is more difficult to fit around fixtures -- it can be DIY,
but I personally wouldn't.)
> So, the bottom line is that this quick fix-it job is like to take at
> least another day which is making DH unhappy since his list was
> somewhat long and he was hoping to get through it all this week.
Rule 8: Until and unless you're very experienced, there are no quick
projects. There always turns out to be something you didn't have the
savvy to predict, and aren't equipped to handle without considerable
thought and another trip to the hardware store.
> Jan (who's going to hate coming home to find a bit dumpster sitting
> on the street in front of the house tomorrow too...DH is finally
> getting rid of all the concrete, lava rocks and junk that he
> has been removing from the back yard)
I'd welcome a dumpster if it meant we'd done anything about our back
yard this year!
Wende
> --
> jan(at)panix.com http://www.couchtigers.com
> ...................................................................
> :Silicon Valley Friends of Ferals : CAT: A pigmy lion that loves :
> : http://www.svff.org : mice, hates dogs, and :
> :Mary Kay Cosmetics, Inc. : patronizes human beings.:
> : http://www.mymk.com/jcordes : --Oliver Herford :
> :.................................:...............................:
>
>
Mike and Heather Oviatt
Jocelyn wrote:
> As we live in a one-bedroom apartment, the amount of junk DH has stored here
> is minimal.
Yep, but as we are getting ready to move from a one bedroom apartment to
a three bedroom house, we're finding that everyone is more than willing
to try to dump stuff on us. "Oh, you could really use an extra twin
bed." I've been trying to refuse stuff. I think I'd rather just have
empty space until I decide what I want to fill it with.
Mike does still have some stuff at his parents house. Since I've been
away from home for so long, the only thing left there that I stake a
claim to is my dollhouse. My parents are talking about renting a uhaul
and bringing it out to me. I don't want it that bad, but it would be
kind of nice to actually fix it up in a way that I was never able to as
a kid.
Heather
Lynn
Heather,
Having to rent a U-Haul to bring you your dollhouse? That must be
some dollhouse! What's it like?
Lynn - who always wanted a huge dollhouse! <whine>
> Since I've been
> away from home for so long, the only thing left there that I stake a
> claim to is my dollhouse. My parents are talking about renting a uhaul
> and bringing it out to me. I don't want it that bad, but it would be
> kind of nice to actually fix it up in a way that I was never able to as
> a kid.
>
> Heather
--
"parentless" e-mail support group forming -
http://www.egroups.com/group/parentless
Mike and Heather Oviatt
It's actually not that big, but my dad doesn't want to take it apart at
all to transport it (since he built it, I guess I can understand that).
I think just a combination of the size of the base and the awkwardness
of the rest of the shape makes it not possible to stick in the backseat
of their car. It might be a bit too tall for that anyway. The
dollhouse is a farmhouse style with 8 rooms, none of which have been
properly decorated or furnished. Just a combination of whatever I
happened to collect over the years.
Heather
j_w...@newsguy.com
Picture a kitchen with *old* carpet that needs to be replaced. Under
the carpet is old linoleum tile. Adjacent to it is a foyer with some
slate tiles (various colors, green, green-blue, black, and red) most
of which are lose and some of which are broken. The pieces have been
reset with grout, but not all the pieces were put back in, so it
begins to look like the "fractured mural" tile design.
To give you an idea of layout, it's a ranch-style house. The front of
the house has 2 bedrooms, the foyer, and a living room. The rear has
the master bedroom, attached bath and shower (along the back wall), a
bathroom off of the hallway, stairs to the basement, kitchen and
dining room (the shower stall is on the other side of the wall you see
when you open the cellar door and is behind the stove.) The two rooms
in question (foyer and kitchen) attach to 3 other areas - dining room,
living room, and hallway.
I should mention that all the carpets need to be replaced. We removed
the hallway one and found a hardwood floor under it that was in rather
good condition. Since that was the most heavily traveled floor in the
entire house (to get to/from the bedrooms and bathrooms you had to use
the hallway) I'm holding hope for the others. All the other rooms
(except the bathrooms, of course) have hardwood under carpet. The
carpet was put down with tape on the edge and seams (remnants.)
The wood floor in the hallway was about even with the slate in the
foyer. The dining room is the same way. The living room has a 6' or
so wide "step edge" (4" wide piece of wood) and an 8" or so drop - a
"sunk in" living room.
We take out the carpet. By the stove it felt greasy and had a lump
under it. I determined what the lump was, the former attached
padding. That is, not only was it formerly attached, it was no longer
padding, having broken down into the consistency of sand. Shop-vac
fodder (that thing is probably one of the best buys I made.)
I then remember why the carpet was put down (my parents did it.) The
linoleum tiles have broken along the underlay joints. The adhesives
used under the tile is still tacky, so I only clear the joint. More
on this underlay later.
We begin taking up the slate tiles in the foyer. About 12 were
repaired at some point. I remember the ones by the hallway being
fixed, but the ones in the middle of the living room step edge were
reglued with what I think was rubber cement (the stuff was clear and
still would stretch.) Most were trivial to remove and only some of
the ones repaired broke when removing them.
DW wanted tile and showed me the sort. 12" square ceramic. Could be
far worse things to deal with. We go about getting stuff and I
quickly realize that I would need to take out the underlay. Where the
foyer meets the kitchen is a "fit" piece - about 5' long and less than
a foot wide (gets a bit wider for the doorway.) I figure that's my
best bet for starting to pull the stuff up.
Well, one pry bar later (due to how it broke, it looks like flaws were
present - mental note: only by Craftsman hand tools in this
area...while the quality isn't necessarily better, they will replace
them for free) I had the piece up, albeit in pieces. It was some sort
of particle board with some rather large chips in it, but still a fair
am mount glue. I notice the seam in the plywood subfloor and notice
it is roughly in line with the seam that broke the linoleum tiles (off
by about 3").
I later discover they also did some 4-way corners in the underlay (a
big no-no) and such stuff. I come to the decision that the existing
underlay in the kitchen is also unusable and will need to be taken
out.
The plus side will be that this is done *right*. I won't have to do
much work to match the floor height as they will be within 1/8".
I have been fixing so much bad workmanship in this house it isn't
even funny. "Creative construction" is what I like to call it. You
see, the papers were all signed under the Nixon housing price freeze.
When they had the house mostly in place (had the plywood on the roof
but no shingles) a hurricane went through and did some serious
flooding in the southern part of this county and the neighboring
county. There was much work for contractors but there was the issue
of this house. You see, the work in the flood zones promised to be 2
or more years (was 3 or 4 before everything was repaired, IIRC) and
due to the price freeze, they couldn't charge any more for this house.
So they cut corners. It is for this reason my parents had to replace
the old bow window - they never put the support below it and it
sagged...well, all except the top plate. The 3 center panes had gaps,
the center one had a gap large enough you could put your little finger
through it.
The bathroom floors are probably similar to the slate. I know some
tiles are lose but am not repairing them as I suspect it will probably
be most of the floor. It would quickly reach the point where it would
be pointless to repair it since I want to replace it, but we cannot
afford to do so now. Personally, the tile in the bathrooms is *ugly*.
The one is a light blue (a bit below baby blue) and white. The floor
tiles are blue irregular octagonal (think square with the corners cut
at a 45deg angle) and small white square tiles at angle between 4 blue
ones. The other bathroom is the same style tile but yellow and black
(yes, as hideous as it sounds.)