It's Alive!!

Well, after months of anticipation the day is finally here: the first day on site at our very first Staples of Home project!

As Shelly mentioned in her post about the house, it has been abandoned for several years and needs a lot of TLC. For example, we were welcomed with this sticker on the front door:

The plumbing has been shut off for at least 15 months, and the furnace and water heater appear to have been unused for even longer. None of the outside doors open or shut correctly. At some point the roof leaked into the existing office space, damaging ceiling, walls, flooring... And of course, electrical was also turned off completely, so when we first entered the home it was like going into a cold, dark basement. Except smellier and dirtier.

I never realized a house is like a living creature..it requires a regular dose of power, it needs to stay warm and regularly flushed with fluids. Without this basic hygiene, all sorts of things go wrong as I was about to find out.

Job #1 was to get some lights on, so I went to the electrical panel and flipped the big MAIN switch and Voila! A few light bulbs came on! The good news: PSE had done their job and turned the electrical back on as I had requested…the bad news: most of the light bulbs throughout the entire home were burned out so it wasn’t much brighter than before. 12 new LED flood lights added to the shopping list.

Job #2 was to turn on the water. The gas company won’t turn gas on without water. Makes sense if you think about it.

I had met the Duvall city crew late the afternoon before, and they had turned the water back on at the street, but it was too late to turn it on in the house, knowing that we were in for some plumbing issues. So with the electricity back on, Shelly and I focused on restoring water.

I did a bunch of research on how to de-winterize a home and found several good articles. We removed all the aerators from the taps, opened the supply valves, and then slowly nudged on the water main as the sound of rushing water filled the pipes for the first time in…more than a year.

Shelly manned the upstairs while I darted back and forth between kitchen, half bath, water heater and outside tap, making sure there were no unexpected leaks.

The hose bib in front of the house, which we had left open to help relieve pressure, alternatively gushed and bubbled as water surged through the home.

One of the relief valves on the water heater was part way open, so at one point water started spraying vigorously onto the wall, but I caught it quickly and turned it off.

The toilet flapper - which controls flushing inside the tank - felt glued shut, but after a few forceful flushes, the toilet downstairs is now operational. Hooray, we can now use the bathroom while at work! :)

Every single one of the bathroom sinks has at least one supply line that is dripping, probably a result of failed gaskets having shriveled up over time. We bought 10 new supply lines tonight and will simply replace them all tomorrow. We may need to replace a few supply valves as well which seem to be leaking from the knob.

As a last check on the plumbing I ventured down into the crawl space and looked around for any leaks under the house, but didn’t spot any water. Whew!

With the water on it was time for Job #3 - get the natural gas turned on, and once again Puget Sound Energy nailed it. Two representatives, whose names I didn’t catch, showed up on time and ready to work. They turned the gas on and helped light the furnace and gas fireplace, making sure they were operational. The furnace took a little prodding after sitting cold for so long, but both turned on in minutes! The inside temperature of the house read 42 degrees, but it felt like 30!

The PSE guys were hilarious. I mentioned that we had just bought the home and that it had been abandoned for a while. The older guy asked: Is the inside pretty rough? I said yes, but that didn’t stop him from walking in and saying “Oh, Wow!” with a gentle smile and asked: “Is this your full time job for a while?” Yes sir, yes it is.

As they prepared to leave, the younger guy joked: “I have the thermostat turned up to Hawaii for you”. And he did! It was set to 78, but had only crawled to 44 degrees. It took all day to warm up to a toasty 65.

With the utilities now setup and functional, it was time for Job #4, we needed to make sure the HVAC system is working properly to avoid things like, oh death due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Besides, we need a warm house to work in day after day, and given the system hasn’t been running we wanted to make sure it was in good working order. Bob’s heating and air conditioning showed up in the afternoon and did a thorough inspection and maintenance.

The furnace guy was also super fun. I stayed out in the cold garage and chatted with him while he worked, trying not to ask to many pesky questions (what does that gadget measure!). After a while he began telling me about his own home renovation project, his past work experiences and some inside HVAC baseball. The more we chatted the more he opened up about his life and by the end, as he waved goodbye I couldn’t help but smile as he said: “Looks like we have a lot in common!” Yes we do. More than you would expect from the outside. The good news: he reported: the furnace is in good working order! HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF HERE.

Soon after, Ernie from Marilyn’s recycle from right here in Duvall stopped by to help us gauge what size dumpster we would need for both our inside and outside projects and schedule delivery. Ernie was very kind and gave us some really good tips for making use of dumpster space and how to manage large items like rolls of carpet, trees and so forth. Dumpster delivery tomorrow (sorry neighbors, we will try to make it quick!)

Today I re-learned an important life lesson: when you take time to talk to people and show kindness, life is more fun for you and everybody around you! Duh! Work is more pleasant, people open up and common ground is easier to find. Between the city crew, gas crew, HVAC man, and recycling guy, I met with six complete strangers the last 24 hours, and yet I found every one of them to be pleasant to be around, with a good sense of humor and willing to go the extra mile to make sure their job was done well.

Shelly spent a great deal of the day measuring the kitchen and living room and drafting designs for the new kitchen and open living space. Wow, do they look cool! I can’t believe how fast she works, by the time we left she had drawn up some really great at scale models of the new floor plans, furniture placement and even cabinetry. I won’t spoil the surprise so you’ll have to wait for a post from her to see them for yourself!

Tomorrow is demo day! It always looks so fun on TV, tune in tomorrow for a real world report to learn what it is like to rip out carpets, hardwoods, cabinets, walls, base boards, and whatever else that gets in our way. Until then - thanks for reading!