Closing on house today!!!

[MrRogers]

if it was around your sink then there is your problem!!!! look under the sink and see if the bottom of the sink cupbord is wet or has water damage. either the sink overflowed, or the pipes leaked at one time. sometimes it's something as easy as the supply line (the flexible water line that attaches from the main pipeing to the sink) could have come loose-this is common- I doubt it's going down the roof..more likey going down the inside of that cuppord and into the floor from under the cabinet. most times when people install tiles they stop at the cubbord kick plates then under the cubbord themselves it's just subfloor so that was probably the point of entry. and YES if water got in there it could stay trapped for a long time under the right conditions. one little drip if left untreated can cause one helluva a big mess!!

not sure about prices down there but I KNOW it's cheaper then up here..if you get subfloor what it is is a 4' x 4' piece of 1/4 plywood, it has a whole bunch of "x"'s on it. those x's are where you staple it to the main plywood flooring underneath it...up here I think they are about $10 for each sheet of subfloor, tile can go as low as 99 cents a square foot when it goes on sale, I think I seen stuff at menards when I was in the states last for close to 59 cents a square foot!!!!!!
tileing is EASY even for the 1st timer to put in as long as you take your time and get it nice and square and level! just watch a couple youtube video's and when you are at that point just let me know and I can give ya some pointers!

It turns out that the pipe beneath the sink was the most likely cause, so I am letting the flooring dry out and putting down a thin layer of cement slabs for the grout to go on, then tile it. A friend is helping me with it, we got the plumbing done today (replaced the stolen copper piping with PEX piping and I need to call the city to give me a water meter and turn my water on so at least I will have water haha, also gotta call NStar on Monday to get my Gas + Electric turned on. After that macgyver12 needs to help me get 120 volts

Besides that, I plan to keep the cabinets that are in the kitchen and buy my dream fridge even though it won't fit in the designated space made for a smaller fridge. I am going to put it off to the side of the room near the sliding glass doors, probably extend the counter top and leave the kitchen open for a while, while I get time + more money to build a reasonable island with granite to put the dishwasher under. Once I have more time + money I can take down the old cabinets and stuff and make a good sized countertop with room to fit the fridge. The original island is a piece of shit made from plywood (it is wayy oversized so it needs to be made a bit smaller, and I might even put a stove or another sink on the island). I made alot of headway today with getting the plumbing installed and ready to go (my gf sisters fiancee is a licensed plumber) so I got my hands dirty today with helping him line and mount the pex piping and then remove the older steel piping (which I can cut in to 4ft pieces and leave on the sidewalk I am sure someone will take steel for free haha). I still gotta get the lead removed/abated from the cast iron radiators, basement windows, hinges, door to basement, etc. And I have no clue on who to contact to do that since it will cost some $ up front for someone to do it and I need a certificate so that I can get my $5000 credit back that they are holding in escrow for 6 months until it gets done. It is basically an incentive for me to remove the lead to make it essentially "lead free", I do have kids so I don't want them coming in to contact with it and I need a certificate saying it's been removed, etc. I am hoping I can remove the lead from the radiators and just hire someone to abate the lead on one of the doors so it won't cost me anything and I can still get the certificate you know?

I will definitely hit you up though man, I really appreciate you wanting to offer help on my projects around the house, you have a nice house btw, love the bar haha.

I really need macgyver to get on here and gimme a call because I am dying here in the water, he's harder to get a hold of than the president..

[stomperz]

Won't they accept encapsulation (paint) of the radiators?
Lot of ways to remove the paint or encapsulation on the web.
Hate when kids eat the radiators.

Did 275 school chairs once helping my sister in law out of a bad time consuming jamb! Paint remover, pressure washer, lazy susan and sprayer.
I think time per chair was 3 beers or 15 min. Got a lot of beer for that job.

For the water I'd check the roof paying close attention to the vent. Use a hose or wait for a good rain.
I'm not a DIY-er.
Some of our jobs. http://brickwork.net/jobphotos.htm

[MrRogers]

Yeah I could try encapsulation but that just covers the lead paint and for radiators would probably affect the heating efficiency I would think, I am not a big fan of that.

I would rather get it all off and make sure it's done.

[justsomeguy]

one more piece of advice is after you remove all the crap that needs it, take your time and do ONE ROOM AT A TIME...don't just rush and slap it all together! save up and do each room how you want it done, if you just say throw crappy flooring down your gonna find yourself ripping it up in a couple years to replace it because all of a sudden your ol lady aint gonna like it no more, then you now have the cost of doing the job twice just so you could save a couple hundered bucks the first time around, then the second time around your gonna kick yourself because you coulda put that money towards something that you could have had in there for a long time....how I usually do my houses is save up for the most important rooms to you that you will be living in....bathroom's and kitchen's are the most expensive rooms to do, so really sit down and figure out what you want for these..these are always the last rooms I do in my houses. living rooms, bedrooms and rooms like that are usually fairly cheap and quick to do, but will keep your ol lady in a good mood because you see the progress quickly. but in your case you have to do that flooring ...so at the same time figure out what you want with what you said about the island and stuff like that because once it's done, it's done..a helluva lot easier to just do it once so take your time in planning!!!!

[CAPONE]

And for the love of GOD, DON'T FORGET TO TAKE YOUR MED'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MrRogers]

one more piece of advice is after you remove all the crap that needs it, take your time and do ONE ROOM AT A TIME...don't just rush and slap it all together! save up and do each room how you want it done, if you just say throw crappy flooring down your gonna find yourself ripping it up in a couple years to replace it because all of a sudden your ol lady aint gonna like it no more, then you now have the cost of doing the job twice just so you could save a couple hundered bucks the first time around, then the second time around your gonna kick yourself because you coulda put that money towards something that you could have had in there for a long time....how I usually do my houses is save up for the most important rooms to you that you will be living in....bathroom's and kitchen's are the most expensive rooms to do, so really sit down and figure out what you want for these..these are always the last rooms I do in my houses. living rooms, bedrooms and rooms like that are usually fairly cheap and quick to do, but will keep your ol lady in a good mood because you see the progress quickly. but in your case you have to do that flooring ...so at the same time figure out what you want with what you said about the island and stuff like that because once it's done, it's done..a helluva lot easier to just do it once so take your time in planning!!!!

I hear you buddy, she wants to keep the island but just make the top smaller so it takes up less room in the kitchen, I can stop by Home Depot to get the fake granite coutertop to replace it and keep the original island but the top of it will be smaller. I plan on taking your advice and doing the flooring the right way laying the flat cement stuff down over this flooring then grout it then tile it with porcelain tiles. The ones I was looking at is $1.89/sq ft, and I would say the kitchen is max of 14 x 12, and the tiles I believe have something like 20 in one box or something like that... With keeping the island we can keep the dishwasher there and make room for the fridge on the wall behind the island there and just put cabinets where the fridge should have gone to make it look normal.

I was thinking about removing most of the lead paint myself, that way to cut on the cost of the actual guy to do it and get my lead free certificate. I have some pictures of the floor torn up if you wanna take a look?

[MrRogers]

Here is a few shots of the kitchen floor so far bud:

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/7091/b0dn.jpg
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/9034/3rs9.jpg
http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/3404/y9gi.jpg
http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/8115/r7xh.jpg
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/1932/mgsi.jpg
http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/8933/q4jn.jpg
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/7821/f2z5.jpg

I think I should do my best and scrape whatever I can off (grout), and then lay the thin cement slabs down and mount them to the original floor, and then grout on it, then tile, sound about right?


Here are the shots of the basement after hooking the plumbing back up, have not had water turned on yet making appointment tomorrow for plumbing + electricity + gas.

http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/1370/uoic.jpg
http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/1857/wk9s.jpg
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/8611/qy57.jpg
http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/1526/34yg.jpg
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5551/si2f.jpg
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/127/tgh9.jpg


This is where the water comes in (it is lead):
I need to get a water meter from the city because there is none in the house

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/5346/kgdo.jpg


I paid my gf sisters fiancee $300 to help me re-hook all the old plumbing lines up in the house, he also helped to add the line for the hose in the back yard + lines for the washer. I did most of the hard work though, he basically handled soldering the copper that went up to the bathroom + kitchen, I took care of doing all the pex work he basically told me how and where to put it. I busted some ass man, also disconnected old boiler, moved hot water heat to a more reasonable spot. I am going to get a high efficiency boiler 96% for about $2,000 + an extra $500 (estimated) for additional parts, and he is gonna charge me $500 to hook it up in the basement, it is a wall mounted unit and I guess he needs to build something for it to sit on. Does roughly $3000 to have a boiler (all labor + parts) hooked up sound like a good deal?