HVAC - $70k Plumbing - $110k & counting Electrical - $80k & counting Remodel - $25k & counting My perspective was that I stole this house. it's potentially worth multiple millions more than I paid for it. My perspective is that I'm earning this house. Nobody else found the heritage. Nobody else recognized the potential. Nobody else had any ideas to fix the problems. Nobody else has any insight into realizing what this house should be. The builder is a presence in that house. I've come to regard him as a friendly ghost, and I try to keep him in mind when I change things. What would he think of the changes? It's pretty much my version of feng shui and honoring the architectural legacy of the property. And the happiest perspective is that my friendly ghost went "hey, so long as you're completely rebuilding that non-room into the centerpiece of the house, maybe you should do something about the galvanized pipe you didn't know about." There's foundation on four sides of that room. There's no access to it. It's non-pressure-treated lumber on top of partially-demolished concrete patio, no vapor barrier, no insulation. I'm having to go up'n'over with electrical, plumbing and data (and maybe central vac; still undecided) because we had no access to that space; since it's all gotta come out anyway I'm totally revising that. The question is how to build in access in the future. That lack of access turned out to be a blessing, really. That pipe started leaking Friday or Saturday. The water seeped into the ground and flowed downhill, under the garage, under one patio, under a sequoia, down a foundation and into the shop where I spent the week mopping it out with towels. By the time my impromptu pond had filled up enough for the scrap wood to bonk and bump against the joists in the current from the very impressive leak I, had started to rationalize that it wasn't an uncapped clean-out flowing with rainwater and it wasn't a cracked spout drain. But the lack of moisture anywhere in the house also allowed the leak to go for six days because I thought it was a quirk of the house. If it had sprung anywhere but there it would have destroyed subfloors throughout the house. As it is I've got a single room's worth of floor to redo, and it's the floor that I should do anyway because it isn't legal, it isn't energy-efficient and it isn't convenient to all the other shit I need to do.
