As you may recall from our last post Remediation – Down the Rabbit Hole, we encountered an array of mishaps around mould, the electrical and the foundation. The next day I awake from the rabbit hole and ask ‘was it all a dream?’ Sadly I think not. I truly believe instead I have entered a nightmare. Today we must face the house again, continue demolition and line up trades on this nightmare renovation project.

You know, I had always said that I would love to become a house flipper. Well I believe this house is intended to test that dream. As you will see this house pretty much combines every home reno show gone bad into one house. So a true learning on all scales. To the point that our remediation specialist and realtor have never seen anything like it. Well now that says a lot and is somewhat frightening. However I think more frighteningly, is that it has not turned me off of the idea… yet. Even my realtor was shocked at this admittance. Again… family may be right on their thinking of us being somewhat crazy! I actually think my husband is starting to believe it as well. But not me… as I always say we will persevere.

(Please keep in mind that this post is slightly out of sequence due to the legal issues we have pursued, which will become more clear as you read further.)

Demolition and lining up trades

So to the house we go. As we enter, we are stopped in our tracks once again by that smell… what is that smell? Will it ever go away? With another shake to our heads we focus on the task at hand, putting our demolition to do list together and lining up trades for the renovation. Finish removal of the carpet downstairs, demo bathroom upstairs, prep floors, prep walls, clear out the storage room, get another foundation quote, get electrical quote and get furnace installed. Ah yes and book another dumpster. This should be doable in a week, right?

Carpet removal

We start in the basement with removing the carpet from the orange room. This is a difficult task, as the carpet is glued to the floor. We start by cutting the carpet into strips and then scrape them up with a floor scraper we purchased. Again, a gagging 45 year old dust cloud forms. Thankfully we are wearing our masks. My husband starts this task, but as it is exhausting work, I try to give him a break and help. HA! HA! That is funny. This is where I begin to realize my lack of body strength. Maybe I should stick to design work. So he continues to tackle the orange room and I attempt removing the carpet from the stairs. It’s not glued down. This should be easy. Ah… high pitched laughter! Nope… no strength here either. I am very thankful for my Heman husband!

Maybe it is time for a coffee run? I am sure I can manage that. But no, I decide to take on a much more exciting task….

Floor prep

I move upstairs where the carpet has already been removed and now needs to be prepped for the vinyl flooring. Have you ever removed carpet and then prepped the floor for installing new flooring? If not… well let me explain. You see when carpet is installed in the traditional fashion, it is stapled down. So when you rip it up, the staples remain in the floor. The only way to remove them… you must pull them out by hand. Yes by hand!

So on hands and knees, with pliers in hand, I begin to pull staples from the living room floor… one by one. Ugh… I think I would rather be at the dentist having my teeth pulled than pulling staples from a floor. But this is critical work that needs to be done. It can also be hard on your hands and wrists. Always make sure you take stretching breaks and break up the repetitive motion. After a couple of hours, I have only removed about a third of the staples. How many can there be? And I haven’t even started in the bedrooms. I think I may be dreaming of this tonight! Needing a break from those beloved staples, I decide it is time to go for coffee! After a coffee break, I return to more staple and carpet removal.

Debris removal

With all of the demo material accumulating we need to remove the debris. So we start with booking the dumpster. Easy, as we use the same guys from last time. It is scheduled for Monday morning delivery at 10am. Or so we think… Ah the anticipation is killing me… or is it that smell. Ummm, not sure.

As Monday arrives we aim for an early start to ensure we are ready for the 10am arrival of the dumpster. Excited… as today is the day for clearing demo debris and other items left behind by the seller. He did say 10am right? As 10am and 11am roll by, still no dumpster. Oh darn… more staples as we wait. By 11:30am… still waiting. So with a call into them, we find out they are behind, but should be there within an hour and a half. Crap. But a good reason to take a lunch break! So 1pm… 2pm… 2:30pm and still no dumpster. And no call. I place another call and finally they arrive at 3pm. Seriously? So a whole day is gone without getting done what we wanted. The lack of service out here continues. So frustrating! I guess tomorrow will now be debris removal day.

Lining up trades for the renovation

So as we wait for the dumpster and my husband continues the heavy lifting of the demolition, I try lining up some trades for the renovation. Focusing on quotes for electrical and foundation work.

Do you remember in Demolition Day – the Acorn Mystery I mentioned struggling to get trades out to the house. Well this dilemma continues. Several phone calls and emails out to electricians and to foundation repair companies and no response! Ok one, but saying again they don’t work in that area. You would think we are renovating on another planet with these types of responses. I guess business must be really good. So where do we go from here? Well my next strategy is to ask our remediation guy if he can recommend anyone.

The next day we meet with the remediation guy. We show him all the issues discovered after the wall removals: the rot, studs, foundation and electrical issues. He is quite shocked and says he has never seen anything like it and figures there must have been decades worth of moisture issues to cause this extent of damage. We ask if he has any contacts for the foundation and electrical. Thankfully he does and we are able to get people in to take a look within the next couple of days. Good news!

Electrical

So let’s start with electrical. As this one is shocking (no pun intended) and funny all at the same time. The electrician shows up and starts to inspect the electrical throughout the house. Beginning in the basement… he states that there is not much work to do here, we just need to address the areas impacted by moisture. He does not seem to anxious about the basement. I guess this is good.

Then we go upstairs to the kitchen. Well this is a different story altogether. Here, he is horrified by the state of the wiring, and I have to say looks a little shell shocked. Not good if you are shocking an electrician. He states this area needs to be completely redone, including some of the wiring going into the bathroom.

Next we check the main panel and sub panel and see if they need upgrading. Through this process, we take him into the workshop that is so overloaded the only way to maneuver is to climb over all the crap. Can someone say safety hazard! It is at this moment my husband decides to ask the electrician ‘if this were his house, what would he do?’. Keep in mind he is only referring to what he would do with the electrical in the house. In response, somewhat disgusted, the electrician says “I would knock it down”. Did he really just say that? Obviously missing the point of the question and totally dissing the house. My husband is stunned by the response. I also feel the house start to weep in that moment… ashamed and saddened. Don’t worry house we are not going to knock you down.

I have to say it was the funniest moment of the few days, and I am laughing as I am writing this. You just can’t make this stuff up! Unfortunately my husband did not see the same humour in it and kept repeating the words ‘knock it down’ throughout the day in total disbelief that the man had actually said it. The positive… the quote came in within the range we thought it would… unfortunately, just not a budgeted cost.

Foundation

Then came the foundation quote… Remember when I said we were relieved because the last foundation quote came in with fairly minor repairs? Well let’s just say that with the walls opened up it tells a very different story, and all we got was “this is going to be a lot of work and cost a lot of money”. We have gone from only having to repair a couple of cracks, to now having to dig out the whole foundation, waterproof it, install a french drain system and repair around windows. Oh joy! The laughter has now subsided. Sadly I am not sure what a lot of money means, as we have still not received a quote.

Land drainage

If your head is spinning at all of this, just hold on for the ‘pièce de résistance!’ As the best is yet to come. (Intro legal foreshadowing).

As we are leaving after a bad day, our neighbour comes by to introduce themselves. I think, what a nice way to end the day, until she says ‘if you would like pictures of the waterfall in your yard, let me know, as it may help with your plans’. What is she talking about? We have no water feature in our yard. ‘I’m sorry, I am not sure what you mean?’ I ask. “Did they not tell you?” she asks. Still confused… she continues to explain that during spring runoff we have a waterfall that runs through our yard along the side of the house. What? I am now feeling a little stunned and nauseous again. This nausea seems to be a theme. So now we have significant drainage issues that need addressing. Well I guess that explains more about the house’s moisture issues.

Trying to make light of the situation. I turn to my husband and say ‘maybe we can make the waterfall into a water feature… it could be pretty’. As I do love a water feature in a yard. The neighbour laughed, my husband not so much. He is looking a little green around the gills. Well that was just the topping on the cake and definitely our key to leave for the day!

Furnace install

The one positive that came out of this trip, was the installation of the furnace. They came in for two days and removed the old wood and oil burners and replaced them with a high efficiency gas furnace. So now our house is safe on the heating front, and no longer a fire hazard. Well at least not from the furnace.

To sell or not to sell

So are you all sitting there a little bit bewildered and wondering ‘what have you done?’. Well don’t worry, you are not alone. We are heading down this path ourselves, and wondering did we buy our dream or did we buy a nightmare. Unfortunately the latter is resonating a little more at this moment. And I have to admit we are wondering should we just sell and cut our losses or do we keep going. Not sure how much more perseverance I have in me. And the light on the happy ending is becoming dimmer. But shhhh…. don’t tell the house, as I think it may not take it very well. Stay tuned… what will we decide? What side of us will materialize, Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?