Second Floor Redo: Part 1

So as many of you know, Tyler and I have been doing a few projects around the house to get it ready to rent or sell sometime in the future (we're really not sure what we're doing, but whatevs, we're just fixing things in the meantime while we get our act together.)  Our BIG project was the deck, which is pretty close to being finished - so that post will be coming soon.  And then we just had a few little things we've been wanting to do, like new stoppers in the master bathroom sinks, and getting the HOA to fix the landscaping in front of our townhome, and I have a few Pinterest projects that are in-progress just to spruce the place up a bit.  Those are the types things I was planning to share in the "Home" section of the blog. What wasn't on the "Honey Do" list was a remodel of our second floor area....but it is now! :)

This past weekend, we had a BIG leak from our guest bath tub, which is on the 3rd floor, to our kitchen, which is on our 2nd floor.  We woke up to what I felt looked like this:

Okay - so it wasn't as extreme as THAT picture, but it was enough to soak the kitchen floor and cause me to almost go into cardiac arrest.  I had to take Monday off of work  juggle conference calls and deadlines from home on Monday while having several people come through our home to inspect the damage.  First was Steve, the plumber, from Baker Brothers.  I was a little unsure about Steve when he first showed up - he didn't talk much.  He came upstairs and the first real thing out of his mouth was, "Woah...your wood floors."  Yeah Steve, I noticed.  Exhibit 1, our bowed wood floors:

I've discovered that taking pictures of bowed wood floors is really hard, and this picture doesn't give it its due justice.  About 30 square feet of wood planks are bowed on the sides, creating what is a very curvy walking surface. When you run your feet over it in socks, you get a nice little foot massage.

I start to give Steve the details of our exciting weekend, and he gets his ladder so he can cut a hole in our ceiling.  Exhibit 2, our hole:

Hole.

Its a cute little hatch - but it makes me nervous that its an open invitation for little critters that live in our ceilings and walls to walk right into our house.  I haven't seen any rodents yet, but I'm keeping my eyes peeled.   In this picture you can also see a nice little line where two pieces of sheetrock meet - there are 3 more lines like that on our kitchen ceiling. Water was coming out of that a/c vent, as well as two pot lights that aren't pictured above.

So now that you're familiar with the crime scene, I'll fill you in on the rest.  Steve goes upstairs to fill up the bathtub, comes back down and gets on his ladder to stick his head up in the hole.  He informs me that there is no leak.  I inform him that there indeed is a leak - hence the situation with the floor and ceiling.  He inspected the other shower, the commodes, and the sinks upstairs, and sure enough, no leak.  I'm insistent that he needs to find something wrong, or I won't be paying him the $450 he had already written down on his invoice.  Soooo, we fill up the tub again, and he sticks his head back in the hole.  Then he tells me "I see the light!"  At this point, Steve has become more vocal, telling me about his past jobs, his girlfriend, and how he works too much at this job, I'm not sure if he's really opening up and talking about religion, or if he actually sees light in my ceiling.  Turns out - there was light in the darkness of my ceiling.  We fill up the tub ONE MORE TIME and let it keep running.  I'm downstairs inspecting the hole, and water comes pouring out.  After all of that - the overflow drain in the bathtub wasn't screwed in tightly.  Sigh.  He switched out a gasket for good measure, and took out his screwdriver, and voila, everything is fixed. Ridiculous. Steve leaves and charges me $459, which includes the $50 discount that I requested because it was advertised on their Facebook page.  Ugh.

Next comes Marty, the State Farm insurance adjuster. Now, I really can't say enough good things about State Farm.  Between my new car incident that happened last Christmas, and the terrifying experience of feeling like my ceiling was about to collapse, they have always been super nice, super helpful, and super reassuring that everything is going to be okay.  State Farm customer for life right here.  Marty was no different.  He came over, took a good look around, and explained everything in extreme detail of what would need to be done.  And when he could see I was starting to become overwhelmed, he took it upon himself to call the water mitigation guy to come out, AND the contractor, even though those tasks were my responsibility to take care of.  He even called a lawyer to see if we could possibly have a case against the builder's plumber, which he THINKS we might have.  He totally went above and beyond...thanks Marty!  So what did Marty tell me?  Here's the skinny:

• Wood floors in kitchen have to be torn up and replaced with new planks
• Entire wood floor in the kitchen/living room area need to be sanded and refinished
• To do that, all furniture must be moved out, including the stove and the refrigerator
• Baseboards in the entire area must be removed - new baseboards will be installed and painted
• Sheetrock over the kitchen needs to be torn out and replaced
• Entire ceiling needs to be retextured and painted.  He suggested we get the walls painted as well, so it all matches
• Light fixtures and drapes must be removed
• And finally, Nikki, Tyler, and Max must move into a hotel for at least a week while all the work is completed

Crazy, huh?  So the water mitigation man came out and, thankfully, no water ran down the insides of the side walls - that would have meant tearing out cabinents, backsplash, and basically a kitchen re-do.  Overall, his assessment was that everything is "damp."  No kidding.

Yesterday the contractor came out, and gave me the same assessment as Marty as far as what needed to be done.  And today, I met with the moving company for a quote to move out and store all of our furniture for a week.

Next steps are for the contractor to provide the final estimate and then for us to award the job.  Hopefully they'll let me swing by and check out how things are progressing as they're doing the work - I want to blog about it while Tyler, Max and I are on our staycation in a TBD hotel. :)  Get ready for the second floor redo to begin!