Bad Discovery:

Last night, Teague’s father came over to help us assess the foundation problems. (We’re planning to jack up the beams in the basement and try to level the place before doing any interior work.) While poking around, he discovered a cracked pipe coming into the basement. We now know why the downstairs bathroom smells like a litter box – and it isn’t all the cat’s fault. A pipe running from the second floor to the basement (draining the shower, sink, and toilet water) has a large crack running all the way down it – meaning, it’s been leaking dirty toilet water and emptying it into the basement for years.

So, for now we’re using the (disgusting) downstairs bathroom toilet so we don’t flush more sewage into our basement. Teague is going to replace the cracked pipe this weekend, and he has been insulating the basement so that we don’t get any new cracked pipes this winter.

Good Discovery:

We have tin ceiling tiles and fancy molding stashed all over this house. There is tin under acoustic tiles in the upstairs hallway ceiling, and also in one of the upstairs bedrooms. There is tin and egg-and-dart molding hidden under the kitchen ceiling, which we can get to through a door in the floor of the second floor bathroom. The annex (a room on the back of the house that has been closed off and neglected for years and years) is also hiding tin ceilings and tin molding. It also has base molding, a nice closet door, and a radiator we can use elsewhere since we plan on pulling it down anyway.

I’m very thankful for the good finds, since they help keep our spirits up when it seems that nothing was left in proper working order. I don’t know how the previous owners could stand to let the place fall apart the way that they did, but I know that the house is smiling at us with each little fix we do. (So are the neighbors!)