Rest for the Weary

If you’ve read the previous blogs in my remodeling series, you know we’ve been working on a fixer upper since last October.  We originally planned to spend at least a year or more, getting it to the point it is in today.  Things jumped into the fast lane in January, when our son, Stephen, announced that he and his fiancee, Liz, had decided to have their wedding at the Cullman house.  Not only that, the wedding would take place on May 31st, only 4 months away!  I think everyone panicked except me.  I thought we had plenty of time to get everything done.  I was, of course, wrong!

It was planned as an outdoor wedding so there was quite a bit of pressure to get the yard right.  By “right”, I mean tolerable.  The lawn had been badly neglected so I knew there wouldn’t be lush green grass for everyone to walk on.  I made a valiant effort in sowing a 50 lb. bag of seed over two acres for four weekends in a row, but it just didn’t happen.  The temperatures stayed cooler for longer this spring and there were heavy rains after every seeding.  Seeds float well, so I have some beautiful grass coming up on the lower end of the property.

I ended up lowering my target to removing all the honeysuckle, poison ivy, and tree stumps to avoid trips and rashes.  We accomplished that goal pretty well but it was still a lot of work.  We put up an arbor under a tall sycamore tree which just happened to have a climbing rose-bush that had miraculously survived the overgrowth purge.  I found the arbor to be an amazing “female magnet”.  As the guys worked on the house or yard, you could quite often look down at the arbor and see a group of ladies discussing how to decorate it.  Countless hours seemed to go into that process for a fifteen minute ceremony.  Another thing I noticed as the ladies worked on the arbor, the most minute changes or additions had to “sit” and wait a period of time for approval.   The arbor came together beautifully for the wedding, but was only finished the day before!

  

It was really the first time the house had “guests” so we had list after list of small things to get done.  Things like putting door knobs on bathroom doors, placing light fixtures in multiple rooms, painting walls, putting baseboards down, etc.  We even cleaned and painted the two car garage as a backup just in case of bad weather.  In the end, we pulled it off with only a slight case of exhaustion.  We even coined the time change of “A.W.”  Next May will be year 1 A.W. (After Wedding).  If you would like to see a short video summary of the wedding, click here!

Judy and I have taken these past two weeks trying to rest and recuperate.  It’s difficult to adjust to the “empty nest” lifestyle but I’m quickly getting the hang of it.  I do know we have a spare bedroom that is the cleanest I’ve seen it in years!

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the work and wedding.  The list is long and I’ll not name anyone for fear of forgetting even one.  But from the bottom of our hearts, Judy and I appreciate all the help.  For all you other empty nesters out there, “Let’s party!”

Thanks for stopping by!

Need a Good Plumber?

I’ve never been much of a plumber.  I can do the simple stuff but usually have to do it twice due to leaks.  Plumbing is just one of those jobs where you need someone who has the tools and the talent to get the job done.  Sadly, some plumbers are driving BMW’s because of overcharging their customers.  Don’t you just hate to see those news clips where they remove a spark plug wire from a car and take it to a mechanic to get it fixed.  Hidden cameras then reveal their outright lies on what parts the car needs and the outrageous cost.  It may surprise you that there are ethically challenged plumbers who do the same thing.  I think it is a reflection of removing Christian teaching from society.  Truth just isn’t important to most, especially where financial opportunity exists.

About the same time we were getting estimates on our roof, I called nine different plumbers from “Angie’s List” for what I considered a small job.  We needed a water heater replaced and moved about ten feet to a new utility room I planned to remodel.  The washer and dryer connections would be moved as well.  Of all those called, only one called and set up an appointment for an estimate.  I won’t mention any names here, but only call him “Mr. Plummer”.  He came out and crawled under the house, looked at what needed to be done and gave me the following report; Your toilet in the rear bathroom is a mess, it needs to be reworked too.  The washing machine drain is tied into the septic system, we can redo that and give it a separate drain out the side of the house.  You can call when you’re ready to have that done.  For just the work here, it’ll be about $2000.00.  But that’s only if you make a new opening on this side so I don’t have to crawl so far.

I gave him a Dr. Pepper and we talked about it for a while.  In that conversation he said he wanted to begin working more in the Birmingham area because city people just pay more for work done at their houses.  He said the country folks here just won’t pay it.  I thanked him for coming and determined that after he left, I’d crawl under the house and investigate my plumbing “problems”.

I carried my camera with me and took numerous pictures of the pipes and bathroom drains.  I noticed immediately that the washing machine drain went in the opposite direction of the septic tank.  That alone was enough for me to forget that estimate. After taking it over with my wife, we decided to put off the plumbing job till later.  We could manage without it till our money supply got a little better.  I guessed that he was very high on his estimate, but I didn’t know just how high at the time.

Fast forward four months, I started calling plumbers again.  I had one to tell me that he was just too busy and to call somebody else or call back in the fall.  Another said he didn’t want to come out to look at it, but would just say it would cost between $500.00 and $900.00.  My last call was to Bark-ley plumbing in downtown Cullman.  Brady and Tim were at the house within a couple of hours.  I explained what we needed and brought out my pictures of the pipes in the crawl space.  I asked if he saw anything under the bathroom that needed attention, and the answer was “no”.  Tim still crawled underneath and looked at everything taking a few more pictures with his phone.  The estimate was $200.00 for materials and $600.00 for labor.  Brady also said he would try to beat that price if he could. We set the appointment up for a week away since I still had to raise the floor about two feet.  Water heaters don’t hang well in mid-air.  I wanted to do a good job on the floor but it would still be somewhat temporary, since I have to remove the outside siding, re-insulate, and rewire the entire room.  We were just tired of not having hot water, along with all the upcoming activities.  I’ll blog about those maybe next week.

Tuesday morning, Brady, Tim, Matt, and Nick showed up at 8:30 ready to go to work.  It’s unusual to see two plumbers let alone four.  I was suddenly seeing $$ signs.  Brady and Tim just showed the other two what needed to be done and turned them loose on it.  They worked all morning and finished by early afternoon.  I was impressed with the work that Matt and Nick did and they were able to answer all my questions.  I meant to take some pictures while they were under the house but had too much going on.  Hope the following will suffice…

And last but not least, let me add a picture of Matt and Nick.

The final bill ended up being $750.00, which was great in comparison with my first estimate.  If you need a good plumbing contractor, I would definitely recommend Bark-Ley!