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Week 8 Journal: Grrrr. Plumbing, Take Two.

by on Aug 2, 2012


Last week, we failed our first plumbing inspection. Horribly. This week, the inspector came back and kindly failed us again. Read on to watch my weekly video update, and find out why I have $300 worth of PVC fittings in the back of my car.

So, yeah. The inspection was on Monday, and just like last week, he failed us within a minute of walking in the door. I fixed the toilet venting (as he asked), but didn’t fix the shower vent (as he claims he asked, but I beg to differ). 

Every time I make a trip to the hardware store to pick up PVC fittings, I end up with several extras (I never know exactly which angles or sizes will work best, so I always just pick up several). So, now, and at least seven plumbing-related hardware-store trips, I have a giant box with hundreds of dollars worth of spare fittings lying around. And still no green light on the bathroom!

This time, I kept the dude around for way longer than he preferred, making him explain exactly what he wanted me to fix. And then, since his next inspection appointment ins’t for another week (again), I made him schedule three in a row, on consecutive days, just so we wouldn’t have to wait another week if we fail next time. 

So we fixed the stupid shower vent, pressure-tested the whole system, and should be ready to go for next Monday. Seriously. It’s gonna be awesome. Promise.

After that, we spent the rest of the week sheetrocking whatever we could (basically everything except the bathroom). Although we initially planned to try to save most of the walls, once we got going it became clear it be easier (and smarter) to tear most of them down to the lathe. So, that meant three more days of nasty, messy demo, and then long, frantic days to putting up sheetrock late into the night. This plumbing crap has pushed us way off schedule, so we need to make up some time.

A striped wall in the interior of a house showing the slat boards around a large window.

A room is has been stripped of wall coverings and a large piece of plywood rests against a wall.

A shop vac on the floor near a wood wall near a window.

A room under construction with a vacuum cleaner and white boards leaning on the wall.

The nice thing is, with sheetrock up on most of the walls, the place is starting to look downright inhabitable again, and that’s a good feeling. Now if our inspector can just find it in his heart to let us move on with our lives, that’ll be a really good feeling.

See you next week!

This is a post in the Curbly House series! Follow along as we document every step of our complete home makeover, from gutting the walls to putting up the finishing touches. And don’t forget to let us know what you think in the comments! 

Our bathroom remodel is being sponsored by Kohler and ModWalls.com. We’re so thankful for their help with this project! Still, all opinions in this post are my alone.

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