02.28.12.: Week 3|17 Recap

This week we have little to report in the visually stunning category…  as the focus was mostly plumbing and HVAC stuff.  The plumber spent a good part of the week roughing in all the plumbing for the bathrooms, as the kitchens were pretty much wrapped up last week.  Then came the lovely task of tying all that in to the main lines.

We knew that although the building’s structure and heating systems were in pretty decent shape, the plumbing was a mess.  The old owner had let the lines freeze, so many of them were ruptured.  There are actually accounts from the neighbors of ice waterfalls going down the outside of the building at one point!  Wow.  So we already knew that most of the water lines were going to have to be replaced.  What we didn’t know was that the plumbing work that had been done on the building was pretty shoddy.

Luckily it seems even though we hadn’t planned for all of this, our plumber did (whew).  Of the four drains in the basement, only two of them even take water.  And one of those was about 75% blocked, because the guy who installed it used pipe that was about half the size it should be.  You can see the floor dug up below, as they are replacing that pipe with one of the correct size.  At some point there was a sighting of The Creature From the Black Lagoon when our plumber tried running water through one of these drains.  We didn’t have the pleasure of witnessing this, but the lingering smell is enough.  Yuck.

The part of the plumbing system that’s in great shape is the original stuff.  The toilets have gigantic cast iron pipes that have definitely withstood the test of time.  We were able to keep that system, apart from having to put on new fittings for the toilets.  You can see here the plumber soldering them on.  Apparently this is a big deal because nobody does this anymore, now that all the new stuff is built with PVC.  It’s a good thing our plumber’s got those oldskool skills.

Here you can see the studio apartment’s bathroom all ready with toilet and tub:

Don’t worry though, it wasn’t ALL boring utilitarian stuff this week.  Remember the debate we had about the studio apartment kitchen, the options A,B,C… whether or not to keep the pantry?  Well we kept it and made good progress this week sanding and repairing it so that it will actually work!

And do you remember the results of the Social Media Design Review about whether or not to loft the bedroom in the First Floor Apartment?  We decided not to, and instead to have a “normal” bedroom with a large set of pocket doors opening onto the living/kitchen area.  This week the walls for that were framed in.  This apartment is going to be so cool with its super-high ceilings!

And that’s it for week #3…  stay tuned to see whether or not that plumber can keep The Creature at bay.  And also for some finish work that’s soon to come (can’t believe how fast it’s all going!)