Fliperati

Things were going too well and I knew I was due for some bad luck.  Here’s a summary of all the terrible things that happened today at my flip house.  When it rains it pours…

Leaky Shower Pipe?

I was pulling staples out of the living room floor late this afternoon when I noticed a small ribbon of water winding its way down the wall by the stairway.  I immediately knew it must be coming from the shower area directly over head and ran up to the bathroom to investigate.  It took me a few minutes to figure out that the water was simply spilling out of an open pipe that Clyde had cut while he was re-framing the shower area.  I couldn’t put a bucket immediately under the pipe and was forced to stand there trying to catch as much water as I could with a rag while I waited for Clyde to come take a look.  While I was waiting I grew very confused because I remember Clyde telling me that he had shut off all the water in the house.  I tested this by trying to flush the toilet and sure enough, nothing happened.  How could this pipe be dripping water if the all the water in the house is off????

Clyde showed up a few minutes later with the answer and a fix to the drip.  Apparently the water shut off valve in the basement is ancient and does not completely stop all the water coming into the house when it is in the off position.  To fix the shower drip, Clyde installed a valve on the pipe he had cut and the drip was gone.  Fortunately, the damage to the wall and ceiling below the bathroom is fairly easy to repair, so I breathed a sigh of relief that we caught the leak quickly and took care of it.

Premature Relief

Then I went down to the basement to see what the main shutoff valve looked like.  I heard the hiss of spraying water the minute I set foot on the steps and my heart sank.  Our theory is that this was probably the first time in many years that the shutoff valve had been used and it likely disintegrated when we turned it off to work on the shower.  Water was spraying everywhere and Clyde did his best to slow the flow to a small, steady stream.  The valve was practically useless and the only solution was to shut the water off at the street and replace it with a modern ball valve.  This required an emergency plumbing service since it was now almost 7 p.m.  We called several and the earliest anyone could come was in 45 minutes.  This left me stuck in the basement changing the small drip bucket every thre or four minutes to prevent the floor from getting soaked.

Of course the plumber was late and didn’t come until almost two hours later, by which point I was starving and exhausted.  In spite of his tardiness, I was ecstatic to see the guy and he quickly diagnosed and repaired the problem.  It cost me $450 (not in the budget!), but that’s a lot less than I would have spent cleaning up a flooded basement if the valve would have completely ruptured.

Time to Think

My ride home tonight was consumed by the news I got from the design-build firm I hired to draw-up plans for the new garage.  As if the plumbing issues weren’t enough, I also learned today that it would likely cost in the neighborhood of $25,000 to replace that wimpy single car detached garage in the backyard of the property.  I had less than $10,000 budgeted for this project and I thought that would allow plenty of room for cost overruns in construction of a simple wood frame garage.  The architect informed me that the high cost was largely due to the fact that I would need to rip out the existing concrete slab and replace it with a foundation buried three feet underground and covered with rock and cinderblocks to build the new garage according to local building codes.  I could not believe that such a simple structure would have to be constructed so painstakingly.  I may as well build a full addition to the house if I’m going to spend the time and money constructing a garage this rigid.

Now I’m not sure what to do.  Even if I shop the garage plans around, I can’t imagine anyone is going to quote me less than 50% of what the design-build firm estimated.  I could potentially find someone to slap up a simpler structure on a concrete slab (against code) and save many thousands of dollars, but I’m worried about not being able to get a certificate of occupancy when I sell the house if I rebuild the garage improperly.  The project is already on the building department’s radar since the architect has been working with them to get the plans approved, so I feel like my only option is to leave the garage standing as-is.  Would anyone pay good money for a beautifully renovated home with a ramshackle eyesore of a garage in the backyard?  It’s certainly not a selling point, but I can’t imagine it’ll prevent anyone from making an offer if they genuinely like the house and the neighborhood.  I’m going to show the plans to a few other builders and continue to mull this question.  Unfortunately, I don’t have much time to waste now that my target open house date is just over a month away.