I’m getting pretty good at this monthly posting routine… which probably means I owe everyone following along with us an apology.
Let’s catch up! Honestly, we’ve been stuck in pretty much the same cycle all summer and into fall: dig around the foundation, repoint the brick, backfill, and keep going.
But there’s one thing I forgot to mention earlier—and you just can’t make this stuff up.
Shortly before our daughter gave birth to our granddaughter in September, the cast-iron drain stack in her house cracked and started leaking. She lives in a 100-year-old house, too. They’d just gotten the house and the baby’s room ready for her arrival, and suddenly plumbers were tearing open walls and ceilings in the dining room, kitchen, and baby’s room. What a mess.
It was a mad scramble to put everything back together before the baby arrived, but somehow we managed to finish the day before. Whew!
And as luck would have it, a few days later, while excavating around our own house for the foundation work, we uncovered our cast-iron drain. And yes, ours was cracked, too. Thankfully, it wasn’t leaking, but the top of the pipe was cracked right at the foundation wall.
We had two of these pipes exiting the house, joining up through clay pipes that eventually connected to the main PVC sewer line about 15–20 feet away. After waiting more than a month for the plumber to get to it, I gave up and fixed it myself this past weekend.
I know the plumber would have come if I’d made a deal out of it, or it was an emergency, but the truth is, we’ve had so much going on that chasing him down and coordinating the work wasn’t at the top of my priority list. In the end, it was easier to order what we needed and get on with it. So that’s what we did.
We didn’t get all the foundation work finished that I’d hoped to—I think we’re about 20 feet shy—but we got the majority of it done, so I’m calling it a win. The rest can wiat till spring or summer next year. What left is what we expect to demolish and replace anyway, so it’s not a big deal.
We also got grass seed planted in the area we graded about a month ago, and it’s coming up. It’s just annual rye, but it comes up fast and should help hold things together over the winter until we can get some fescue planted. We’ve just about got the outside buttoned up for winter.
Speaking of winter, now that it’s getting colder, I’m hoping to get back to the parlor restoration. I still have some brick repairs to tackle where old HVAC vents were abandoned, along with plenty of plaster and woodwork repairs. With any luck, We’ll get the limewashing finished and have us back in the room before spring.
Feels like a tall order, but we’ll see how it goes. Stay tuned!
