{"id":2777,"date":"2016-08-08T16:10:10","date_gmt":"2016-08-08T23:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/?p=2777"},"modified":"2016-08-07T16:40:01","modified_gmt":"2016-08-07T23:40:01","slug":"a-major-renovation-and-a-bit-of-a-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2016\/08\/08\/a-major-renovation-and-a-bit-of-a-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"A major renovation — and a bit of a disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve lived in this house for seventeen years, and our floor tile was showing its age. It hadn’t been the best quality in the first place, and it chipped and pitted at the slightest excuse. In addition, it was beige, and I’m royally tired of browns, tans, and beiges! We made the decision to replace all of the tile, this time with porcelain tile of much better quality. Of course, having someone working on the flooring means that all of the furniture had to be moved out, so we spent a couple of weeks packing up books, pictures, and the other things that personalize a home, and then we moved the furniture to the garage and to the two bedrooms that were going to keep their carpeting. We used sheets of plastic and strong tape to close off kitchen cabinets, closets, and\u00a0anything else that needed protection, and then we left on the cruise I’ve been telling you about. One of our daughters came over each day to unlock the house and lock it up again when the workers were finished.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1405\"<\/a>
Kitchen and dining area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG_1406\"<\/a>
Living room<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is what a couple of the rooms looked like before the new tile went in. Isn’t that laminate\u00a0flooring in the living room just crying out to be replaced? \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

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We came home at around 10PM on a Sunday and walked in the door to thick dust on every surface. We’d expected some mess, but this was beyond anything we’d anticipated! Okay, the bedrooms were still habitable (though crowded with furniture), so we unpacked and went to bed. We spent the next two days cleaning: we vacuumed walls and windows, swept and mopped floors, cleaned splattered grout off of walls and window blinds, scrubbed bathrooms, etc. On the third day we moved the furniture back in and began the unpacking process. Once that was done, we were happy with the tile.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1687\"<\/a>
Kitchen and dining area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG_1686\"<\/a>
Living room<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here are the same rooms after the new tile went in! As you can see, the new tile is grey and rectangular instead of square.<\/p>\n

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All was well until yesterday, two weeks after coming home. That morning, the water in the bathrooms began refusing to drain; in fact, water was even leaking from the bottom of one of the toilets where it meets the floor! Ack! Have you ever tried to find a plumber on a Saturday? It’s not easy, believe me. (Note to self: schedule all future plumbing emergencies for weekdays.) We did find plumbers to come out, and they spent almost six hours working on our problem. What was that\u00a0problem? Well, apparently the flooring people had dumped thin set down the toilet drain; thin set turns into something closely resembling concrete. Things seemed\u00a0fine until the ball of solidified concrete reached an L-joint in the pipes, and that’s where it stopped dead. In addition, it seems that one of the toilets had been put back into place (they had to be removed during the work, of course) without a proper wax “honeycomb” in place. No wonder things were so bad!<\/p>\n

But we’ve got all of the pipes back in order now, the floors are mopped, the cleanup towels are laundered, and I really do like the new tile!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve lived in this house for seventeen years, and our floor tile was showing its age. It hadn’t been the best quality in the first place, and it chipped and pitted at the slightest excuse. In addition, it was beige, and I’m royally tired of browns, tans, and beiges! We made the decision to replace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[313],"class_list":{"0":"post-2777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-home","9":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/IMG_1686.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5yzuO-IN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2646,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2016\/07\/01\/baby-bib\/","url_meta":{"origin":2777,"position":0},"title":"Baby bib","author":"Sandy","date":"July 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm in the middle of\u00a0packing away most of my quilting paraphernalia, as well as most of my house, in anticipation of some new tile being laid in the not-too-distant future. What makes this doubly difficult is that the old tile must be taken out first; given that both \"sets\" of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Embroidery"","block_context":{"text":"Embroidery","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/embroidery\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bib for Stephanie","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/IMG_1391-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1515,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2010\/07\/24\/its-hot\/","url_meta":{"origin":2777,"position":1},"title":"It’s *hot*!","author":"Sandy","date":"July 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Las Vegas area is hot in the summertime. That's just a fact of life. But our little Bisou has the right idea -- just cool off any way you can. So she lies on the cool tile floors when possible, and each time either of us gets ice for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/IMG_3022.jpg?fit=1000%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/IMG_3022.jpg?fit=1000%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/IMG_3022.jpg?fit=1000%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/IMG_3022.jpg?fit=1000%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3112,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2017\/08\/06\/portugal-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2777,"position":2},"title":"Portugal, part 2","author":"Sandy","date":"August 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"As the more \"formal\" portion of our Lisbon stay began, we visited several different areas of the city. One of our stops was at the Monument to the Discoveries, where we saw this amazing map of the Portuguese world during the height of its world dominance. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/travel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Bus-tour-of-parts-of-Lisbon-2.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Bus-tour-of-parts-of-Lisbon-2.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Bus-tour-of-parts-of-Lisbon-2.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Bus-tour-of-parts-of-Lisbon-2.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3094,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2017\/08\/04\/portugal\/","url_meta":{"origin":2777,"position":3},"title":"Portugal!","author":"Sandy","date":"August 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"My husband and I have recently returned from another Viking River Cruise, this time along the Douro River in Portugal. I'd never been to Portugal before and had heard that it was beautiful, but I'd had no idea of exactly how beautiful it is! We enjoyed lovely warm weather and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/travel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Restaurants-Lisbon.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Restaurants-Lisbon.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Restaurants-Lisbon.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Restaurants-Lisbon.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2952,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2017\/01\/31\/facelift\/","url_meta":{"origin":2777,"position":4},"title":"Facelift","author":"Sandy","date":"January 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in August, I wrote in this post about having some lovely new tile installed in our home. 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Unfortunately, the people who installed it did a terrible job, and the piece that went\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the kitchen"","block_context":{"text":"In the kitchen","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/kitchen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"backsplash in, project finished","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/IMG_1363-scaled.jpeg?fit=1200%2C816&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/IMG_1363-scaled.jpeg?fit=1200%2C816&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/IMG_1363-scaled.jpeg?fit=1200%2C816&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/IMG_1363-scaled.jpeg?fit=1200%2C816&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/IMG_1363-scaled.jpeg?fit=1200%2C816&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2784,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777\/revisions\/2784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}