Adventures (and Mishaps) in Home Renovation

I’ve been working hard on my little condo. I mean, hard.

Last week, I completed the ceiling. We had installed recessed lighting in the family room, dining area, and kitchen, and installed new drywall several months ago (yes…months), but had never finished the taping and mudding. So last week, I finished that up. By the end of the week, I had a smooth ceiling and a condo filled with white powdery dust covering every single surface.

After cleaning up most of the dust, I turned my attention to the wainscoting and built-in cabinets. I got so much done, and was feeling so proud of my progress this weekend. My goal last night was to put up the rest of the backing for the wainscoting before cleaning up and getting my condo in a livable state for the week. Things were moving along just fine…until…

I put a nail right through a copper water pipe.

Water started spraying from the wall, and began to cover my newly-painted floors. I frantically rushed out to the main water meter/cut-off valve to turn off the water, but even with our water turned off, the water still sprayed into the room. I called my parents, and they rushed over to assist. For over an hour while waiting for the plumber to arrive, my mom and I swept water out of the front door as fast as we could, while the water was still pouring into the room from the wall. In fact, there was so much water that it started seeping into our neighbors’ condos. The plumber also had difficulty finding where to turn the water off, so he ended up putting a temporary fix on the pipe just to stop the flow of water.

He came back this morning, turned off our water, as well as all of our neighbors’ water, and fixed the pipe. And now, $222 dollars later, we’re back in business…but left with a complete mess.

I’ve learned three important things through this.

  1. When putting nails in the wall, if you feel resistance, don’t assume it’s a stud.
  2. I’m so thankful for concrete floors!!! I don’t think other type of flooring would have made it through this ordeal unharmed.
  3. I should have been a plumber! $222 for about 2 hours of work? Wow!
What a mess!! At least it’s dry now. I couldn’t believe
how much water was coming out of such a small hole.
 
 
 
Happy decorating!
 
Do you have any remodeling mishap stories of your own? I’d love to hear them!!

 

 

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