A little more than a month ago, I wrote about clearing out my studio in preparation of rebuilding it. The need to rebuild came when my studio flooded at the beginning of February. Though it didn't really "flood" I was home to minimize the damage, but I did have a waterfall of water inside the house, and if I hadn't been there it really may have flooded. Not ideal in any way. I have never totally loved my studio because it was either very hot or very cold. The roof was not properly insulated, because it had no insulation when I moved in (it was advertised as a "bedroom" but was in actuality a small room partitioned off from the large enclose porch.) And the window didn't open. So when I watched the water flowing behind the walls I knew the room needed to be redone. And even while I watched the room being destroyed, and knew it would be expensive to fix, I knew that I could at least now have it done correctly.
My neighbor, Drew, is totally awesome. I told him I could help him over April vacation, though I warned him I am not skilled at construction. Other than insulation. I am however very good at following directions. When we got started it was with demo (I happen to love demo) and one of the first things Drew did was "open" the window. I was very excited that I would be able to get a new window that could open any time I wanted.
We then got down to the business of destroying the room. At one point Drew looked over and said, dam, you're fast. He said most of the guys he has hired kind of poke along and take their time. I said if you want to get things done, hire women. We are very efficient because we have no time. I know that is a major generalization, but most of the women I know ARE very efficient. Anyway, we completely opened up the side of my house!
That was when Drew saw that the floor that was in was not the right kind of subflooring. Just 2 layers of regular plywood. Why is so much work that is done in mobile homes done incorrectly? I actually know the answer to that question. It's because most professionals won't work on mobile homes. Or if they will, they charge a crazy amount more, because it's a mobile home. So people end up having to do things themselves. And so many people don't know what they are doing. And it shows.
Before we got the framing up for the outer wall, we rebuilt the entire floor. When it was done, Drew said OK, you're new porch is finished. And then I started having lovely daydreams. The big project for next year is going to be an open porch. I mentioned I have a long, enclosed porch, and now I want to open a piece of it. The enclosed porch is HOT in the summer, so not really usable. If we take down a bit of the outer porch wall next to the studio, build a deck flatform that is the same height as the studio, put a wall up on the side that goes into the rest of the enclose porch, and move the stairs (rebuild the stairs, they are awful), then I can have a little covered deck right next to the studio. And then I can be outside without my weird neighbors across the street watching me. I am even thinking we can build the deck out maybe an extra 3 or 4 feet into the yard and then I can put up a lattice wall (I am thinking a planter with lattice for climbing flowers) so I actually have some privacy. If we do it that way, then I will have a covered, but open deck, and a bit of open deck. And it all sounds so nice. I got so distracted daydreaming about that idea! It was short-lived because the first night we actually had to leave the whole side of my house open. That interior door was a hanging flimsy thing closed by a magnet. I was not comfortable that night. Especially after talking to my creepy neighbor across the street, who was sitting in his truck staring at my open house, asking a lot of stupid questions. We would have temporarily closed it up, but we didn't have the outer wall framing at the end of the first day.
As work progressed I forgot to take pictures a lot of the time. But the second night, when we put up the temporary wall, I remembered the picture. And I was much more comfortable sleeping that night. Other than the soreness. The construction workout is tough and you use muscles in ways you don't normally. During quarantine I actually got super fit doing construction. And I still maintain that I am not skilled at construction, though I have helped with a lot of it.
Helping with construction was always something I just had to get through. But helping Drew with construction was actually pretty fun. He would randomly teach me things. I told him right from the start that I probably don't know the name of the tools, so just tell me what color it is (which worked until he asked me to get the yellow level, and both the levels in the yard were yellow, so we laughed about it). If I didn't understand something he wanted me to do he never acted like I should just know, he would say that he wasn't explaining it well, and he would explain it in a different way, or show me. He gave me gentle pushes to try things for myself, but never pushed too much if I was really uncomfortable with it. And he told me several times he liked working with me because he only had to tell me a thing once, and I did it. He had always been told he was mean and yelled too much. I said, you haven't yelled at me once. He said he had no reason to yell at me, he told me how to do a thing once, and I did it. With the people he has hired he will tell them, tell them again, and again, and again, and then he ends up yelling. The only time he had to tell me a thing more than once was when I didn't understand or when perimenopause got in the way and I forgot what he said. And I would say "I forgot what you just said" instead of pretending I got it.
Sometimes I just ended up watching him work and I learned some stuff that way too. Not that I am going to run out and start doing construction, but I did say to Drew if he has any big jobs this summer that he needs help on to let me know. Cleary, my house is needy and wants me to spend money on it. And I need more money to be able to fulfill those wishes.
Work continued and my new window went in. We got the house wrap on, Drew made sure the roof was totally fixed (it's metal, even when it leaks it's almost self-repairing, he just made sure it was totally repaired). And then I waited way too long for the siding guy to show up and do this little bit of siding. Which I currently don't have a picture of.
Things kept getting done, even though it was taking longer than I thought it would. But I don't do construction really, so I have no idea how long things take. But when everything is done correctly, it isn't a quick process.
Eventually, I had to go back to work and Drew was usually on his own to work. But he often ends up working alone so has come up with so many ways to do things when he doesn't have someone to help. Even just coming home and see things I learned all sorts of things that could have potentially helped me to insulate the ceiling correctly the first time around. But it was really great to have someone knowledgeable (and taller than me) to do it correctly. The thing I do know how do is insulation. So after work one day, when Drew gave me the go-ahead, I got into that.
It saved him some time and was something I could do without supervision/help. Not that it sped things up a whole lot, but it was not a super short job, so it saved him some time. Insulation is the easiest with 2 people, one to cut and one to install. But it's not hard to do it alone. It is another weird construction workout though.
As I was struggling with the staple hammer (which is super fun when insulating floors, but a PITA when insulating walls, when you need to staple inside the channel) I was wishing I knew where my staple gun is. It's slower, the traditional kind, and has a lot of control. I actually found it yesterday. It is in my tool bag. Who would put it there?
A lot of work got done that I wasn't a part of. My stupid job needed me to be there, so Drew was on his own a lot of the time. He did have another neighbor come and help him put up drywall in on the ceilings. Though he would have done some magic tricks to do it by himself. He's got a lot of really clever ideas for doing things alone. But I get it. If you do things enough you learn some tricks.
Drew absolute hated the old door in my studio (not gonna lie, I did too) and asked if he could replace it. We found this cool lattice door, with great ventilation, for reasonable money, and it just really brings everything together nicely.
The next step was painting, which was all on me. I used to like painting, but I think I like helping other people paint. I don't like doing it myself. And painting ceilings is about the worst thing ever. It's another weird construction related workout that makes your body hurt in very annoying ways.
Remember how several months ago I said Drew was already scheduled to redo my bathroom ceiling? He did that too. I have zero pictures of work in progress with that. But he did do it and we found the one nice thing about this whole project. There wasn't actually any water damage in the ceiling in there. What there was was ceiling tiles that shouldn't have been used in a bathroom, so the steam from showering warped and discolored them. Though anything on that side of the house got super sealed, in case water was coming in (the siding guy took care of that). I have decided I hate painting and I really hate painters tape. I spent a whole bunch of time putting it up to make sure I didn't wreck anything and the tape either didn't coming off (in the bathroom) didn't work (leaked paint under it in several spots) or other really annoying things. I am glad in the studio I got a plastic drop cloth to cover the entire floor. Otherwise I would have wrecked my pretty new floor and been very angry.
Are you ready for the absolute worst part of this story? I was definitely having some plumbing issues and every time a lot of water was used (laundry, dishes, showering) there was a smell in my house. So I asked Drew if he could help me look into it. What we discovered was the main drain pipe to the sewer was detached and there was a LAKE of sewage under my house! I had to have a professional team come out and clean about a 10 foot by 15 foot (and I don't know how deep) lake out from under my house. Because really, how often do you look under your house? I have no idea how long it was detached. I do know that the cleaning was extremely expensive and I am waiting for the project manager to send the report and photos to my insurance (which I forgot I had, or maybe I would have gone through them about the studio redo) to try to get that paid for. The extremely expensive reattachment of the pipe wasn't covered, since it is considered a "wearing item". Several non-helpful neighbors, that think they are helpful, say that the park should be responsible for that, because they are the ones that redid the sewer pipes. I said help me get proof of any of that. I wasn't living here when the sewer line was redone, I don't know who did it or when. I could go to court about it, but I don't have any sort of proof of negligence so I could just end up with even more costs. Not something I need.
But the end of the story was the cleaning company did an amazing job. They cleaned everything out and put down lime to kill anything that had seeped into the soil. It smells like dirt under there now. Dirt is a lovely smell. I am a little skittish about anything to do with plumbing now, because even though the plumber said he tugged on that pipe to make sure it was on there, this has been an expensive venture. I still have to get the underneath reinsulated where it was damaged, and a large section of skirting and framing needs to be replaced, but things are coming together. I just really need a break.
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