Views from the Fortress

The Kitchen Hill

Over the last month the kitchen floor has been swelling. For some reason when they lay linoleum they don't rip out the old floor first they just lay the new linoleum on top of the floor and don't even glue it down. While this seemed strange to us when they first did it we didn't question it. Then a few weeks later the middle of our kitchen began to rise creating a big bump in the middle of the floor. Marvin and I think that there must have been water in the wood that was always there, but with the air circulation it was able to dry the boards out without them warping, once covered with linoleum there was no circulation and thus the bump developed.

The first picture you can see which boards where warping as they look them out so we weren't tripping over them. However they semi took up the linoleum, and left this roll in the floor that we now have to dodge when we are using the kitchen. The problem with this little roll is we can't just roll it up to one side, as we either can't get to the cabinets or open the freezer, so it remains in the center of the room. I about face planted into it the other night when I woke up so hungry and sleepily made my way to the kitchen for some milk. Apparently that isn't a good idea when you are extremely tired and there is a roll of linoleum in the middle of the floor.

Marvin and I decided it would make a great hill for matchbox cars races, or even a good step aerobics step, so that you can get some exercise while cooking. Unfortunately those are a thing of the past and they will have to rip up the floor and lay a piece of plywood/particle board down to fix the problem. This means that they have to take everything out of the kitchen once again. What a nightmare. The last picture is of the dining room where they ripped the floor boards out and while they were out getting buying the board for the floor I snapped a picture.

Bathroom Upheaval

Our friend "Sledge" was back to rip out all the tiles in the bathroom floor and he finally finished last weekend, so they started mudding the walls to prepare them for the tile work that will take place. As they were working they noticed a problem with the sewer line and began to investigate it. What they found was that the line did a little squiggly action for some reason and was starting to corrode, so in order to fix it they had to tear out the floor to replace the entire sewer lines, which lead to a huge pile of rubble in the bathroom floor. All of us were very perplexed at why they would put a sewer pipe that had so many turns, but like a lot of things here they just don't make any sense.