Since I bought my house in mid July, I have been taking pictures of every aspect of work being performed on it. Everyday is another adventure, whether it be a live bat in the basement, electrical outlets from Frankenstein's laboratory, mold underneath wallpaper below a window sill, live, bare copper wires gently tucked into attic insulation, or a garage that teetered when you gave a wall a push, it's been an exciting time and a jump start on my handy man skills. The joys of an older home. Mine was built in 1935, so while it's not very old by most standards, it's still has some surprises.
While in the inspection phase prior to purchase, we had a wildlife guy come out and inspect for more bats after I found the live one flopping around in the basement. He claimed to see evidence but we have reason to believe he's a little crooked. The chimney experts didn't see a thing when they sent a camera up and down and looked down from the top.
American Chimney did an inspection and for $789, did various work including a new crown, new chimney cap, tuck pointing, fixing a problem in the firebox, etc.
Here is the condition of the chimney upon purchase of the house.
Looking straight down
Anthony Plumbing, Heating and Cooling put in a new sump pump in the corner of the basement, as well as jackhammered an old trap up and replaced it with pvc and added a new utility sink, washer hookups, etc.
Old sump pump
[glow=red,2,300]Before[/glow]
[glow=red,2,300]
After[/glow]
Yes, we Drylok'd the walls. It's a pretty damp basement. Stone basements are supposed to breathe, but this one was pretty wet. We put hydro patch into the deep crevices where water came through, then applied Drylok to the walls. After 4 days, yellow mineral stains showed up on the Drylok, as well as some mold. We purchased a second dehumidifier (the previous owner left me her old one) and run them both 24 hours a day. They dried things up and then we coated the Drylok with Kilz and so far no stains have come through. Basement is dry as a bone now. Check out before and after pics on this one!
Mold showed up after painting (not efflouressence)
Small leak
Before
After (Workbench came with the house, I fixed it up and leveled it, just need to make drawers)
Before
After (I removed the pipes from the old gravity furnace and patched them with concrete)
Other basement pictures:
Prepping the wall
Next Time on Pumpkin's Old House we'll watch as the one car detached garage gets torn down.
