It's been too long since I've updated you all on the #PierceHomeProject. I sat down last week and wrote out a long and detailed blog about how busy and crazy February has been. And of course I forgot to save the draft and it's all gone(score 1 for Mr. Messy).
I'll spare you the details(mainly because I don't fully understand what went down myself), but Thomas and I found out that we only had until February 12th to get all the repairs down required by HUD(Housing and Urban Development).
There was some miscommunication about what needed to be done and to what timeframe we'd been given. We were under the impression that we had until April 12th to have these repairs done, while the government was under the impression that our house would be livable by February 12th... Oops! (Score 2 for Mr. Messy)
The good news is that we got an extension for our deadline which is now April 12th!
The bad news is that we still have loads to do and that might require some band-aid methods.
Viewpoint from the kitchen looking into our living room which wasn't always visible. We knocked down the wall that divided the two rooms to make an open floor plan and added a beam.
The band-aid method is pretty simple. It's quick fixes to meet the standards of HUDs requirements long enough for them to inspect and approve, that later we will rip off and repair how we'd like them to be long term.
And while putting "band-aids" on problems is far from ideal, our deadline is approaching very quickly and a lot of these fixes will require some TLC if expected to last long term. Which we simply wont be able to get to do for every repair on our list.
Gutted kitchen and makeshift work tables.
We've also run into several problems that we wouldn't have noticed if we hadn't decided to take the plaster off the walls.
There was a crack in the bathroom ceiling that we decided would be easier to fix by replacing the entire ceiling(which was already poorly installed) rather than patching.
Lucky for us(sort of being sarcastic here) we found out that the pipes were completely out of whack. The material had been recalled back in the 80's and was never replaced. So it's a good thing we found it, but these are the problems that push us back even more.
So for now we are doing all that we can to fix things properly with in reason to our timeframe.
We've been ripping out damaged hardwoods, repairing the subfloors and laying new ones, fixing electrical problems and hopefully getting to insulate and hang dry wall soon!
Dining room area, gutted and being rewired. Old, damaged floors about to be ripped up.
Mr. Messy is doing his best to get in the way but that's not stopping us.
As nerve racking as it is we are SO excited to move onto the next phase-putting the house back together!
Prayers and good vibes are appreciated!