Post 2: The Boring Pre-Work

Before I could start working in earnest, there were three major things to do:

• Clean out the house, including demo-ing the kitchen, bathroom, and taking up all the carpet

• Removing the asbestos popcorns ceilings (about $3600)

• Replacing the plumbing stack (about $1500)

Two of these things I couldn't do myself, and we hired an asbestos abatement company and a plumber, respectively.  Brian, my husband, found us a great plumbing resource and I lucked out on that, finding a handyman in the neighborhood (and from the neighborhood) who was fast, cheap, and reliable.  Our inspector told me the plumbing stack would cost about $4000, and I paid less than half of that.  The old pipes were absolutely disgusting, and so clunked up with mineral deposits that barely a trickle of anything could flow properly:

I knew I had to keep the house for at least a year to avoid capital gains, so I wasn't in a huge hurry to get this done.  Just as I had planned to start working in earnest, the COVID pandemic hit.  It was the perfect time to get started, but I hunkered down for awhile, only completing two of these things in June.

There aren't any fun pictures or stories to tell here, but this was necessary work. The fun stuff comes later, but it's coming :)