Remember when I said that we basically show up for “work” at the house and it “tells” us where we’re working today?

With all the beautiful snow came very cold temperatures in this area. A couple of nights down to 5 or 6 degrees. We weren’t worried because we have two main water lines coming into the house. One, the most massive and being fed by the new hot water heater in the cellar, had all of its piping replaced with the highest rating of pex. The second water line, a much smaller supply, ran through the now warm cellar, up into the kitchen through the floor and supplied only the kitchen. The kitchen was now warm from the radiator plus the line was copper. And copper doesn’t burst…

…or so the old sayings go….Guess what we learned last week?

Copper DOES INDEED burst. The line ran into the kitchen, yes, but it was up against the exterior wall, which had deteriorated on the outside and as such, had several drafts coming right under the sink. You could open the sink and feel a breeze. Well, we figured that part out after the event.

We came to work at the house as usual, began working on stripping more paint and Paul was upstairs working on a second bathroom. I had tried to use the kitchen faucet when we first arrived and found it had frozen. We weren’t worried about it since the kitchen sink was the only thing supplied by this line (we don’t need it for anything else) and it’s copper (doesn’t burst). We’ll just wait for it to thaw. (Our California was showing right about then, lol).

Let me back up quickly by saying that earlier that same morning we had been already discussing how to get the kitchen ready enough for us to live there (which is coming soon). We had been working on bathrooms and now the kitchen was next. We were thinking in terms of cleanliness, extra folding tables until the full kitchen reno was tackled (later this year). The house had other ideas….

Back to our work in the house, as I sat and scraped and the day wore on, the temperatures outside grew warmer, I suddenly heard a “kajang, clunk clunk….SPEW!!!!” and we suddenly had water again in the kitchen! 🙂 Not where we wanted it, though.

Spraying from under the cabinets and doors, Paul quickly went into action and shut off the second line. That’s when we opened the kitchen cabinets and felt how cold it actually was under there and realized those pipes were not only in that cold, but up against a thin outside wall with rotted wood and no insulation. The pipes had burst in multiple places.

We’re almost wondering if the house heard us talking that morning about how to get that kitchen ready for us to feel clean in it. Whether it did or it was just timing, it was a blessing that we were there when it happened. We were so glad. Otherwise, since that line had been left on, the water would have run into the beautiful dining room and those floors. Wow…we were so glad it happened when it did.

Once we were under there, it made sense, let’s get this out. Let’s cut these lines, let’s replace them with pex and let’s not bother putting back old dirty cabinets. Again, it was all part of getting the kitchen to feel clean again because as we pulled out the cabinets, we found some mold on the back of a few of them and we were able to get that all out. The air feels so much cleaner now. And since we took out the cabinet, we decided to keep going….

Our plan is eventually that the very back utility room will be combined with the currently small kitchen and of course we would remove the “kitchen bathroom.” That would combine 3 rooms together for a new large kitchen space which will run all the way to the hallway. So…with snow outside and us looking for things to do inside, no time like the present!

This wall is extremely hard to pull down. It’s not just drywall and it’s not just lathe and plaster. It’s lathe and plaster with drywall, with a metal screen and then outside siding behind it all. It’s slow going but Paul is making it through. And don’t worry, we’re making sure structural integrity is intact. Keep you posted as this goes along!