A friend helps me replace a gutter that was angled the wrong direction, away from the downspout. ($117.77)
Year: 2013
Civil investigation begins
I turn over all paperwork from my house closing, related repair estimates, and photos from this blog to the Anoka County Civil Investigator. She begins work on my case, pursuing the Seller and remodeler as criminals. The Investigator intends to order a judgement with full restitution, should she find convincing evidence.
I realize that justice is slow and willing contractors are hard to find, so I decide to do some of the repairs myself. I lay out a plan for proceeding on my own and leaving the heavy work to a contractor. Trying hard to keep my chin up.
Continued ceiling demolition
I continue demolishing the rest of the basement ceiling in preparation for more electrical work.
Instead of a proper unions, I discover that the flipper ignored building codes again, and fashioned a duct boot out of wads of duct tape!
I also discover this saddle-tap used for the refrigerator ice maker. Saddle-taps are against building code in Minnesota because they are prone to leaks.
I also find more illegal wiring and hidden construction debris above the ceiling.
Electric and plumbing repairs begin
The next Bagster full of debris gets hauled away in the morning ($144.00).
Both the plumber and electrician return to do more work. The electrician finishes wiring up the new service panel and replacing the illegal wiring throughout the house. ($4,599.00)
The plumber brings in a jackhammer to break up concrete in the downstairs bathroom and laundry room. This is to properly re-do the underground drain pipes for the entire house where they connect to main sewer.
The plumber also repairs the upstairs shower and sink. This is the first time in 6 months since I’ve had a fully working bathroom.
Excavate away
A friend helps me excavate the newly exposed underground drain pipes in my downstairs bathroom and laundry room.
Hidden water valve, fake cable TV jacks
I discover a water shutoff valve that is hidden above the downstairs bathroom ceiling.
Our roommate helps us demolish the rest of the walls and ceiling in the downstairs bathroom to expose the water valve.
We also find several instances of illegal electrical work.
Later we excavate trenches for the new drain pipes.
I also remove the useless and obsolete telephone wires from the walls. Previously, the cable TV technician could not figure out why my jacks weren’t working. Today, I discovered that the coax outlet plates have a few inches of cable attached to them. That’s right, the cable jacks were not connected to anything at all. They only made the house appear to be wired for cable TV.
Diagram of problems
Here is a diagram showing the floorplan of the basement level and most of the major problems I’ve found so far. I consider these problems to be ones that were done on purpose, to cut corners.
Bagster #3
Yet another Bagster full of demolition debris gets hauled away. ($144.00)
Electrical inspection
The state electrical inspector signs-off on the new mast, meter, and service panel. It feels like progress, but the house still has so many building code violations.
Cold weather problems
Our dining room is freezing cold, and the two heat registers in the floor are barely working. I have no idea why. There is no access to the dining room foundation, so I can’t diagnose the problem. It’s so cold that the room is unusable.
Cold weather also makes some things contract or settle. This means things will work differently in summer vs winter. Case in point, the bedroom doors will not close because they don’t fit inside their door frames. This indicates that the flipper installed these doors without the proper clearance.
