Done

We are finally done with all the plaster work (well, the ones connected to our plumbing issues anyway). The holes in the bathroom were not the only holes torn in our walls to accommodate our new pipes. A series of holes was also torn in our master bedroom where the pipes come in from the main and again in the garage for the water going into the kitchen, laundry and then out again into the backyard. We had to patch all those too.

Christian actually started in the garage to experiment on his recipes for his scratch coat and to get his technique down. Then we moved into the bedroom since the holes in there are smaller and in a not so conspicuous area. The bathroom was actually the last one finished because it was such a large hole and is right in the middle of the room with a light shining on it. We wanted to make sure that that one was perfect.

For each of the holes, Christian had to cut each of them even bigger to square them and expose a stud to attach the gypsum lathe. Then he had to feather all the edges three steps so there would be less chance of cracking. After attaching the gypsum lathe, he had to tape the edges and apply the brown or scratch coat. After that dried, he had to put a thin layer of plaster or finish coat. It was a pretty stressful ordeal as we have not had experience with this kind of work before and there is a very limited amount of time to apply, smooth, and even out each coat before it set. Christian got pretty good at it by the time we finished the last hole.

He'll need the knowledge and experience to finish fixing the bathroom.

But our ordeal was not over when the last hole was covered up. When the plumbers first installed the new pipes we had to apply for a building permit from the city so that if anything happened to our new plumbing (especially since most of the pipes are now in the roof over our heads), the insurance company will actually cover it.

Now I know what you are thinking...why would we even bother since the insurance companies were so very helpful to us before? Basically, it's for peace of mind against catastrophic failure. Because you know that once you decide to pass it up, the chances of it actually happening increases exponentially.

Anyway, we spent a bunch of extra money to have some bureaucrat from the city "inspect" the pipes and make sure that it was "up to code." The guy barely looked at the pipes and signed off for "rough plumbing" work and said that we had to finish covering up the walls in order to get it signed off completely. What that has to do with the plumbing, I'll never know. But we had a one year window in order to complete it.

When we finished the work, we called for the inspector to come back and o.k. the work. Christian took time off and he came and he glanced at the one wall but he did not sign off on the plumbing. It's not that he didn't approve of the work done, in fact he barely looked at them. What he did do was give us a citation for not having smoke detectors in every bedroom. Nice, huh?

So we had to run out and get a bunch of smoke detectors and call again for another appointment. He came a second time. Christian handed him the paperwork again and a signed paper regarding the smoke detectors and he finally signed off on all the work done without even stepping foot in the house. What a nuisance but good riddance. I don't want another one of his kind stepping foot anywhere on my property looking for things to cite us on!