The Basement Ceiling

I've been muttering to myself about how the POs (or perhaps the PPOs) finished the basement ceiling when they finished the basement. Oops. I was wrong. Last night, I was looking at the ceiling and the plumbing, trying to figure out how to gain access.

The ceiling, it seems, is composed of some sort of material on metal lath. I'm inclined to say that it is mortar or concrete of some sort - it feels harder and more rough than plaster.

I've never seen anything like this. I'm not familiar enough with the style of the work to say whether it was original or later. Whatever the case, it won't make working on the plumbing or utilities hidden underneath it easy.

The worst way to plumb an icemaker?

We were told by the previous owner that the icemaker in the fridge didn't work because there wasn't any plumbing running to it. When the refrigerator was replaced, we found that there was, in fact, a copper line running to the icemaker, but it was crushed, as the refrigerator had rolled over it. I asked A. to buy a new line for it, which turned out to be about 8" too short. When I was able to extend the line, I found that the pipe it connected to was warm to the touch - not something that you want with an icemaker, but one that caused my parents trouble with their icemaker for years.

I looked at the pipe, but it wasn't connected obviously to the hot water heater, so I set this problem aside to deal with another day, after I'd had time to think about it. This time, the line was hot to the touch. I traced the pipe to the extent that I was able to - and found that it ran into the boiler! Eeew.

Pre-listing repair frustrations

While I've been waiting for the bidding period to end for the house I made the offer on, I've been looking at other houses. Today, I went with my agent to see a nice Tudor at the lower end of our budget.

The interior was very different from what I had expected - more Art Deco than Tudor. The kitchen was tiled in yellow and green, with many original cabinets, as was the breakfast room. The kitchen even included a massive, tiled exhaust hood for the stove. There were nice built ins and details in the dining room. The first floor bathroom was tiled in green and purple, and the second floor ones, in pink and green. The tile work was clearly original and mostly in good condition. The wood casement windows, also original, operated well, and even included all the original storms and screens. They even had a crank mechanism that was inserted through the screen, allowing the opening and closing of the windows without removal of the screen. There was plenty of ugly carpeting and wallpaper to remove as well as walls to repaint, but nothing major.

All in all, it seemed like a decent house with some potential. There were some issues, but all things that could be corrected with time. If we don't get the house we put in the offer on, this house seems worth considering.

Then, at home, I looked at the fact sheet, prepared by the seller, detailing the work that was done in the past year. Much of it was mechanical upgrades, which I completely support. Then, I realized that all of the things that had mucked up these perfect rooms had been done to prepare the house for sale! All of the bathrooms had new toilets and sinks, and one a new shower. The new cabinets in the kitchen!

Yes, they'd taken out what were probably jadeite green toilets (though perhaps in the upstairs, pink), and replaced them with basic, boring stuff. I'm sure they did it because they were told they had to to sell the house. Not an unreasonable idea - how many people are there out there who want a pink or green toilet? But when you have a bright pink tiled bathroom, does a white toilet really make that much of a difference?

I know that the amount that this bothers me is excessive. But it seems so wrong, that the sellers spent all this money to fix up their house for sale, and I'm just going to have to spend even more money and time to unfix it.