Book Larnin'

All those years of architecture school and ten years of working in architecture have taught me absolutely nothing about residential construction. I stand corrected, over and over again.

To begin with, the dry stacked CMU that comprises my basement isn't just dry-stacked. It is a SYSTEM. It is a fiberglass-reinforced surface-bonded CMU system. At the time the house addition was built, it was the latest greatest thing. They even say that if it is properly reinforced, it is actually stronger than a comparable conventional CMU wall. So, cool. I will stop worrying about my basement caving in. Except for the fact that there's lots of areas that don't have any parge coat on them at all. I suppose we should finish that.

I have been further humbled by the white plastic irrigation-looking plumbing. I had no idea this is legal, but it is, as long as it is chlorinated PVC (CPVC) not plain old unchlorinated PVC. Also, the hot water supply pipe is supposed to be rated for hot water. All these things are easily readable on the pipe itself. Chlorine + Poly Vinyl Chloride = What? Sounds like a recipe for dioxin to me, but what do I know?

In our last rainstorm, I hooked up some rather flimsy downspout roll-outs. They served their purpose. After I got them arranged to drain a few feet away from the house, the water stopped seeping into the basement. The permanent solution will involve more effort and money, but this is good enough till we figure it out.

The next mystery that I will rail about is why the kitchen floor feels like it's made of jello. I have looked into the crawl space but haven't explored it yet. It appears that the joists may be resting on stacked lumber. Some person has apparently been trying to excavate the crawl space into a full basement, for reasons unknown. There's even a couple of light fixtures installed in there. I think that I don't want to know why... or what I will find down there...

An addition:
There are some things in this house that are truly half-assed. The dishwasher, disposal, and sink drain are all connected to one another with lengths of radiator hose. And though I don't really see the point in dishwasher air gaps, that is missing too. Ah, what to remodel first??