On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 14:01:34 GMT, "peter" wrote:

:"Dan_Musicant" wrote in message
.. .
:
: PS Yes, it's pretty obvious that fixing this one will be no easy fix.
: At the very least, tearing open floor/wall and replacing bad drain pipes
: and considerable repair to repair floor/wall. The whole house could use
: a plumbing upgrade. I think I'm going to be soliciting quotes soon.
: Thanks for the answers.
:
:If you tear up walls, it may be a good time to upgrade electrical as well.

No lie. In fact the smartest m.o. would be to do things in this order:

1. Remove brick and stone siding.

2. Remove old foundation, replace with new foundation (brick and stone
has to be removed in order to do the foundation work, anyway).

3. Install completely new electrical service and wiring with whole house
surge protection and properly grounded outlets.

4. Install new and updated plumbing, both supply lines and drains
throughout house.

5. Install new siding and repair interior walls and floors as required
after installing the plumbing and electrical.

Maybe I should just do all that and stand back and think about
additional work, which would include remodeling the kitchen and
bathrooms, painting the interior and exterior, refinishing the floors,
etc.

Financing all this coordinated work is worisome. I'm unemployed and
don't know if I'm going to get a job or figure out a way to have cash
flow. I'm sitting on some invested money which gives me a small income.

If only I can figure out how to do some of this in an intelligent manner
without doing all of it as described. Maybe I can do the plumbing and
electrical now and wait on the foundation and siding. I'm thinking that
the plumbing and electrical would be easier when the exterior siding is
off (brick, mainly because the stone is only on the front). The time to
redo the siding is obviously when the foundation is replaced.

Dan