About five years ago, we lucked into a great loft in the Castleberry Hill neighborhood near Downtown Atlanta. The condo is one of five units in what used to be an ice cream distribution center for a local ice cream maker by the name Aristocrat Ice Cream. Back in the early 2000s, a couple of gay guys bought up the empty warehouse and the warehouses on the corner and began renovating. They created an amazing restaurant called No Mas! Cantina and rented space to a local gourmet sushi and burger chef to create a bar called Bottle Rocket. Both businesses have been great successes and they are an important part of our neighborhood.

The ice cream warehouse was divided into 5 units that were originally rented out. Walt and Stephen made some changes to the units and sold them at a good price right before the housing market crashed in 2008. When we were looking for a place to purchase back in 2015, we were just about to sign an agreement to purchase this beautiful loft in Midtown in a building called Park Place. The people were unfriendly and the building was pretty uptight. Plus, being on the third floor, we would have a hard time with Bernie, our mini daschund. So at the last minute, Britton pulls out of the deal.

Convinced that we were never going to find a place as nice, I kind of gave up. Britton, however, noticed a brand new listing and called to schedule an appointment. It had literally just posted when Britton called. We were the first to look at the unit and we loved it. We called a dozen or so building inspectors but we were sure this was the place for us. Since it was right around Christmas, we were headed out of town so we were kind of in a rush to close the deal and the inspectors we hired were young and inexperienced. To say they did a terrible job of inspecting our place is a considerable understatement.

Regardless, we took the place and have spent the last five years dealing with various little annoyances some small and some not so small. We had to immediately replace the 3.5 ton air conditioner and then we replaced all of the dated appliances. We added some storage above the bathrooms and had to replace the hot water heater.

That’s when we noticed the problems with the plumbing.

All of the plumbing in the house is done with CPVC. CPVC is rated for 10-15 years and by now, it’s been 20 years since it was installed. It is brittle and breaks super easily.

We also found out that there was no water shutoff for our unit. We had a 3/4 inch CPVC pipe that provided the supply for the unit, but no way to shut it off. So in replacing the hot water heater, the first thing we did was installed a sharkbite shutoff valve.

From there, we installed a water filter and ran the cold water to hot water heater and to the rest of the house like it was previously configured. We connected the hot water output to the rest of the house and everything worked but we were aware that the CPVC was really fragile.

From time to time, we had some problems with odor in the apartment but didn’t think much of it. When we installed the new sink and garbage disposal, we realized that there was no P trap under the ceiling. Furthermore, the way the waste pipe came out of the ground, there was not enough space to have a standard P-Trap with our sink. We also had a standalone clear icemaker and dishwasher that needed to use the same drain.

As I was trying to get the connections to the new sink made, my hand slipped and hit the exposed pipes under the sink, shattering them and cutting my hand. To get to the water shutoff is a real joke because it is located in the utility room with a tiny door that makes it more like an attic that a room. Once we got the water stopped, the drywall and cabinets were soaked. We peered behind the cabinets and notice that the island was covered in nasty mold. This is not okay. Having HIV and living with mold is a terrible idea.

So we ripped out the center island and rebuilt it from scratch. We got rid of the curved wall, shrunk the bar area down and hooked everything up with CPVC. I really wish we had known what we know now.

So everything is working fine, but we noticed that our toilets have this pink sludge growing in them. We have to clean them often and even the bleach pellets in the back of the toilet barely help. While scrubbing the toilet one day, I realized that the water was warm. It was like they had accidentally connected the toilet to the hot water. I also noticed that it takes forever to get hot water at our kitchen sink. We must literally waste a gallon of water to get water to run. And when we do, it starts out kind of warmish, but then gets really cold and then warm again before it gets hot.

In our main bathroom, we had slate tile on the wall and floors and the small wall that you stepped over to enter the shower area. The original installers used the wrong kind of slate because the surfaces weren’t finished correctly. Rather than smooth, finished surfaces, the 12″ tiles were textured. Occasionally, when entering the shower, you would have to pick a sliver of slate out of your foot. Not good. Plus, the shower was not built correctly so the water would pool in the corner and eventually just soak through.

The tiles were 12″ x 12″ but they were set about 3/4 ” apart from one another with brown unfinished sanded grout. You could literally dig it out with your fingers if it weren’t for the mold growing on it. We cleaned the grout regularly and sealed and resealed the tiles but it made showing a terrible experience. It looked kind of nice, but only if you didn’t have to live here.

Britton was particularly upset with the shower and we decided we wanted to renovate the entire bathroom. We came up with some plans and did a lot of research and decided to take on the Master Bathroom with the help from our hero in Canada’s Renovision YouTube channel. I will be sharing insights, ideas, and progress as we go.