[Woodworkers] Is it just me?

[Steve Bigelow via Woodworkers]

Why does a simple home repair turn into a major renovation?

Backing up a bit...

My wife's birthday was coming up, and she's currently in the mode of "we
have too much stuff", so she didn't want anything for her birthday. I asked
her for ideas, and she mentioned that it was be nice to get rid of the
carpet in her office and replace it with hardwood.

Hmmm, OK, I'm thinking, maybe we can do this. How hard can it be? We
replaced the carpet with hardwood in the living room, and the whole process
took 3 days (for at least the hardwood part -- more later).

Her office is in the basement, and the house is built on a slab, so real
hardwood was out. We went shopping for laminates, she picked out one she
liked, and I plunked down the money for the little bits of sawdust glued
together, with a picture of wood glued on top. (Way too much money in my
opinion, but I digress).

So, this last weekend, we start in on the new flooring. She cleared out her
office, and I ripped out the carpeting. Looking at her office, I realized
that the paneling from the 90's was really going to clash with the new
flooring. Drywall behind it, so I figured it would be another day of
mudding / taping, and then some primer. No big deal.

We ripped out the paneling, and from the bottom of the drywall to about 18"
up had water spots and black mold. So, now the drywall is coming out.
Apparently the basement had gotten wet at some point. We've never noticed
any moisture, and it was completely dry, so...

Now she's at the Borg picking up some latex concrete sealer / water
barrier, along with new paint for the room.

Icing on the cake: when the office was built, someone took a huge bonus
room and turned it into 2 offices, a library, and a bathroom / laundry
room. The bonus room used to have orange shag carpet in it. How do I know?
They built the walls right on top of the carpeting / carpet pad, and it's
very visible once I started pulling off the drywall. Ugh.

Since I had to rip out the drywall, she mentions it would be nice to have a
few more outlets in the office... Oh, and could we move the phone wiring?
Since the electrical is all exposed, can we replace the baseboard with an
in-wall ceramic heater?

I'm dreading taking off the drywall on the outside wall, because there's
probably no insulation....

Does this ever happen to anyone else?

Regards,
-Steve
http://woodworking.bigelowsite.com
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