Which came first, the carpenter or the plumber?

The answer is: the plumber. The plumber has to come back and disconnect the sink before the carpenter can pull the counter and cabinets off the wall, so the plumber can come back and check out the pipes. But the contractor came today to check out the situation and he was chock-full of good news--about the probability of needing to jackhammer my foundation, etc.

It turns out concrete makes a lot of dust.

Of course, this is speculation and there's no point in entertaining the worst-case scenario quite yet, but he's speaking from experience about what happens to 50-year-old houses with cast-iron pipes. Turns out pre-war houses don't have the problem (yet) b/c their cast-iron pipes are two or three times as thick, but post-war, we started getting cheap. Years of food acid and Drain-o make pipes rot out the bottom. So, am I sitting on an inevitable catastrophe? No one wants to say for sure.

The fact is, you're probably not safe with any house you buy. New houses come with their own set of problems, and the older they get, the more esoteric the challenge. One of my friends recently gave me the only advice that seems to help.

He said, "everything gets broken eventually."

There's no fighting entropy, so we might as well get used to it. This idea is rather comforting once you accept it. I adore my house and try to keep it spotless. I put time and effort into it so I identify with it to the point where it feels like an extension of self. But what is it really? Just a house.

The other thing is, much as I love the 1954 aspects of it and want to preserve those, maybe it's time to get over it. My dad, and architect, always surprises me in that he has little nostalgia for old buildings. If it's vacant or rotting, tear it down. To hell with the preservationists. I'm not planning to tear down my house, but I suddenly see the value of PVC pipe. And if my living room floor buckles from water damage, perhaps I'll consider Pergo over salvaged vintage hardwood. Life is too short to worry.