My 1st Flip/The Home that almost KILLED me! PART 2

As promised, I have returned to finish the story of the home that almost killed me. I appreciate your patience and most certainly hope the suspense was worth the wait!

As I stated earlier, I have a background in the construction/contracting world. I have always enjoyed working on homes, I particularly enjoy framing, as there is a certain joy of seeing the fruits of my labor. There is a GR8 deal of accomplishment associated with starting with nothing and at the end of the day you have something tangible to touch, feel and look at! That feeling, I believe is something that put me in the position that I never want to put myself in again.

On Friday, I met with Chris the plumber to make sure that he and I were on the same page as far as what I needed to do on my end to help his crew come in on Monday to start the rough in plumbing for this project. Unfortunately, this house has many issues that need to be dealt with and one of the things that I need to get taken care of prior to all of the plumbing (and quite frankly the rest of the work to be done) is the floors need to be leveled out as they sag pretty badly throughout the back half of the house (bedroom, bathroom, hall, laundry room, that is a blog in it of its self! LOL)

It was last Sunday (6/11/17), I was at the property and in order to stay on schedule for the plumber to complete part of his rough in work in the basement I needed to cut the slab on grade concrete to make way for the new plumbing that will accommodate the new bathroom down stairs. Like I mentioned before in my previous post, I actually completed this same task in my personal residence years ago (however, I didn't have such a dramatic outcome! as I luckily used a different method) I got everything measured out as far as where the new bathroom walls will be located as well as the location of the bathroom fixtures. I ended up renting a Husqvarna Concrete Saw from a local rental place to complete the job. I made sure to get a particulate respirator as not to not expose myself from breathing in Silica dust (which can be hazardous if breathed in) as well as googles and a suit with hoodie and booties (I LOOKED AWESOME! lol, not really, I looked like a complete dork! lol).

As most basements, this one being no different has very small windows (not to code, which I will end up remedying that situation here really shortly) and I made sure to open both so that I could get some air flow and minimize the buildup of dust so I could see what I was doing. So needless to say, I was ready, I had taken every conceivable precaution (or had I?) So, without further ado, I got busy cutting. The concrete cutters use a diamond cutting blade that evidently is very hard and cuts through concrete fairly easily. I had a section of about 15 feet (X 2) to cut, most of the section was 12 inches wide but in one part it needed to be cut 20 inches wide. It took a while as the concrete was a lot thicker than I thought it was going to be (EVERYTHING ALWAYS TAKES LONGER THAN YOU THINK IT DOES IN REHABBING A HOME!!!!!!). After just a few minutes of cutting, I couldn't see 2 feet in front of me! Not only could I not see but it had gotten pretty hot down there as well so I took a couple of breaks which when I got out in the fresh air I instantly felt much better.

I was fairly close to completing the job when I started to feel weird (I really don't know how else to describe it exactly) I started to feel like it was getting extremely hard to breathe and I also started feeling extremely weak. I am an A-type personality and as most A-type's I was so close to being done that I told myself just push through as you don't have much further to go. I am not the strongest guy in the world but I take pretty good care of myself and workout, so, I consider myself in fairly good shape and fairly strong. However, it was to the point where I felt like I could no longer even hold the saw up long enough to finish the approximate 8 inch cut I had left to complete the job. Luckily, I pushed through and got it done. What was going on with me, I thought? There are 10 steps leading out of the basement to the back door of the house, 10 steps! It took literately every ounce of energy I had to make it up those 10 steps. Once I got outside, I pulled my respirator off of my face as well as my googles to get a breath of fresh air which had never been so refreshing in my life. I had leaned up against the house as I could barely stand and I felt as if though I had just got done running 10 marathons back to back, I literately could barely stand up. I was extremely exhausted!

I really wasn't sure what was wrong with me, had I not drunk enough water that day, did I not get enough to eat? I honestly wasn't exactly sure but I knew something was drastically wrong with me. I felt a strong case of vertigo (extremely dizzy) every time I tried to stand up or walk any GR8 distance. I really just wanted to lay down and close my eyes. That is exactly what must have happened as (I honestly don't know how long I had blacked out for) I remember coming to and looked at my left hand and noticed my watch had busted off my wrist and was lying next to me and I was laying down on the ground. I was aware of where I was at and thought I have to get to my phone and call someone (911 or someone) to come help me. Luckily my son was on his way over to the house already but I called him and told him he needed to hurry as something was really wrong and I needed to go the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital, I still didn't feel right but I certainly wasn't quite as weak and dizzy as I had been before. When we got in the ER and the DOC started asking my questions about what had happened and what I was doing at the time of the incident he immediately knew what was wrong. CARBON MONOXIDE poisoning (I have since become an expert on this very topic, it is amazing how educational an accident or injury can become! However, I will spare you the time and effort involved of how this stuff affects you, if interested Google has plenty about it or just ask I will be more than happy to tell you what I have learned). It hadn't even dawned on me! I was so pissed off at myself and so embarrassed and ashamed that I hadn't even given it a thought! I took all sorts of other precautionary safety measures but didn't think about THAT ONE (Gas burning engines in small confined even large spaces not a good idea at ALL!)

I stated earlier in my (PART 1) previous post, I consider myself to have a fairly good deal of common sense but in this case I most certainly did not and it could have very easily of cost me my life. The DOC explained to me what needed to take place (blood test, luckily, they didn't have to tap into the artery, which he told me is quite often what they do for this type of prognosis, 100 % forced Oxygen and a lot of time for just waiting for the O2 to do its thing. O2 is the antidote to help reduce your CM levels). When the DOC returned and told me how high my blood count was after the test he said based off of what I told him and the readings from the test I literally was stepping through the threshold into death's door. Had I spent any more time down there or passed out, I most certainly would not be here writing about this experience in the hopes that it finds at least one person that will learn from my ABSOLUTE bone headed mistake! That, my friends, is exactly why I wanted to share this with you in the hopes that you can learn from my short comings and not make the same mistakes I have. I didn't originally think I would be telling you guys to learn from my mistakes about how to avoid DEATH, I was thinking more along the lines of the NORMAL pitfalls in Flipping a house.

So, in closing, I have often told my wife that regardless of the outcome of this home (make a profit ($) from selling this home, break even, or lose ($)) I end up winning in the end cause this my friends, most definitely is an education that you cannot get anywhere else! No matter what this house throws at me from here on out it really doesn't matter cause the most important lesson I've learned is how very precious and short our lives can be in this world and we ALL need to take time to cherish and think about the things that truly matter in this life! Thanks for reading and please, take time to thank your loved ones and friends for all that they do in making your life what it is today! Cause you never know when your time may be up. Thanks again for reading!