This cOld House 1

We are finally starting to settle in. I have more maintenance/upgrade projects going than unpacking these days. I've met with an army of contractors et al in the past month and have settled on a very capable general contractor to get us started on the most pressing items. I am awaiting 3rd bids on electrical, plumbing and the all important (expensive!) HVAC. We have abandoned to idea of geothermal as being less than optimal in our retro-fitted application. We will be splitting the HVAC 3 ways, (instead of the current two,) to gain some efficiency. We will lose some attic storage space but I think it will be substantially more efficient to do so, plus we will eventually be gaining some basement space when the new garage is built.

My GC originally suggested holding off on the garage project until March as he was certain we couldn't get it poured before December. He's recently learned that his concrete guy is looking for some work to close out his year, and can do our job in November (provided we sail through the city approval process.) I've got the architect going full steam ahead on construction drawings, and am hoping the council review next Thursday does not produce any substantial or structural changes. The improvement we propose enhances the property (from our perspective anyway!) so we do not anticipate any grumbling from the city.

I tackled one of the copper counter tops this weekend with a homemade recipe I found online. The uneven patina, paint splashes, and dirt are coming off ok but it is not shiny. It will take elbow grease to get the shine back. I also looked up recipes to put a quick and more even patina back on the copper. We are not sure if we want to do that or just let it age naturally. More experimentation required.

We had a gutter emergency last week. Johngineer, (the seller) had warned us more than once or twice to keep the gutters clean or we were in for a world of hurt with the roof. On Sunday I noticed they were all-of-a-sudden FULL and CLOGGED with leaves. We had been monitoring the situation pretty well, but the big oak in the front yard had moulted in a couple of days. With Dan on guard duty this weekend, we just didn't have a chance of getting it done. I had to call somebody and they were able to show up last Friday to clean them. We'll no doubt have one more big cleaning this season, but we'll probably be able to do it ourselves.

I'm glad we are moving forward (somewhat) on getting some things done. I'd rather be picking colors... deciding between a two-stage and a variable speed blower furnace is not nearly as fun. But the house is really very comfortable (if one ignores the gas bill,) and we are thankful we don't have any really major 'all-tore-up' projects on the horizon.

We hope to have the living room floor fixed in the next week or so to finally finish unpacking the last boxes (books) and put away items strewn around waiting for a place to rest. I'll write another update when something happens.
- Robyn -