The mercury has dipped in this part of the country. It has dipped and stayed close to record lows. We have a few more days of the bone-chilling stuff ahead of us. In spite of our new HVAC system, and the flurry of window and door taping we did this weekend, the furnaces (all three) have been going non-stop for over 72 hours and the house is just above 60 degrees. Dale stopped by and did a couple of adjustments, including speeding up the blower on the basement unit but we are losing the battle. The storm window guy is coming on Thursday to quote the girls' room, and I'm just going to have him do the living room and dining room at the same time. When we put the plastic over the dining room windows, it BILLOWED. So much so that we couldn't even get it taped. We just slid the window seat cushions over it.
Walking past any window in the house, even the ones well taped and covered, the drafts are keenly palpable. The cold air is seeping THROUGH the front door. Not, not around the edges, but actually through the jointed panels. It's so cold, Tommie-Cat just snuggles deeper into the bed, the mice run rampant in the kitchen all night, their little frozen turds left like caraway seeds on the counters and stove, greeting me in the morning.
I'm starting a pool: Guess our gas bill for February!
Rules: Entrance fee is $5.00 The closest guess (over or under) wins one half of the pot, the other half going to pay a portion of the gas bill. In the case of a tie, proceeds will be split 1/4 each winner, half to the house. To help you out, December's bill was $354.41.
Rob and his crew have retreated to an indoor job. They were able to almost get the steel bracket attached to the garage wall where the concrete lid will be welded and bolted, but it's not quite finished, and we have to wait a couple of weeks for the roof to come anyways.
Dan and I will continue to prowl around the house with a roll of duct tape and tube of caulking targeting baseboard cracks and holes. Remember, this house has NO insulation, so the outside walls are icy on the inside, and wherever there is a penetration, a draft spills through.
The girls haven't bathed for four days - but hopefully, with the space heater going full blast all day in the bathroom (to keep the pipes from re-freezing) we'll get them in tonight.
Showing posts with label cOld. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cOld. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
This cOld House 3
The temperature has dropped the past week and as such, my missives will be written under a new Subject: 'This cOld House'. Mim was complaining about it a couple days ago - how she doesn't like our new house because I make her wear slippers all the time because the floors are cold. Both the kids still run around in bare feet and it makes me cold just looking at them.
Dan and I spent an illuminating weekend working in the garage, which has been kind of a catch all for us since moving in. Aside from all of the tools et cetera that came out of the basement in the other house, we have other junk that is still awaiting a final resting place. We at least were able to tackle getting the last of the basement/garage boxes unpacked, which means I now have all our tools out so I can start to actually work on some fix-it projects.
It was a little nippy yesterday, so instead of opening the garage door to let some light in, we hauled out the halogen work lights. These are the lights we use when we paint, since they are so bright all flaws are apparent. Evidently they work the same way on decrepit areas. We aimed them up at the newly exposed ceiling. When we bought the house it had been freshly drywalled since the building code dictates that with living space right on top, there has to be an impermeable barrier. Dan was suspect of it and once we got into doing some stuff, (like stringing new cable which took the poor installers 10 hours,) we realized it was going to have to come down to access the utilities. We found all sorts of stuff, including insect damage in the floor beams, duct-taped electrical work, holes in HVAC ducting, and what appears to be a levitating back stoop. At least we think it's levitating, since it's a concrete slab poured between two joists with no visible means of support. I discussed most of this with my contractor on Monday.
Also on Monday, I got a bid to rip out the super-structure in the coal bin, where we had the small scenic waterfall last week. We'd do it ourselves but Dan's gone all week on a business trip and we can't get a refuse bin delivered from the city until the end of leaf season. It will be moldy and attracting wood boring insect before you know it so it's gotta go this week. So Dan will get a jump start on his wine cellar - his vision for that space.
Speaking of leaf season, 4 landscapers showed up on Friday and worked all day weeding, cutting brush and dead heading. They got about two-thirds of it done, and returned on Monday with reserves. We'll be working on a phased plan to simplify the garden so we can work it ourselves. I'm imaging a lot of weed cloth and gravel - at least behind the pool house and along the back wall where the trees and weeds grow tall. Naomi loves gravel... she can play with it for hours. We don't know what we're going to do with the wild area outside the fence - I'm thinking Agent Orange.
My new hero is Rick the carpenter, who singlehandedly lifted the living room floor 3 inches to bring it back to (almost) grade. We are still off by about 1/4 - 1/2 inch, but we didn't want to push it with the wall full of windows above. The built-in bookcase will be shimmed the last half inch or so, and that's ok with me. Rick will be coming tomorrow morning to tackle the other side of the living room floor and so when Dan returns from Orlando at the end of the week, I may actually have the last of the boxes all unpacked and everything put away. Hurray!
I met the mysterious neighbor today. He showed up to mow the yard. At the age of 91, his Mom moved into an assisted living facility last spring, leaving him with the huge responsibility of taking care of the house. He came over to apologize for the state of the yard, and gave me his name and number, and was peeking over my shoulder to see how big the kids were 'cause he's looking for another patsy to do the mowing. (Patsy because Johngineer told us that he stiffed them on the mowing last year, and the landscaper told me the same thing.)
By the way, Johngineer is the former owner of this place. He said he's a chemical, electrical, mechanical and astro-aeronautical engineer with a doctorate who teaches down the hill at UD. (And he plumbs with duct tape.)
- Robyn -
Dan and I spent an illuminating weekend working in the garage, which has been kind of a catch all for us since moving in. Aside from all of the tools et cetera that came out of the basement in the other house, we have other junk that is still awaiting a final resting place. We at least were able to tackle getting the last of the basement/garage boxes unpacked, which means I now have all our tools out so I can start to actually work on some fix-it projects.
It was a little nippy yesterday, so instead of opening the garage door to let some light in, we hauled out the halogen work lights. These are the lights we use when we paint, since they are so bright all flaws are apparent. Evidently they work the same way on decrepit areas. We aimed them up at the newly exposed ceiling. When we bought the house it had been freshly drywalled since the building code dictates that with living space right on top, there has to be an impermeable barrier. Dan was suspect of it and once we got into doing some stuff, (like stringing new cable which took the poor installers 10 hours,) we realized it was going to have to come down to access the utilities. We found all sorts of stuff, including insect damage in the floor beams, duct-taped electrical work, holes in HVAC ducting, and what appears to be a levitating back stoop. At least we think it's levitating, since it's a concrete slab poured between two joists with no visible means of support. I discussed most of this with my contractor on Monday.
Also on Monday, I got a bid to rip out the super-structure in the coal bin, where we had the small scenic waterfall last week. We'd do it ourselves but Dan's gone all week on a business trip and we can't get a refuse bin delivered from the city until the end of leaf season. It will be moldy and attracting wood boring insect before you know it so it's gotta go this week. So Dan will get a jump start on his wine cellar - his vision for that space.
Speaking of leaf season, 4 landscapers showed up on Friday and worked all day weeding, cutting brush and dead heading. They got about two-thirds of it done, and returned on Monday with reserves. We'll be working on a phased plan to simplify the garden so we can work it ourselves. I'm imaging a lot of weed cloth and gravel - at least behind the pool house and along the back wall where the trees and weeds grow tall. Naomi loves gravel... she can play with it for hours. We don't know what we're going to do with the wild area outside the fence - I'm thinking Agent Orange.
My new hero is Rick the carpenter, who singlehandedly lifted the living room floor 3 inches to bring it back to (almost) grade. We are still off by about 1/4 - 1/2 inch, but we didn't want to push it with the wall full of windows above. The built-in bookcase will be shimmed the last half inch or so, and that's ok with me. Rick will be coming tomorrow morning to tackle the other side of the living room floor and so when Dan returns from Orlando at the end of the week, I may actually have the last of the boxes all unpacked and everything put away. Hurray!
I met the mysterious neighbor today. He showed up to mow the yard. At the age of 91, his Mom moved into an assisted living facility last spring, leaving him with the huge responsibility of taking care of the house. He came over to apologize for the state of the yard, and gave me his name and number, and was peeking over my shoulder to see how big the kids were 'cause he's looking for another patsy to do the mowing. (Patsy because Johngineer told us that he stiffed them on the mowing last year, and the landscaper told me the same thing.)
By the way, Johngineer is the former owner of this place. He said he's a chemical, electrical, mechanical and astro-aeronautical engineer with a doctorate who teaches down the hill at UD. (And he plumbs with duct tape.)
- Robyn -
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