Frustration is a primary emotion felt by home rehabbers. We read all about it before we bought the Duper Dwelling. We've felt it through some rough patches - the dishonest porch contractor, the frozen and exploding pipes, the nonworking furnace. A couple of weeks ago, we had a disagreement with our electrician that sparked my creativity. I present to you a Christmas poem about our house:
Twas the night before Christmas
and through the money pit
not a creature was stirring
in our big pile of s**t.
The Dupers shivered under blankets in bed
while thoughts of insulation danced in their heads.
The fuse box sat, sprouting odd wires
while they carefully watched for signs of electric fires
When out on the lawn there arose such a pow
I sprang from the bed to see what was happening now.
The streetlight shining right in my eyes
lit up our big Christmas surprise
when, what to my wondering eyes should appear
a code violation for the end of the year.
The well-paid electrician, one of my gripes
did not move the fusebox away from the pipes.
Now plumbing, now electric, now HVAC and gas!
On fixtures, and drywall, and busting your ass!
To the end of the yard and down the rock wall
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!
* * *
Now the good news here is that we came to a good agreement with the electrician on how to best handle the situation. So for now the frustration is gone and I'm having that feel-good feeling about our accomplishments. 2010 has been a big year for the house - the landscaping work, new HVAC, insulation, wiring, roof work, and front walkway come to mind. Here's to 2011 bringing us walls and potentially a move upstairs.
Merry Christmas and happy 2011!
Showing posts with label basement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basement. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Central A.C. Heck yeah.
So I wrote forever ago about how hard it was to decide how to go about getting our HVAC overhauled. We finally made a decision and scheduled a date to get our new system installed.
Tah dah!
OK, I know that doesn't look exciting. But this is what we had done:
- One furnace from 1973 removed.
- One small, lower end furnace from 2003 removed.
- Piles of old ductwork removed.
- Lots of new ductwork added throughout the house.
- One brand new 95% efficient furnace added.
- One brand new central A.C. system added (we were using window units before).
- One brand new full-house humidifier added.
- One brand new full-house air cleaner added.
- One super high tech zoning system added, allowing us to independently program and set the temperatures of the first floor and combined 2nd/3rd floors.
- One large dent in checkbook.
But it was totally worth it for the air alone. We are all much more comfortable. I'm also hoping for some improved comfort this winter since the furnace is so much more efficient. Maybe the thermostat can be set to "frugally chilly" instead of "cheapskate frigid".
Tah dah!
OK, I know that doesn't look exciting. But this is what we had done:
- One furnace from 1973 removed.
- One small, lower end furnace from 2003 removed.
- Piles of old ductwork removed.
- Lots of new ductwork added throughout the house.
- One brand new 95% efficient furnace added.
- One brand new central A.C. system added (we were using window units before).
- One brand new full-house humidifier added.
- One brand new full-house air cleaner added.
- One super high tech zoning system added, allowing us to independently program and set the temperatures of the first floor and combined 2nd/3rd floors.
- One large dent in checkbook.
But it was totally worth it for the air alone. We are all much more comfortable. I'm also hoping for some improved comfort this winter since the furnace is so much more efficient. Maybe the thermostat can be set to "frugally chilly" instead of "cheapskate frigid".
Thursday, June 3, 2010
The great flood of oh-ten
Last night, I got home from work and said to Mike, "I think I'll finally update our blog tonight after dinner." We've started moving ahead on the HVAC, and we've rebuilt our front walkway's stairs. There's lots of progress to show.
I started dinner (burritos with my new favorite veggie - fresh jalapenos) and Mike sat down with our laptop at the kitchen table. In between updating his Facebook page and laughing at Awkward Family Photos, he checked the weather.
"Tornado warning!" he exclaimed.
"Watch?" I asked.
"No, warning," he replied.
(End fiction-style dialogue.)
Basically the storm from hell was headed right for us. So I turned off the stove and we got ready to head for the basement. Ten minutes before it reached us, the National Weather Service let the tornado warning expire, but we were still in for it.
Round 1 of the storm hit hard. Sheets of rain, some hail, constant lightning - it was really something. When it settled down, so I started dinner again. As the taco meat cooked, I decided to check the basement. Sometimes in heavy rains, water seeps up from between the cracks in the cement floor.
Mike must have been unhappy to hear me shouting from the basement: "Oh sh--! We have a huge problem!"
Oh yes. A river runs through it.
The parts of the foundation that are outside of the basement were pouring water into the space behind this door. If you click to zoom in, you can see the water flow - this shot was taken after the main flood:
Interestingly, the water wasn't coming from the doors themselves. It was actually coming through the foundation. You can kind of see the situation in this image:
That also meant that the water was coming from under that door and a river was running through the basement to the drain in the floor. Just then, round 2 of the storm hit.
KDKA, our local news station, says we got 2" of rain in an hour. I believe it.
I guess the pictures don't do it justice, but during round 2, it sounded like someone was filling a bathtub behind the door. When we finally did open the door, it looked like a garden hose was being sprayed through three places in the stone wall.
We set up a channel system with towels and 2x4s to direct the water to the drain and hoped that the drain would keep draining. If it had stopped, we would have lost everything in the basement. The water flow was unbelievable.
Luckily, in the end, this is all we lost (and most of it was due to go to the Salvation Army anyway):
We did much better than the people half a mile west, who had 4-6 feet of water in their basements. We're very lucky.
New project with high priority: sealing the foundation by those doors and rearranging our stuff to be on shelves above the basement flood plain.
I started dinner (burritos with my new favorite veggie - fresh jalapenos) and Mike sat down with our laptop at the kitchen table. In between updating his Facebook page and laughing at Awkward Family Photos, he checked the weather.
"Tornado warning!" he exclaimed.
"Watch?" I asked.
"No, warning," he replied.
(End fiction-style dialogue.)
Basically the storm from hell was headed right for us. So I turned off the stove and we got ready to head for the basement. Ten minutes before it reached us, the National Weather Service let the tornado warning expire, but we were still in for it.
Round 1 of the storm hit hard. Sheets of rain, some hail, constant lightning - it was really something. When it settled down, so I started dinner again. As the taco meat cooked, I decided to check the basement. Sometimes in heavy rains, water seeps up from between the cracks in the cement floor.
Mike must have been unhappy to hear me shouting from the basement: "Oh sh--! We have a huge problem!"
Oh yes. A river runs through it.
The parts of the foundation that are outside of the basement were pouring water into the space behind this door. If you click to zoom in, you can see the water flow - this shot was taken after the main flood:
Interestingly, the water wasn't coming from the doors themselves. It was actually coming through the foundation. You can kind of see the situation in this image:
That also meant that the water was coming from under that door and a river was running through the basement to the drain in the floor. Just then, round 2 of the storm hit.
KDKA, our local news station, says we got 2" of rain in an hour. I believe it.
I guess the pictures don't do it justice, but during round 2, it sounded like someone was filling a bathtub behind the door. When we finally did open the door, it looked like a garden hose was being sprayed through three places in the stone wall.
We set up a channel system with towels and 2x4s to direct the water to the drain and hoped that the drain would keep draining. If it had stopped, we would have lost everything in the basement. The water flow was unbelievable.
Luckily, in the end, this is all we lost (and most of it was due to go to the Salvation Army anyway):
We did much better than the people half a mile west, who had 4-6 feet of water in their basements. We're very lucky.
New project with high priority: sealing the foundation by those doors and rearranging our stuff to be on shelves above the basement flood plain.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
HVAC stands for
Holy variable annoying choices!
We decided that it's time to get rid of the Temp-O-Matic and the furnace that sometimes doesn't work and get an all new furnace instead of two crappy ones. We are going to install central air at the same time. Sounds easy, but expensive, right?
If only. Multiple bids, multiple ideas for rerunning the ductwork, and multiple days of the two of us staring at each other and saying, "We really need to make a decision."
In the meantime, we now have two steps for our new walkway, about a thousand nails pulled from the second floor studs, and other odds and ends wrapped up.
I discovered this amazing program - Room Arranger - that allows you to draw in walls and arrange your house. Yeah, that's taken up pretty much all of my free time in the last two weeks. Once I finish a floor plan, I'll share it with y'all. I'm working on before and after plans for the whole house. Sad discovery - we only have room for a pool table on the front porch or in the garage. Happy discovery - we have room for a hot tub in the back yard.
Just sayin'. A girl can dream.
We decided that it's time to get rid of the Temp-O-Matic and the furnace that sometimes doesn't work and get an all new furnace instead of two crappy ones. We are going to install central air at the same time. Sounds easy, but expensive, right?
If only. Multiple bids, multiple ideas for rerunning the ductwork, and multiple days of the two of us staring at each other and saying, "We really need to make a decision."
In the meantime, we now have two steps for our new walkway, about a thousand nails pulled from the second floor studs, and other odds and ends wrapped up.
I discovered this amazing program - Room Arranger - that allows you to draw in walls and arrange your house. Yeah, that's taken up pretty much all of my free time in the last two weeks. Once I finish a floor plan, I'll share it with y'all. I'm working on before and after plans for the whole house. Sad discovery - we only have room for a pool table on the front porch or in the garage. Happy discovery - we have room for a hot tub in the back yard.
Just sayin'. A girl can dream.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Mike's stairs
Our basement stairs were rotting out because the basement doors are wooden and, well, rotten. Last Saturday, Mike got out the brand spankin' new circular saw and did some construction work. Isn't he amazing, folks?
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
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