Showing posts with label AC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AC. Show all posts

Updates!

Since I don't post often enough, here are some updates. I've been doing little stuff but not much worth writing about. Little stuff like finally tightening a screw on a door hinge.

The heat pump was finally fixed in December. It was all of $85 for a replacement, warrantied fan. The fizzing sound I heard in the attic when I accidentally cut through the thermostat wire? Just the air handler fuse blowing. It cost $60 to replace. It just wasn't the $$ circuit board I lay awake worrying how to pay for. And they added 2 lbs of freon to the condenser. It's a "Coleman" brand pump, just like our camping tent. I had no idea they had a branch of home heating and cooling units until our cheapo flipper installed it here.

Speaking of our flipper-installed unit, we went to the local home and patio show a few weeks ago where we were willingly solicited by several AC companies. A guy came over last Saturday to give us a replacement quote. He was from the company whose booth representatives laughed at us. I told them 1. Our house is 80 years old. 2. Our house is not insulated because 3. the crawlspace floods 3-4 times a year (old creek bed) and is a happy place for mildew. When I said the heat pump was a Coleman, he said, eyebrows raised, "Do you live in a trailer?" (what, an 80 year old trailer??) When we walked away, fully aware of how dysfunctional we must be for having an old house, I heard "whooooeeee!" and lots of laughing. Their field guy was much nicer though, and commented on how clean and accessible the attic was, and told me he's seen far worse in old houses. He left me with a roll of aluminum tape and a $4800 system quote.

Outside of the ongoing deck construction, I've been working on the plant situation. I think flowers are great, but in this small yard there really needs to be lots of practicality. I made a border of sweet banana peppers between rows of dusty miller and hibiscus, and planted sage, dill and rosemary around some small plumbago. In the side yard is lots of parsley, some cilantro, dianthus and that herb which is supposed to be a good substitute for sugar and whose name I can't remember. I seeded basil around the plumbago but the rain has been pretty heavy the last 3 weeks so I need to redo it. I think we've had our last frost, though.

We've tried our third go at exterior paint colors. The colors are either too light, too dark, or seem too much like colors in the neighborhood to our north, where only the brave can live. The trick seems to be finding historical colors that won't cause a run-down drab look. Also, the stores which carry small sizes of trial colors are only open til noon on Saturdays. How can we get the swatches, take them home and view them in all lights, then go back for trial bottles then go back to buy the paint? Everytime I think "It will take 3 Saturdays just to choose the house colors!", I decide to do something else like pruning, instead. This weekend I hope to build and replace a fragile fence portion the renters keep knocking through, and then finish the deck framing.

Dusty miller and baby hibiscus. So unglamorous.

We don't know what to do about mulch because it
keeps floating away!

New attic access opening

Tired of the bugs in the closet and having to move boxes and clothing every time I needed to go up, I have moved the attic ceiling access to the hallway. It is a slightly larger, more accessible and much sturdier framed opening. The necessary angle to securely prop a ladder for climbing had left only stick people like me the ability to squeeze up through the skinny closet doorway and into the hole.

I took the drywall cut from the hallway and fit it into the closet ceiling, taped and mudded it so this is no longer a roach roadway. Despite my best effort to prop a thermostat wire behind a condensation pipe coming from the attic air handler, I did manage to cut through and apparently fry the thermostat. Since the outside heat pump fan has been broken since July, (blame it on bills and car repairs) when we eventually call the repair person I'll sheepishly explain my error. In the meantime we wear sweaters and blankets around the house. Well, I do anyway, to protect myself from Jason's cynical remarks about me and saws.

Old:









New:








It needs a new, larger plywood door and trim. A garbage bag taped to the ceiling isn't all that exciting. Jason's "new" closet will become bright aqua blue! now that I've patched up all the shoe gouges and tool scrapes in its walls.
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