This is the fourth and final installment on recent house projects.

The heating system install finally finished in January. When the guys ripped out the old system they discovered a crack in the furnace (can you say carbon monoxide leak), this meant it not only needed to be replaced, it had to be replaced. Now with the old furnace gone, there is a tremendous amount of space in the basement. Harry and I will need to fill in the concrete were the furnace and water heater were. We’ll probably do that this spring.

In a previous post I complained about the boiler going out just before we went on vacation. This was due to a design flaw (or poor manufacture’s recommendations), either way Agway came out this week and we discuss possible remedies for the problem. … Read More »

This is installment three of four.

Once the old heating system had been removed from the basement, I had a clear shot at installing some new lights. The first light was going near the breaker panel and the light switch was going to be at the end of the loop. I came up with a creative solution for leaving the switch at the end of the run, and beginning with the light by the breaker panel. It involved using a combination of 12/3 + ground and 12/2 + ground wire. Harry is a master electrician, so I ran my idea by him first. It turns out being creative and thinking outside the box (while good in my day job) is not such a good idea when doing electrical work. He was concerned with it being … Read More »

This is installment two of four on recent house projects.

Oddly enough, the return loop from the second floor that caused us to make a hole in the closet wall also generated a need for us to access the crawl space under the small addition. It had been closed up by the home owner, and despite repeated attempts to learn why, we couldn’t get it out of him. Well once we broke through his silence became immediately obvious. One of the foundation walls is caving in.

It appears there is a drainage problem and water is saturating the ground outside the wall freezing and unfreezing. This is causing too much pressure on the wall, which is causing it to push inward. Fortunately, this is a small addition, and it is the only thing support by this wall. … Read More »

This is a first post in a series of four dealing with the various house projects that fell out of having the heating system re-done.

To get heat to the second floor we had to run a 3/4″ pipe up the wall in the living room (the feed side), and to get the loop back to the boiler we have to run a 3/4″ pipe down through the small addition on the back of the house. In order to do this there was a section of house that had no access that we need to get in. Harry and I cut a hole in the wall to gain access to the space. Later we added a door to make it look like it’s always been there. I say we, but in truth Harry did the bulk of … Read More »

Apparently quite a few of you have been upset by my recent lapse in posting pictures. As such, I’ve been catching a lot of demonstrable flack (see this comment). With the constant berating my wife has received when talking to various family members I decided it was time to act. To that end, I have created an entirely new album called “Holidays” and within I have posted a plethora of pictures designed to calm and sooth those who have most been asking for them.

View Holidays photo-album.