Happy Halloween!

 

Honesty Is The Best Policy

Just had to share the hilariously embarrassing thing my kid did last night. We were at church yesterday and the kids usually bring a coloring book or something to keep them entertained through the sermon. I don't expect them to sit in rapt attention but it amazes me how much they soak up without really listening. Well right in the middle of the sermon, I guess Pastor thought he was loosing our interest because he asked "Should we just go home? Who here would just like to go home?" And my son sat up straight and raised his hand high. Not only that, but Pastor noticed! He chuckled and thanked him for his honesty. Now how can you scold a kid for that?

A/C No More

Nothing much going on around here lately. Tonight we took the window air conditioner out and carried it down the basement. It's actually taken longer to blog about it than it did to do the job. And while watching the neighbor kids tonight I tightened up their oven door handle. Sorry Scott, hope you didn't intend for it to wobble like that. It just seems like I've got to have a screwdriver or hammer in my hand no matter what.

Home Cooking

There is nothing quite like a home cooked meal. Now I'm no where near as good a chef as the Hungry Hoosier but I do like to dabble. What made tonight's dinner so neat was that I used fresh herbs direct from the garden. I made a sort of Thai chicken on rice. The recipe called for "fish sauce" but since I had no idea what that was, I simply used concentrated lemon juice. The fresh herbs were basil from our neighbor's garden (thanks Lisa!) and mint from our own. Stir fried the chicken, set it on top of minute rice, added a can of green beans and we had dinner. Then to top it all off we had box mix brownies with chocolate icing and marshmallows. If only stripping paint was that easy.

A Step Up

This weekend we stopped by another auction. Amy finally admitted that she continues to bid over her limit because she doesn't like to lose. However, she did bring home a few gems. One item found burried in a box of kids toys was an Eastman Printing Frame for 3.25" x 5.5" negatives. Now at the auction they had two "rings" going at the same time so I was in the back yard looking through tools while she was in the front yard checking out the glassware. I was also able to pick up a two foot and four foot stepladder for just $1. (No more hauling out the six foot ladder just to change light bulbs.) I also picked up an old drill press for $15. It needs a little grease but should work great. Just as I won the bid for the drill I heard a woman's voice from across the table say "What are you doing?" It was Amy and she had discovered that I was spending money too. What else would you expect when she gave me my own number. At least we weren't bidding against each other :)

Hockey Night In...Indiana?

We just returned from an evening on ice at the Pepsi Coliseum where for the first time, son and dad were able to skate with sticks in hand and shoot on real goals. It was a far cry from the frozen sidewalk a couple winters ago. A special thanks to co-worker Rodney for the loan of equipment. We have our own skates and sticks but it was a good thing Josiah had all the pads, since he usually fell down right in the goal crease. We both had a great time and are looking forward to future "escapades on ice"!

The Heat Is On

"Never crawl into a furnace when the pilot is lit."

With the promise of rising gas prices and winter knocking at the door, I decided to make sure the furnace still works. One of the first things I had to do was crawl inside and retrieve those weird triangular pieces. Most had fallen down and three had broken in half. I beleive they are simply heat deflectors but since they are made of clay they also help to hold the heat between cycles. Last Winter I wanted to set them back up but they seemed to always be too hot to handle. After most of them were set back up I flipped on the thermostat and opened the gas valve. With a quick light from a match (that part always scares me) the pilot was lit. I then adjusted the flame to a lovely blue hue.
So now we have heat, but since the thermostat resides around 60 degrees I probably won't need to adjust all the dampers for another month or so. Ah, the joys of a gas converted, gravity feed, coal furnace.

Put On Another Coat

Well I finally finished painting the exterior door to the side yard. After the primer and first coat, I had installed the window but the glazing requires about a week to cure before it's paintable. That week turned into two, then three, and now about a month later I finally put the second coat on. I wish I had spent more time sanding to get a smoother surface. Somehow I always believe the paint will smooth out all those imperfections.

Sawhorse Stable

You'd think after finally cleaning out the garage we'd actually put the car in there, but alas, no. Instead I dragged out the sawhorses and started the ardous task of stripping paint from the storms and screens. Now this was supposed to be my dedicated renovation job for the summer, and I'm just getting started in October. Looks like most of the windows will have to wear the same tired, old storms this winter. All of the storms are painted with so many layers you wouldn't know there was a fancy moulding along the paine. Many of the mortise and tenon joints are loose due to drying or rotting, so there will be some repairs as well as new coats of paint. The one item that has been sitting around the longest, waiting for attention is the screen for the front door. Unlike all the other doors and windows, the front door is stained and then shellaced. The copper mesh screen was tacked on and covered with a strip of trim so there are seemingly hundreds of nail holes along the edge of the window. It would be great to replace the screen with similar copper wire mesh but I have yet to find any, even on the internet. I also plan to build some sort of method for swapping out a storm panel with the screen. This is a real heavy screen door; no "thwap" when it closes, more like a "wham", with Batman stylized lettering. If the weather turns colder I'll have to add a heater to the sawhorse stable, then perhaps I'll get the storm windows done by Spring.

No Payments, No Interest

Got a big envelope in the mail today from Sears. "Attention Homeowners: Say good-bye to the trouble and expense of painting and repainting. Beautify your home in one easy step." All with their new Premium Vinyl Siding! Apparently they failed to notice our brick exterior.
I did get a bit of yard work done this evening though. Last fall I transplanted some of the divided Evening Primrose into the rose garden. They did well and the yellow flowers in spring looked good. But since it is a relatively quick spreading plant, they were beginning to compete with the roses. So tonight I dug up all the primrose and moved several clumps to the front edge where they will make a nice border between the sidewalk and roses. I even have several starts left over which I plan on sharing with friends and neighbors.

Here Comes The Sun

In response to the last post's comment, here's a bit of my thinking on the solar panels. I've been checking into a radiant heating supply company that uses the potable hot water lines to supply radiant heat through a closed system. Some of the benefits are moderate cooling in summer, reduced fuel costs and a simple, easily installed and maintained system. The basic idea is to heat water through the hot water tank and then send it through a system of radiant heat lines under the floor. But with our unobstructed, south facing roof we could add solar panels and "preheat" the water before reaching the hot water tank and store the heat in the basement slab. This would further reduce the fuel required to heat the water for showers, dishes and warming the house.

The only trouble is the systems are so interconnected that a firm commitment is required. The basement slab would need to be poured with tubing in place. The plumbing needs to be run before walls and joists are covered up, then there's my dream of replacing the shingle roof with copper and the need for a new hot water heater. All this just to provide an additional heat source - which is not a new concept for our house.

We have two old coal bins from before the furnace was converted to gas, and have found a letter written by the PO to the furnace manufacturer. He apparently wanted to know if different types of coal could be used and the answer was yes. So they were stockpiling cheap coal. We have also found disconnected gas lines that run to all the ceiling electrical fixtures. Because of the electrical wiring setup I don't believe the gas was ever used, but was still available if that new fangled thing called electricity went belly up. So I feel confident about mixing solar generated radiant heat with our gravity feed, gas furnace and wood burning fireplace. But we'll probably just put on an extra sweater anyways.

House Renovation Master Plan

I can live with a lot of chaos as long as I know there is a plan in place for moving beyond it. So don't expect to see much progress on this right away but at least here is our newly revised...

House Renovation Master Plan

Plumbing

• Replace all plumbing with PEX tubing


• Add shut off valves, new exterior faucets and rerun line to garage


• New hot water heater


• Radiant floor heat on first floor, basement


• Solar heat panels


• Garden irrigation system, including retrofitting cisterns


• Radiant heat in sidewalk, driveway


• Install drain system in basement, waterproof

Electric

• Finish electrical wiring


• Add network wiring

Exterior Repairs

• Repair soffits and add vents


• Paint exterior trim


• Paint windows - replace, repair storms and screens, garage door


• New railing on balcony


• Build a back porch, patio/sandbox

Garden

• Build new top for arbor


• Gravel in Rose garden


• Flagstone walks through garden

Interior

• Paint hallway

Total Renovation of

• Upstairs bathroom
  
• Downstairs Bathroom
  
• Kitchen
  
• Library

Junk Day

Today we cleaned up the garage a bit, just enough to get Mom's VW bug in but not our own car. It was community junk collection day and we did our part by dropping off a few boxes. I also purchased the lumber to finish off the compost bin. It was just warm enough to stain the wood. We have almost a whole cubic yard of "black gold" with another in progress. I'm not sure where we're going to put all the leaves that are beginning to turn. Guess I'll have to spread some compost first to empty out one of the bins. Unfortunately about halfway through the day Amy started feeling queasy. Apparently she's got a bit of stomach flu. So that meant the rest of the afternoon was spent feeding, playing and bathing the kids while she rests. Hopefully none of the rest of us get it.

Antique Hot Water Heater

Anybody need a gas hot water heater? We would like to get a new one but just can't bear to trash the old one - it's an antique! A 45 gallon Crane-Line Superior Automatic Water Heater complete with instalation tag dated August 15, 1953. Every morning I have a hot shower and it shows no signs of slowing down. But since I want to eventually install radiant heat, a new water heater is in the plans. When I called Crane to see if they would be interested in buying it back, perhaps as a museum piece for their fine craftsmanship, the sales rep wasn't even aware that they used to make water heaters. I guess I could always use it as a decorative planter in the middle of the rose garden. The plumbers suggested eBay. Let me know if you have any great ideas or if you would be able to take it off my hands. I'd even help load it up on a truck.

Bumper Crop

I heard in my carpool today about a woman who keeps green tomatoes wrapped in newspaper in the bottom of a closet. Apparently they will ripen slowly, providing "fresh" tomatoes for weeks after the plants are gone. So tonight I picked all the unrippening tomatoes and relegated them to the basement. I also called the kids over and we finally dug up the potatoes - our fun crop this year. It may have been the weather or the variety of vegetables but I think the new location for the garden was to blame for the poor production. With three tomato plants and four potato plants, we only harvested about three dozen tomatoes and eight small potatoes. Not a feast but neither are we starving. At least I won't need to fuss with canning!

Elizabeth Scissorhands

Thanks for the nice comment Jocelyn but my kids can make enough memories without my little construction projects. I came home from work today, only to discover large clumps of hair all over Elizabeth's bedroom. Now she has beautiful, long, naturally wavy, blonde hair so there was a moment of panic. But then I began to notice the variety of hair colors. She had cut every piece of paper in her room, but it just wasn't enough. She gave all her horses bob tails. She nicked up her 36" long plush horse, cut up a Vera Bradley teddy bear's tie. Even Sophie, our golden retriever wasn't exempt. But of course the worst was her own hair - the sides were shortened and a large clump in the back was gone. So instead of putting the final coat of paint on the side door before the weather turns too cold, I spent the evening cleaning hair off every surface imaginable. Oh well, at least her hair will grow back, unlike the horses'.

Sign of the Times

The past two mornings I've been greeted by a couple ladybugs crawling up the bathroom wall. Must be a sign that colder weather is approaching and a sign that I still haven't gotten the house sealed up very well. Maybe I should work on swapping out the screens for storms this weekend.

Interior Light and Magic

I stopped at Mason's Rare and Used Book Store today and found a little gem in the free book boxes: "Interior Electric Wiring and Estimating" by Uhl, Nelson and Dunlap. Published in 1947 it covers several topics such as Service Wiring, Knob and Tube, Cable, Conduit, Apartment Buildings, Factories and Estimating Wiring. With plenty of illustrations and tables it appears to be a very practical guide. I've already been able to identify some of the timeline for when our various electical upgrades occured. There is even a section describing the proper method for wiring the push button switches that are throughout our house. Lest you think it's an outdated manual, there is quite a discussion regarding the "new" material called RomeX and something called Armored cable. But best of all, tucked inside the back flyleaf are eight blueprints for a one and a half story house with attached garage and basement, complete with wiring and plumbing diagrams! Not a book too many people would read but a fascinating historical document, especially when read by the very lighting it describes.