With the basement in a reasonable state of order, I finally called the hot water heating specialist for an estimate. He spent a couple of hours here Thursday morning examining our system and drawing up rough plans for the update. This is the same gentleman we called a couple of years ago who gave us an estimate that exceeded 5 digits, and that was before the price of copper doubled. It will take him about a week to prepare the new quote, and I know it ain’t gonna be pretty! But the one thing he did confirm for us is that the way our current system is set up just isn’t working. He could tell that by looking at the pipes. I already knew that from the cold snap we had last winter where the temperature in the house hovered around 54 degrees for several days.
More preparation needed before work can begin
The basement is still not completely cleaned up. I still have some more boxes to empty. Even though I plan to finish the basement at some point in the future, I am finally putting things “away.” At the very least, my tools are organized. It gets to be rather expensive to buy tools that I know I have but can’t find. Now I’m at a point where things are where I can find them. What things? Well, for starters, 3 hammers, 4 needle nose pliers, 2 keyhole saws, countless packages of sand paper, and a bunch of high quality woodworking tools that I forgot I had.
Saying goodbye to another selling point of the house
Pantry
Item: built-in pantry. This triangular cabinet was built in the corner of the kitchen. Pipes for the radiator in our daughter’s bedroom are contained in the inside wall. This wall is the best location to route the new properly sized pipes, but the main support beam in the basement presents a major obstacle. Cutting out a section of the wall in order to feed the pipes through from the main floor would make the job a lot easier.
After removing the shelves and cutting a hole in the drywall to verify the location of the current pipes I realized that it might have been possible to preserve the pantry. However, despite its apparent size, there really wasn’t much storage space inside because of its triangular shape. Storage was awkward and cluttered, and some items would end up becoming lost in the back corner. We decided to go ahead and take it out while we still had the garbage bin in the driveway.
As I took it apart, something strange happened. I was starting to admire how well-built it was. Could it be that I could finally respect something done by the previous homeowner?
Yup, it’s live
Hidden plug.
Not so fast! Hidden inside the front wall of the pantry was a plug in the original wall. I suppose at this point I shouldn’t be surprised by anything in this house, but in this case I was, especially since the plug was live. Our electrical code does not allow for hidden junction points, never mind hidden live plugs. I investigated downstairs. This plug is in middle of a circuit and both wires are easily accessible from the basement. It would have been very easy to cut the wires and rejoin them inside a junction box in the basement. The fact that this wasn’t done is further indicative of the lack of attention to detail and total disregard for safety by the previous homeowner.
Flexible storage options
With the built in pantry removed, we have a little more flexibility. We can choose either a store-bought model (the kind that assembles with only a screwdriver) or we can perhaps find an antique. If all else fails, I could construct another built-in pantry. I figure that we have a few weeks to make up our mind, so in the short term we are antiquing. We found an interesting jam cupboard today, but unfortunately it was too wide for the space.
A reminder of why we love our money pit
Despite all the nightmares associated with our house, I am constantly reminded of why we chose to move here. I discovered this nest of rabbits on Wednesday when I was cutting our front lawn. I realize that such a sight is not uncommon even in the city, but it is still a little piece of nature and we are are fortunate to be closer to nature than most city folk.
Rabbit stew!
Oh boy do I sympathize with the whole “waiting for the 5 digit heating estimate” ordeal. Now that our new system is in place and our bank balance down to three digits (two to the right of the decimal point) we’re going to be limited to cheap manual labor projects for a long time, but it was well worth it after both freezing because of and paying a fortune for our electric baseboard heat which is finally gone.
And I’m glad I’m not the only one who buys tools and supplies that I KNOW I have but can’t find. My next big project after the one I’m on now is to do some major organization. Sad and ironic that I had just finally gotten our old house totally organized when we moved.
Good luck with everything!
Comment by Leslie — Saturday, 9 June 07 @ 8:55 am
Thanks to overdraft protection our bank account has a “minus” sign. With us, it’s all about debt management. We could wait and save up to pay cash, but that would mean enduring more winters without a properly functioning system.
It’s rather funny to me to hear people talk about the length of time for payoff, ie how long it will take for a system to pay for itself with the improvement in efficiency. Frankly, at this point, I don’t care how much the heating bills go down as much as just maintaining a comfortable temperature in the house on those bitterly cold days. How do you put a price tag on that?
It’s nice to know we’re not alone, in terms of astronomical repair bills and state of disorganization. Thanks for your comments.
Comment by Thumb & Hammer — Saturday, 9 June 07 @ 10:38 pm