Planning & Purchasing for upcoming Projects

It has been a rather uneventful weekend for house projects, though the credit card has been seeing some action in the service of upcoming projects. Using a sweet 20% discount coupon, we bought a bunch of R19 insulation batts for the basement, where there are a few bays in the laundry room without any insulation at all. We also learned about some energy efficiency initiatives, including a tax credit for adding insulation. We're also thinking about a couple of new storm doors (one for the kitchen and one for the pink room), but those projects will wait for now.

We would like to add insulation to the walls and ceiling, particularly in the areas of the house that always seem cold, like the kitchen. The trouble is, it's hard to figure out where there is already insulation. So it looks like we may get some thermal photography of the house done, so we can figure out what's worth doing, and where to do it.

We also made a trip to the attic to assess the vent pipe situation. BTW, all is well up there, no visible water or varmint problems that we could see.


As you may recall from earlier posts, this is the situation:

The Studor Mini-Vent will be our solution. Check out the stats here.

So we've placed our order for that, as well as some insulation and weatherstripping for the attic hatch. We're hoping that once these two tasks are done, we will have sealed off the last remaining source of moisture and warmth, and that our attic will be in tip-top condition.

I also set about ordering some objects to solve our hole problems, also known as some of the "WHHHAAAAAAT?" situations in our house. Specifically, we have a hole in the basement, on the chimney, currently filled by a red sweatshirt. I discovered that the piece we need is called a flue stop, so I've ordered one of those.
[I would normally advise against decorating ideas that begin, "Wouldn't it be funny if…" for much the same reason I advise against witty bumper stickers: Even if it's funny the first 100 times, that's still only the beginning. That 200th time you look at your joke wallpaper/bumper sticker, I guarantee it won't be funny. That said, we don't spend too much time in the basement, and wouldn't it be funny if we got this flue stop? -jb]

I also ordered a couple of really large corks to fill the weird hole in the bathroom floor.

So fans of 83 Durant can look forward to some small but hopefully successful and educational projects in the near future (probably over Spring Break).

We did do another draining of the boiler today, and found much less of the gnarly water.

Further Projects Imminent

Today we sent off the contract for some work on our roof. We're using The Twelfth Century Slate Roofing Company. They will be doing the following work:

-->Base flash (with copper) the main chimney (the one we just had rebuilt)
-->Replace twenty missing and broken slates (VT/NY purple)
-->Remove the aluminum ridge cap (it's corroding and pulling off) and replace with a copper ridge cap

If all is well with the weather, he will start on Monday! Amazing!

We're also hoping to have him put a hole in our roof. That sounds bad, but we need a hole so that the vent pipe that currently ends in the attic will actually go outside (where it should be). We're thinking that we might be able to attach the vent pipe ourselves; we just need him to peel off the slate and take care of the flashing around it on the outside of the roof. It seems like we just need to attach a length of pipe; we'll investigate further to see if this warrants a plumber.

But today, while looking around for info on the vent pipe issue, I found this piece of information from our friends at This Old House:

Another option, if codes in your area allow, is to cut off the secondary vents in the attic at least 6 inches above the ceiling insulation and cap each one with an air-admittance vent. This is a device with a diaphragm that allows air to enter the stack when water goes down the drain but doesn't allow sewer gases to escape into the house. Theoretically, you could eliminate roof penetrations entirely with these vents, but at the moment, the codes say that every plumbing system must have at least one stack that extends outdoors.

So we do have a sewer vent that vents outdoors (off the downstairs bathroom & out through the flat roof). Perhaps we don't need to cut that hole. Further investigation is warranted.

Here is some interesting information about these air admittance valves:

Air admittance valves (AAVs) are pressure-activated, one-way mechanical vents, used in a plumbing system to eliminate the need for conventional pipe venting and roof penetrations. A discharge of wastewater causes the AAV to open, releasing the vacuum and allowing air to enter plumbing vent pipe for proper drainage. Otherwise, the valve remains closed, preventing the escape of sewer gas and maintaining the trap seal. Using AAVs can significantly reduce the amount of venting materials needed in a plumbing system, increase plumbing labor efficiency, allow greater flexibility in the layout of plumbing fixtures, and reduce long-term maintenance problems associated with conventional vent stack roofing penetrations.

Wow! I think we just solved our problem. Thank you, Internet, for saving us a boatload of money and hassle!

Here's some more information on issues & solutions to plumbing vents:
This one has a nice diagram.
This discussion thread features the "controversy" over AAV's.

Small projects; Small Dogs

It was a rather uneventful weekend, but we did manage to get a few things done. Jake fixed the broken utensil drawer in the kitchen using the saw and some scrap wood from our local Ace hardware. I fixed the wiring on an old lamp so that it works (and, at least as far as I know, no longer poses a fire hazard). Looks like seventh grade electrical shop class has finally paid off! Check it out:


In other news, we found last week that Carter was having a hard time with the snow -- it got in between his toe pads, and seemed to be causing him some pain, resulting in pathetic, raised-paw pauses during walks. Here he is, a few days ago, less than pleased about the snow in the back yard:













And here he is, only slightly less pleased today, after I put on his brand new doggie booties. He looked so sad that I didn't even try to put the ones on his back feet.

Cold-hearted furnace

As I begin this entry, we are in fact in the middle of our current house crisis. I guess I'm using the blog to focus my nearly debilitating anxieties at the moment.

About an hour ago, I noticed that the thermometer reading on the thermostat was weirdly lower than where we'd set the thermostat, and that although the little icon said the furnace was on, it was clear from the behavior of the radiators (i.e., the lack of steaming and banging) that it was not in fact on.

A trip to the basement confirmed that the furnace was not on, and a shiny red light indicated that the water level was too low. That green box on the left is the shutoff for low water -- there's a tiny red light on the top of it.

The home inspector, those long many months ago, told us something about draining the boiler, but we don't remember what it was. There is a red lever on one of the water pipes that we suspect might be the way to add water to the system.



But we're not entirely sure this is what we should do. And given that this is a steam boiler, which, apparently can cause all kinds of horrifying damage to persons and property (if you read the right sources), I'm worried about a) hurting ourselves and b) doing something that completely fouls up the boiler.

At the moment, we're waiting for the pipes and system to cool down. When they do, we will try the red lever. And see if things work. After that, we call for help.

Outside, it is snowing madly, with temperatures below freezing.

We are heading to the basement right now.

Updates forthcoming.


Update: 1 pm:

We drained the system of its dirty water (gross!) and slowly added new water. We had read that we needed to raise the water level to between 1/2 and 2/3 or between 2/3 and 3/4 (depending on the source). Here you can see the gauge at its (we hope) correct level.

We turned the thing back on...
and nothing happened.
For about two minutes.
Two long minutes of (my) panic.
Then the thing fired, and at this moment, it is heating up all that water.

Hopefully, soon, the steam will start heating up the radiators.

Update: 1:15
It seems that everything is in order. Radiators are heating up and the temperature is rising. And the furnace is still running and the water level looks OK.

We are tentatively declaring victory.

We would like to thank:
The Lost Art of Steam Heating, a ridiculously comprehensive book we bought just last week.

There's precious little good information available on how to do these things, so it was all a bit nerve-wracking. We'll just need to keep a close eye on that water level. Some post-emergency researching has helped us find some good online information in a few places.

If you're wondering how steam heat works, here's a handy and informative page I just found via the BBC. We have what's called a one-pipe steam system, where just a single pipe feeds the radiator with steam and carries away the water.

My ongoing online research has also uncovered this terrific site -- a "Homeowner's Library" that has lots of great information on steam heat.

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day. May your heart and your home be warm!

An update to account for lack of updates

The semester is underway here at Lowell, and we've been quite busy with school and our dog. No serious house problems for a few days, so we're counting our blessings. I just realized that I felt bad that there were no new entries on the blog. We've been giving our friends over at Casa de Trabajo a hard time about their blog, but in truth, they've been doing a lot more work around their house than we have, including completely gutting their kitchen, putting in new floors, and fixing some messed up load-bearing beams.

Anyway, we had some people over for crafting today, so we had the place all looking nice. Here's a nice shot of the pink room:



And here is today's shot of Carter. Yesterday, Carter learned to bark. He barked at people, he barked at dogs. It was all rather shocking. Today he has been quiet.



I realize this is getting dangerously close to being a dog blog. For now, we're relieved that all is quiet at 83 Durant.

Bathday

Carter got another bath today (we're trying to keep the allergens and dog smells under control. He doesn't really seem to mind a lot, at least, he doesn't put up a fight. But he did look a bit forlorn walking around shaking off the dampness.

The pipes for now are all running fine. We're still unclear on where the pipe froze. A mystery, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in foam pipe insulation (or not). Also, it seems important to note here that after I called my mom asking for help, she discovered that HER pipes (in Pennsylvania) were frozen. In fact, they are still frozen today. So we're feeling lucky. For now.

Near Disaster Averted (we think)

This evening,around 11 o'clock, Jake discovered that the cold water in the upstairs bathroom sink and shower was not funtioning. Hot came through fine, just no cold water. This is the dreaded, tell-tale sign of the dreaded

FROZEN PIPE.

Panic ensued (mine).

There are a number of bizzare things about situation. These include:

1) upstairs toilet (right beside sink) was running just fine with plenty of water filling the tank. Unfortunately, the water filling that tank was HOT water. This, of course, is not normal.

2) all other bathrooms and sinks, even the ones in the basement, were functioning just fine.

3) we don't know exactly where the pipes in the upstairs bathroom come from, but it's pretty clear that they are on an INSIDE wall, not some outside, very exposed and hence cold area.

After calls to my mom and to Jake's dad, we started a few very lame courses of action that were probably more about feeling like we were doing something than actually doing something. We turned on the shower and sink, full force with the hot water, my own logic being that the hot and cold pipes come in side-by-side, thus hot pipes might help warm up the cold ones beside them. I turned up the heat in the house a bit, and also turned up and moved the bathroom space heater to directly hit an outside wall (though we have no idea if there's a pipe anywhere near there). I also pointed a hairdryer at the wall in a few places, and at the pipes under the sink, although the only pipes we could see (the input directly under the sink) were clearly not the problem, since they were quite warm.

After several trips to the basement, during which we were completely unable to find any pipes that appeared to head anywhere in the direction of the upstairs bathroom, we sat on the floor of the bathroom, weighing our options. We were sitting there for a while, when all of a sudden, the cold water starts spraying out of the sink faucet (we had left the faucet on). This was about an hour and a half after the whole fiasco started.

So, don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that things are up and running again. But, I'm VERY surprised at how it happened. I can imagine that if we were heating up pipes and walls actively, the pipe might start suddenly spitting out water. But we were sitting there, doing nothing. Why was it suddenly fixed? I don't get it.

We have the sink running at a drip, and I'll no doubt be getting up several times tonight to obsessively check the situation. And we're going to call a plumber anyway, to get a few things checked out.

By the way, if you were wondering about that whole hot-water-in the toilet, there is apparently a mixing valve in the system, which, under normal circumstances, allows a small amount of hot water into the toilet tank to eliminate condensation on the outside of the tank. However, when the cold water is off, it allows all hot water to fill the tank. This is really not a good thing. Actually, hot hot water in the toilet tank and hence toilet bowl is really gross for reasons I will leave to your own imagination.

For those of you wondering what that mixing valve looks like, Jake took a picture under the upstairs bathroom sink:



So the hot water comes in on the left, the cold on the right; the oval-shaped knobs are the shutoffs for the incoming water. Then water from BOTH hot and cold go down through the lower pipes, the ones with the red shutoffs. They join at that spot all the way on the right, and then go out the wall, and over to the toilet.

All this to keep condensation from forming on the tank. The thing is, typically it takes a while (especially this time of year) to get the hot water running in the upstairs bathroom. So I'm not convinced that it's all that efficient. I just realized, though, that we could turn off that red shutoff for the hot water entirely and see how it goes with the condensation; it doesn't seem like condensation on the tank is a problem in the winter anyway.

So for now, we are cautiously optimistic that we don't have a frozen pipe. Our worry now is, where WAS the pipe frozen? (or was this problem related to something else entirely...is there ANY possibility that there was some other issue??) If it was a frozen spot, how do we go about finding it and fixing the cold air leak? It is a perplexing question. And here I thought we had fixed all the emergencies in January; looks like February may be more of the same! Ack!

Making things Pretty

Today we installed some new semi-sheer screen-type curtains on the french doors leading to the front room. We bought this fabric at Ikea. It's called Anno Inez. [In case you didn't know, that's Swedish for "In the year Inez." --jb]

Our supplies (for two doors) included:
*two panels (24 X 118 inch) Anno Inez (we had some left over on each roll....any ideas on what we should do with the leftovers?)
*Four dowel s cut to 26 inches
*four brass cup hooks
*needle and thread
*four elastic hair bands

Here's the before and after.














I rather like them! They will make the room a little more private, but still allow lots of light.