Small update

So Lucy has sorta put the blog on hold for quite some time now. We don't really do much home improvement, other than taking dirty diapers out to the trash (a definite improvement). Things are going pretty well. After a few days of much fussing and very few long stretches of sleep, Lucy slept last night from 7:45 pm until 5 am this morning. For those of you who can still do math, that's OVER NINE HOURS! We've been reading two sleep books (The No Cry Sleep Solution and Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child) to figure out how to get Lucy into napping more during the day. Maybe if she does, I'll start posting more.

We have another stove update: the oven door is broken. For a few days, it was just "a little bit broken," meaning, the oven door didn't shut all the way, but you could still use it. Now it is in full scale broken-ness, meaning that the oven door will not stay closed at all, unless it is held up, say, by something like your hand, or, as you can see here, a bungee cord:


Any suggestions from our readers that don't involve bungee cords or buying a new stove? I know, I know, someone is going to complain about why I'm so down on bungee cords (see this post for my previous anti-bungee-solution stance).

In other small updates, those of you who were our guests last winter will be pleased to hear that our heating system is not nearly as noisy as it was last year. Those of you who have had the pleasure of sleeping at 83 Durant in the winter time may remember some scary pipe and radiator banging. Apparently the poltergeist living in our boiler has left. Perhaps it was the boiler cleaning, or perhaps it was the new steam vents, but it's much nicer this year. We do need to re-shim this radiator:

Because it seems to be the biggest source of banging right now. But other than that, we have mostly peaceful nights (except for that whole baby waking every four or five hours situation).

Update

Things have been busy around 83 Durant, and we haven't been able to make a lot of progress since our carpenter left. Jake has finished caulking holes and edges in the trim, and has mostly finished sanding the trim. I don't have any pictures, becuase it's really too toxic for me to go in there right now. Hopefully he'll be able to get some painting done this week, but it has been hard to fit in project time with our work schedules.

Jake switched out all the air vents on all the radiators in the house, so that's a nice thing to have done before the weather turns. The new vents should make things a bit more efficient and hopefully a little less bang-y. Now we're trying to figure out crafty things to do with the old vents.

Other than that, not much to report. I can't wait to get the baby's room finished so we can move all the baby stuff up there!

Spare Bedroom Painting!

Today Jake put up the primer paint in the spare bedroom. We used Kilz, although with our fancy new drywall, I don't think there was really anything that needed killzing. It's nice to be one step closer to completing this room!


It's kinda hard to show what it looks like since it's all white, but you can at least see that it looks better than it did with all the drywall and mud!

And by the way, in case you were wondering why Jake did all the painting while I blogged away in the safety of the paint-free zone, it's because (for those of you who didn't yet know) we already have a long-term guest lined up for the "spare" bedroom. He or she will be arriving on or about November 17th, and apparently staying for something like 18 years or more. Thus the rather urgent need to get this room into move-in condition. That, or the kid is going to have to figure out carpentry and other home improvement tasks pretty quickly.

Today we also purchased a few new air valves for our radiators (on the advice of our heating expert). We found the Vent-Rite No. 1 Air Valve at our local Ace Hardware for several dollars cheaper than other places, so that was pretty great. I bought three just to see how the installation would go. It was smooth and easy, so we're going to try to change all of them.
There's the box for the new one, the new valve, and the old valve.

The old ones came out just fine (we worried about breaking them off and creating a serious problem) and we easily screwed in the new ones (adding some teflon tape to seal the threads). This should improve heating efficiency (or so we've been told).
Anyone have any ideas on what to do with the old ones? Any interesting craft projects? (I think they look like little metal Christmas trees).

Boiler Tune-up, Questions Answered!

The boiler repair guy just left, and boy, he had SO much information for us! It was a very informative and improving morning for 83 Durant!

We have an official (and rather important) answer to yesterday's question (see below) about the area that I *thought* was where the oil tank was once situated (we're on gas, not oil now). Those two pipes are actually the whole-house sewer trap. Opening those up would lead right into the sewer. There's a chance we might need access to them if there's ever trouble, but ideally we should just leave them alone! They're a sign that the house is quite old.

But on to the real reason for his visit: the boiler:


The most shocking thing we learned was that there was an important safety feature missing from our boiler. If too much pressure builds up in the system, there's a pressure release valve. We do have one of these (which is important!), however, the opening for it was pointed over the top of the boiler and across. It's the thing sticking straight up from the top in this picture. It was previously pointing forward, now it's turned around to a more appropriate position (away from the boiler switch):

As the expert explained, IF the pressure release valve needed to do its thing, it would blow steam at very high pressure across the top of the boiler and the room, which could:
1) hit a support beam and even break it
2) prevent anyone from getting near the boiler to turn it off
These are bad things. So he added additional piping and switched the direction, so now it points in the opposite direction (away from the boiler switch) and down to the floor:


He also suggested that sometimes this piece gets removed because basically, it's an easy-to-remove length of copper pipe, and copper is pretty expensive these days. I'm glad we have this all set up in a safe way now.

There is one other safety feature that it would be good to have, but we don't: most systems have an on/off switch somewhere upstairs. I thought perhaps that the mystery switch in the kitchen was it, but he confirmed that it was just a regular light switch (though to what, we still don't know). We're OK without the switch, but it seems like it would be nice to have it.

After the safety improvements, it was time for the boiler cleaning, which involved several steps:
1) draining the water and replacing it (this is something we can do ourselves). This takes out all the sludge that has settled to the bottom of the boiler.

2) opening the top drain, filling the boiler, and taking off the sediment that was on the TOP of the water. Basically, there are oils and things in the water that rise to the top (rather than settling to the bottom) so it's important to get rid of these things, too. He used the yellow-knobed spigot for this. There was some nasty gunk in there!


3) removing the pressure gauge and the "pig tale" for cleaning. That's the curly piece of pipe that looks kinda like a pig's tale, if that pig were made of copper piping. The pig tale was completely clogged to a solid mass. The pig tale connects to the pressure gauge, so it's pretty important. If left as it was, it could have forced the boiler to stay in the on or off position exclusively (both of which are bad!). So it's particularly good that we got this part fixed.


4) cleaning out the area where the gas flows: the shiny metal tubes you see on the bottom here are where the flames come out. He cleaned these out (mostly rust and cobwebs) and checked them for holes (there were none).


In other boiler and heat-related issues, one wire inside the system (a grounding wire) was a bit singed. He suggested we replace it before it breaks.

Also, he suggested that we buy all new vents for the radiators. Here's what some of them look like:





Some people even change these every five years. New vents would make it easier to adjust the temperature in an individual room, and generally make the system more efficient. He showed me exactly how to take them off and put them on, so I think a trip to the hardware store and a little DIY improvements are in our future.



The vents control how quickly or slowly the radiators fill with steam. The newer versions have clearly marked numbers so you can see whether they're on fast or slow speeds. These ones are a little tough to read. Also, over time, they can accumulate sediment and be generally less effective. They screw in and out, so it seems like a reasonable DIY project.




Other questions answered:
Remember that hole in the bathroom floor? It was the subject of this post: http://83durant.blogspot.com/2006/12/whhhhhaaaaat-part-2.html We thought it was from a radiator that had been removed, since there is currently no heat source in the bathroom. As our expert pointed out, it's not in the right place to be for a radiator. In fact, in houses this old, they wouldn't have heated the bathroom! He suggested that the hole was probably where the bathtub plumbing came in. There was probably an old claw-foot tub, and that was the water for it. The washer hook-up now taps off of the water pipe that was there. Another WHHAAAAATTTTT??? question solved!

And speaking of solving things, Jake has improved his lighting design from yesterday's post, after safety issues were raised. The addition of another bungee cord keeps the lamp lower, so there's no danger of igniting the insulation.


Well readers, what do you think? Is Jake's solution safe? Is it sane?