Winter Wonderland

Just thought I'd throw up a picture of our house fresh after a snowfall. Lovely, ain't it?

Miserable jobs

When we first had the house inspected, our inspector informed us the insulation in the attic was lacking. It was old, not doing much of anything as far as holding heat in and had been chewed up by squirrels. In the inspection report, it was recommended that we put down new insulation right on top of the old stuff. This would reduce our heating bills significantly and help to keep our house warmer. So I did it.

Let me tell you, this was a miserable job. Our attic is basically a crawl space, there really isn't any room to stand up in there. The old insulation must have been original to the house because it was basically disintegrated. It was really musty and dirty up there. Thankfully I did this during the winter so it was somewhat comfortable. I sprung for a cartridge respirator and I'm glad I did - who knows what was in the old insulation. As soon as you would touch the stuff it would turn into a cloud of dust. I was pretty filthy when I was finished, I think I looked like a miner emerging from the hole.

The previous owners had also boarded up the attic vent to keep the rodents out. The vents are supposed to remain unobstructed so air can circulate. You'd think this was really for summer to keep things from getting too hot, but it also applies in winter. Apparently, the attic vent keeps the air circulating enough so things don't freeze. Once things get frozen, they trap moisture and you get rot. Not good!

So I found the squirrels nest behind the boarded-up vent and cleaned it out. Thankfully I did not have to contend with any furry interlopers. I do have to have to make some repairs to one of the attic vents though - they had climbed up the side of the house and chewed their way through the particle board around the vent. The nest in the vent was made of twigs, leaves and dirt. There was another nest much farther into the attic but it was not as complete as the vent one. Both are cleaned up now, hopefully the squirrels don't find their way back in there before I get my lazy ass back up there to repair the holes.

I ordered enough insulation to do the garage as well, hence the skid delivery you see in the photos. That will be much easier to do, it's all open. I just stand on a ladder and staple it up. need to get these baffle things that allow air to circulate under the insulation. That's a project for another day, but hopefully soon.

See the pics below.

Skid delivery.













Furry Yellow Sea

Money Pit

Well, it's been an eventful first few days in the house. As mentioned before, we found out our dishwasher spouts water like Niagra Falls which comes down in sheets onto the basement floor. I also found that the toilet will get clogged and back up. Not to be gross, but I found this out with a bowl full of crap.

And suddenly this morning, (Thursday, Jan 8) there was no hot water. Now, our oil-fired hot water heater is not terribly old and should have many years left of service. The issue stemmed from a clogged oil line. The previous owner had gotten an oil delivery in mid-December but not a whole lot. It must have been running low and the pump line to the oil burner on the heater picked up some sludge and prevented it from getting oil. When the oil tank is full, the sludge tends to stay on the sides of the tank but when it gets lower, it obviously drains down to the bottom and can clog the pickup. All is well though after a visit from our friendly local plumbing and heating guy.

Oil-fired water heater service - unclogging the line to the burner, filter and fitting change.













We got an oil delivery this morning too, our first as homeowners - $401.60 for 200 gallons. Not too bad, but the price of heating oil went up a few cents the day we put the order in.

The tally for the plumber was $108.75. That's $510 for one day. Hope the rest of the week is quiet...

First meal

Just an image to commemorate our first meal in our new house. Yer average spaghetti dinner with a side of broccoli. We've recently and thankfully made the switch back to normal pasta from whole wheat.

Suburbia

We moved. Man, what an adventure. We were literally packing things up and putting them in the truck. Our friends were troopers, they survived the ordeal and did it with a smile. We vowed never to move ourselves again but we saved a heluva lot of money and 'had fun' doing it.

We're now residents of Long Island - the suburbs. It's quiet and dark here at night. You can make a right on red. You drive to the giant supermarket at the shopping center. I always thought I was more of a suburban person but it's taking a little getting used to after living in the city for 12 years. I'm just happy to have my garage and yard.

We're finding out the house has a few 'quirks'. Here's a few.

• The kitchen has some very odd features such as the island that's too low and positioned too close to the wall for anyone to sit comfortably at. The crappy old dishwasher leaks like crazy and has caused damage to the surrounding floor; water streams down into the basement like a waterfall.
  
• The full bathroom is even more strange - the tub/shower is situated in a corner and has very little room to get in and out of it. Plus there's no linen closet.
  
• The family room is freezing and feels closed-off from the rest of the house, probably because it used to be a garage.
  
• There is not a good place to put the littler boxes for our cats, we're stepping over them right now since they're in the landing between the kitchen and family room.
• There's a large, white post sticking up from the peak of the roof where the electricity comes from the street. I guess this is what's meant by the joys of home ownership.
  

All in all though, we feel comfortable here and have already put our stamp on the place. Things will happen slowly if Amy can help it. If it were me, I'd have probably torn the kitchen and bathrooms out already. I must exercise restraint here though it is hard. I'm looking forward to the day when we can start correcting some of the blemishes and make it really nice.

Cut and dry

Painting is coming along slowly. I never remember it taking so long to do a 125 sq. ft room, seems like hours go by and I'm still cutting in. Probably feels like it's taking forever because it is; I've had to give everything a second coat. The ceilings took almost three days to do. Now I'm priming the walls before the color goes on. It's like painting the house twice. I'm nowhere near finished and we move in two days from now. I still have to prime over 50% of the living area and then put the color on. Then I have to do all the trim in the house, as well as measure, cut and re-install all the shoe moldings. Might not be finished until February at this rate.

I also want to mention that it's kinda lonely and slightly creepy being in an empty house all day. There's no one to talk to, none of my things are around and I'm still getting used to all the creaks and noises the house makes. Since it gets dark early nowadays and being there are not a lot of lights yet the house gets very dark. I'm not terribly fond of going down into the basement after dark to wash my brushes and rollers. The slop sink faces the wall in a far corner away from the stairs, I feel a little vulnerable standing there under the shop light facing the wall. Seriously!

All in all though, it's starting to come together nicely. The color is really going to liven things up and lift the dingyness from the place. I feel like it's a new start for the house as well as us. More to come in the next few days.