Always something…

So…it’s no-sleep Monday/Tuesday apparently…sitting there in the wee hours…bleary eyed and restless…I ponder…and wonder…and try to read, or write…or listen to music…without disturbing the wife anyway. One of us should remain mostly sane…

And then…of course…I begin to ponder…and wonder…why it’s getting so damn HOT in here.

On the “It’s always something” front…at the “Suburban Blah House”…and yep…the temperature is creeping up inside despite the inside fan of the central system chugging away…

Five tons of dual stage high-efficiency coolage is more than enough to keep that from happening under any circumstances Texas can dish out…so something’s broken.

Gah! Just what I need. Since the aforementioned inside unit is running, I head outside to check out the condenser.

It’s hot…and the compressor is cycling every 5 minutes for about a minute of run-time…and the fan isn’t running to cool the unit.

A screw-driver to fit through the grate and give the fan a push….and it spins free…so motor not locked…gonna be a relay or capacitor then.

Sigh. Not up to dissecting the unit in the dark…and there’d be no parts till morning anyway…so I “installed” an auxiliary/emergency cooling fan…(see the pic)…

Not so silly as it looks…it’s blowing upward…sucking air through the unit as the real fan would…and it’s actually a fan of similar horsepower (1/4) to what the real one is.

And the proof’s in the pudding…so to speak…

It immediately did TWO very good things…

One: The unit is cooling, and the temperature is already dropping in the house.
Two: The airflow set the real fan to spinning and shortly it began running on its own. This tells me what’s wrong (capacitor) so it’s an easy fix once daylight (and parts) comes along.
What do you think of my solution?

cooling_fan

Update:

The culprit. Didn’t *look* bad…usually they swell in some form or fashion…but the behavior MUST have been the capacitor…specifically in this combo case…the fan side.

bad_cap2

I don’t have a capacitance meter…I keep meaning to buy one…I’ve got every other kind of meter known to man…sometimes multiples of them…so…while the behavior indicated a bad cap…still *really* guessing.

Off to Grainger I go (they rock btw). They pull me a new one…and check the old one (they have a capacitance meter handy for just these cases).

Compressor side reading almost 20% low (usually replace capacitors if they are more than 10% off), and the fan side? Well, as I expected. Dead to the world.

Nice to be vindicated.

Taxes and all, the part was $23. It ALWAYS costs me more though when I go to Grainger…see…they carry Klein tools…and yanno…they’re Klein! So…I *may* have spent more on a new tool or two than I did on the part…

Got home, popped in the part, screamed “It’s alive HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! in my best Gene Wilder voice, and threw the switch.

And of course…it works. Woot!

Even with the…uh…extraneous tool purchase…I STILL got out of it cheaper than a service call alone, not to mention the 400% the service guys usually mark up caps…

So…what’s next?

Posted in Heat/Air Conditioning | 1 Comment

Yep, I do it…

Definition:

Vicfragoretondere: The act of crashing your riding mower into things because while mowing the grass you are looking up at your Old Victorian and thinking, “Man that’s a gorgeous house.”

done4

Posted in Miscellaneous, Yard | Leave a comment

Incongruity

002webIt is not lost on me…that I update this status…this instant communication available world-wide at the touch of a button…from a room that looks pretty much as it did in 1900.

Far from lost…that incongruity along with many others, pleases me intensely…

The wallpaper is original…as it is in several rooms in this house…we must update it…as over 115 years of age has destroyed the color and integrity of the paper and glue. Occasionally a piece drifts down from the ceiling with a quiet whisper…annoying the cats and delighting the dog…who…as best as I can tell…loves the taste of the stuff.

The paper is so fragile that if I slap the wall the paper will shatter and blow small pieces back in my face.

The original floors…with the original finish…complimented by gorgeous trim, bulls-eye moldings, and antique cabinets complete the atmosphere.

A visitor from the past, suddenly transported here…would not immediately feel out of place.

But there are differences…and the hypothetical visitor from the past would marvel and rejoice at them.

The room is brightly…and pleasantly lit…by extraordinarily efficient and latest generation of high-tech LED electric light-bulbs. For you “incandescent” purists…the color/brightness are indistinguishable and they come on to full brightness immediately. For you “oil-lamp” purists…well, you’re out of luck. I think you can get the appropriate color/wattage, but no matter how hard you try, they won’t make soot.

My visitor would gasp at the flip of the switch.

As best as we can tell this house didn’t get electricity of any kind until around 1930. There are more operational bulbs in this single room than the entire house was equipped with when electricity was first installed. They provide more light for a fraction of the power too.

Oil lamps, candles, and the ample 8-foot tall windows would have had to do before. Given the nature of the wall and ceiling coverings…it’s a wonder any of these homes survived the “flame on” lighting era.

Despite the oppressive heat and humidity outside, the room is pleasantly cool and dry. Were it not, the shellac finish on the 100 year old table I’m using would be too soft and sticky to set anything on (yes, it’s that swampy out there). My visitor would again marvel. This is due to a small, nearly silent, latest technology, high efficiency heat pump, mounted unobtrusively high on the wall in each room. These use less than 1/3rd the power of similar capacity of cooling just a decade ago would require, and cost less to heat with in our climate than natural gas. This room is more comfortable now…at this moment…than it’s ever been in its 115(ish)-year history.

Modern day purists…the ones that think this home is a museum, would no doubt criticize. In the past, properly deployed double hung windows all over the house would catch the breezes and draft some of the heat out of the house.

Those that can say that with a straight face have never visited our part of the country. Close to 8 months out of the year the heat and humidity are enough to cause discomfort at best, distress for some, and death for others. When it’s 100 degrees in the shade, with 80% humidity, and the night-time temps don’t drop below 85 degrees for a couple months…your double-hung windows are not your friend…and that’s in a mild year.

The Victorians here would have deployed air-conditioning with gleeful abandon.

In the next room, hot and cold water are available at the twist of a tap, the hot provided by a state-of-the-art tankless natural gas water heater that is smaller than a picnic basket, and more efficient than any water heater in the whole history of the whole history.

Meanwhile, I have the information of the ages at my fingertips, the house itself can notify myself, wherever I might be, AND the authorities in the event of an intrusion, fire, or plumbing problem…and it can do so through it’s own wireless uplink to the world. It will also send a picture of the problem.

High-tech video and sound can be found in the “men’s parlor”, bringing the news and marvels of the world to light at the slightest whim…and the “water-closet” would no doubt delight my visitor from the past…particularly in one of those “midnight forays” so often required. Those weren’t brought indoors here till just after WW2.

Cooking and heating without hauling firewood or coal (both used here) and simply flicking a switch would be downright decadent…as would the ease of cooking and laundry. And refrigeration without hauling ice? Just wow.

The new and practically maintenance free roof (theirs would have been cedar shake…which will last but requires significant bi-annual or more maintenance) would gain a nod of approval.

We will update this house…we ARE updating this house…we MUST update this house. They fall down in modern times in favor of cracker-box tract homes and mind-numbing apartments, simply because most folks today cannot afford to maintain, heat, or cool them to a livable degree. The technology…the high-efficiency heat and air…and lighting and insulation…can change that if properly deployed.

And…it can be done for the most part, maintaining that Victorian attitude. It’s not hard. This house is a Queen Anne…and had a radically different decor scheme in every room. Western/southwestern, flowers, what may have been Oriental (not much left of that to tell), and what could only be called art-deco, even though it was way before that, plain/beadboard, and more are all original to this single house. As far as decor choices…pretty much ANYTHING goes.

We love that.

We’ll restore what makes sense. Preserve what we like. Replace what we must…and we’ll make sure this house is practical and comfortable to remain in use (and thus, standing) for another century or more.

Yep, we’ll do it with Victorian flair…but where we can’t, or it doesn’t make sense…we’ll add our own brand of flair without hesitation or regret. This is our home…and we don’t live in a museum.

The Victorians would see what we do and embrace the technology and rejoice in the changes. This was their home…and they didn’t live in a museum either.

…and we’re just getting started.

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment

A couple new pieces…

Me and my sweetie picked up a couple new pieces for the Old Vic yesterday…

Not sure what the point of a small, eight-legged table is…but we thought it was cool so it fits right in! It’s about 3 feet across.

Octable...

Octable…


Has a few scars in the top, but otherwise all there and in excellent condition.

And a hutch. With one…or maybe if we’re feeling generous…one and one-half closets in 4000 square feet…LOTS of hutches, cupboards, armoires, chests, and pretty much any other synonym for ‘storage’ are in our future…

Nice old hutch...

Nice old hutch…

Nice old hutch...

Nice old hutch…


Quite heavy/solid…and one piece…(or at least…not easily separated).

Now…just where to put them…since the entirety of the house is in some stage of “projectitis”…

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment

Time to say goodbye…

We put some things into motion yesterday. Big things.

It’s time to say goodbye to something significant about the Old Vic.

Seven years of hard work…mostly not on the Old Vic. Years of planning, going WAY back before we bought the Old Vic…years of saving, making hard choices, and doing without.

Seven years of struggling to make the “right” choices…instead of the pleasant ones. Years of working on other projects…projects that paid…rather than on the things I wanted to tackle.

All that…combined with a recent bit of serendipity and we have reached a point where it’s time to say goodbye to a significant burden related to this project.

Things are in motion. It takes a bit to get the i’s dotted and t’s crossed…maybe as much as a month…but they are in motion.

A mortgage burning party is imminent.

It may be nothing more than the wife and I toasting with a couple margaritas, eating a steak, and spending the rest of the evening ur…celebrating…but it’s imminent.
mortgage

…and then the real work begins.

CUAgain!

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment

I love it when a plan … uh … well … I just love it…

coffee7My plan yesterday was a simple one…my woman was well over 100 miles away from me so it went something like this:
1) Coffee.
2) Ride motorcycle.
3) Woman.

Like any good plan…I accomplished all these.

Like any intelligent plan…it had some “wiggle room”.

And like most plans of mine…it ended up with a trip to Homeowner Hell and an exercise with power tools.

At the “Suburban Blah” house a backyard tree was beginning to damage the fence and also leaning in such a way that a good storm was going to take it down…killing the fence and perhaps part of the house. It was time for me to take it out. Preemptive strikes can often save time, money, and heartache later. They can also be fun and involve terrified screams and maniacal laughter…but that’s another story.

canned_fuelSince the additives they have been mandating in the gasoline lately literally ate the fuel system in my chainsaw (perhaps beyond reasonable repair), a trip to the Homeowner Hell was needed to grab a power tool or two. Hint: For gas-powered tools, spring for the canned fuel. It’s expensive, but they run better, start easier, and it won’t gum them up or kill the fuel system parts between uses.

Since I feel I can usually fix just about anything (at least, if I have a glass of iced-tea and a q-tip), I have hopes I can repair my expensive gas chainsaw. Unfortunately, time here…was of the essence. I needed to get this tree down now…and perhaps another one Monday (to put out in time for the city limb pickup on Tuesday and before the scheduled thunderstorms Wednesday). Since that pesky thing called a job (that pays for all these shenanigans) is likely to take up about 60% of my life this week…that means a quick trip and a new tool are in order.

I ended up buying an reasonably inexpensive electric chainsaw to do the job. I also had to buy a new cord…as some schmuck felt the need to liberate my previous long-heavy duty cord. So, a competent/capable 14″ electric chainsaw and a 100′ heavy power cord. Care to guess which one cost more?

14" Electric Chainsaw. Capable/competent little saw!

14″ Electric Chainsaw. Capable/competent little saw!


Please note I HAVE instructed Pierre the Polydactyl Maine Coon (seen here pondering chainsaw-enabled world domination) that he is NOT to use the chainsaw unsupervised.

The saw turned out to be quite capable and plenty powerful. It easily cut down (and up!) the medium sized tree I needed to tackle. I can see that it would not be a good choice for professional/heavy duty use, but will be perfect for those occasional “projects around the house” and with no fuel system to gum up, will be ready to go (anywhere there’s a power outlet) at a moment’s notice.

New 100-foot heavy (14ga) extension cord). Cost more than the saw!

New 100-foot heavy (14ga) extension cord). Cost more than the saw!


I have a pet-peeve about this cord…any decent cord, rolled properly, will not tangle and is easily deployed. This one is a decent cord…however it was NOT packaged well for sale. It was rolled loosely and stuck in a simple cardboard sleeve…meaning that the jostling in endured in it’s trip from the Chinese-child-slave-labor factory to my store resulted in it being hopelessly tangled. Took me a good half-hour to undue the mess.

In short order…I had about 4 tons of tree cut down and hauled to the curb. I’ve another tree that needs the same treatment (bigger yet!). I may tackle it Monday after work. Curb-side limb pickup is Tuesday so it would be good to get it out for this cycle.

About 4-tons of tree

About 4-tons of tree

Oh…and a note about the saw…my wife reads the box and says, “Hey, you can use this saw indoors!”

Observation? Or permission…

Muhahahahahahaaaaaaaaa!

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

Posted in Miscellaneous, Tools | 3 Comments

Rail details

More railing work…got the siding repaired and flashed.

Siding Repair and flashing

Siding Repair and flashing

Installing the last rail section:

Siding Repair and last rail section

Siding Repair and last rail section

We like the look. Now, just need to do something about that sea of Crapsman mowers…

Mostly done.

Mostly done.

On the “Why things cost more front”…this is about $100 worth of deck screws…in the 5 sizes needed to do this project. This is the third refill of those containers.

Why things cost more...

Why things cost more…

Just trim bits left…I wanted to seal the top rail…don’t want bugs/wasps and such making a home there…so I got to cut about a billion little blocks (the stairway ones at 35 degree angles) to precise sizes to install in the gaps…

Blocks to seal top rail

Blocks to seal top rail

I’ve never been so glad I have a saw with a fricken laser on its head!

Lots and lots of blocks

Lots and lots of blocks

Got a few more trim pieces and details to do…but we are mostly complete.

Angled blocks

Angled blocks

No rest now though…I’ve got to do this same project across the entire front of the house…or I lose my insurance. Some adjuster has his panties in a wad and is REQUIRING me to replace the historic rails with something they deem “safe”.

There is an additional twist to that part of the project…first…I have to repair or replace several columns and some of the decking while I’m at it…AND several sections of the front railings will need to be curved! Should be fun!

Front after

Time to replace the front rails.

CUAgain!

Posted in Carpentry/Structure, Rear Deck Railings | Leave a comment

Railing progress…

Worked on the railings again this weekend…I only have one section left on the deck side of the house…well…that is…if ya don’t count the trim, priming, painting, and other fiddlings around that will still be left to do…

More railing progress

More railing progress

There is a LOT of work in assembling this. Getting the spacing correct, cuts right, and so on, takes meticulous attention.

Coming together

Coming together

We invested in the extra work and cost as we wanted a railing that was appropriate for a Queen Anne Victorian. We started on the rear deck so we could “develop” the strategy/construction method here, for later use on the front porches (next up!)

We like the look/sturdiness of this railing.

We like the look/sturdiness of this railing.

We are pleased with the results.

Last section to do...

Last section to do…

We stopped here because I needed to flash the deck to the side of the house, and also in conjunction with that…to do some significant siding repair. (because, yanno…it’s all connected!)

When we got the Old Vic, there was a shed/cover built to the side of the house in this area (look here) that did damage to the siding on either side of the window. There was also several largish holes in the lower siding from the various incarnations of plumbing into the kitchen over the years. Many had been covered over with tin strips, filled with caulk, or the like and painted over. There were also a number of cracks and splits that would be difficult to repair.

This siding closely resembles the current common mill-work of clapboard, but it’s not exact. I cannot get the exact match, (an it’s in cypress too!) so my strategy was to remove the damaged long pieces, salvage enough short pieces out of them to repair around the window, and add new siding to the lower part of the wall. The slight difference in pattern won’t be noticeable as long as there is not a random piece of the new mixed in with the old.

An additional difficulty is that the old siding may actually be hand-milled…not every board was the same width…coverage varying as much as 1/2 inch between boards. While not an issue when siding your way up an entire wall, it matters greatly when trying to insert pieces into an existing location so mixing and matching was needed to fit them into the repair.

Sorry for the funky picture…the camera malfunctioned for some reason and this is the only shot I have of it mostly apart. I actually took more down before starting reassembly…7 pieces total around the window (three on one side, four on the other).

Significant siding repair

Significant siding repair

We also stopped here because I ran out of lumber, and need to get the correct flashing as well.

Mostly done...

Mostly done…

The damaged corner trim and trim around the window I will repair with epoxy or Bondo or the like. It would be quite expensive to replace as it is true 1″ thick x 6″ wide cypress. This is not a measure of lumber readily available anywhere. It’s also in remarkably good condition except where the shed lumber had been pressed against it with no flashing.

I should finish the deck railing and siding repair next weekend.

Lots of cuts to this mess…one of several piles of scrap from this project.

The remains of the day...LOTS of cuts!

The remains of the day…LOTS of cuts!

Posted in Carpentry/Structure, Rear Deck Railings | Leave a comment

Added more tonnage/zones.

With winter winding down and summer firing up just a couple hours after winter ends, we decided it was time to add more mini-splits.

While we were extremely pleased with the first one we put in as regards comfort and energy savings, we had some trouble with it and although we were able to repair it, learned a valuable lesson. That lesson is that “brand matters”.

Just in the last month the reversing valve malfunctioned in it and it needs repair again. That is an unusual failure on any quality system and not a cheap fix.

I discussed our situation with a highly recommended local AC/Heat contractor and he agreed with our rationale in installing these in this house, and indicated he could repair this one, but the question of “what else” will go wrong with the inferior unit immediately looms its head.

As we talked about the units he typically uses and the service record with them (excellent), it became pretty clear that the repair cost is probably not a good investment.

Another factor that reared its ugly head…I noticed late in the season last fall that the annoyingly loud and inefficient “window shaker” we use in our current bedroom (the future dining room) at the Old Vic seemed to be a bit balky on startup. Prepping for the hot weather this season (hours away now), I cleaned the filter and coils and fired it up…or rather…attempted to fire it up. It’s not a happy camper and I expect needs a new fan motor. It’s a large number of years old and is not worth the repair cost. Replacement was required and I didn’t want to buy another window unit. While considerably cheaper than a high-end mini-split of the same tonnage (about 1/4th the price) the window units are noisy, don’t take enough of the humidity out of the air, and inefficient/costly to operate. Our climate here has us running AC for 7-8 months of the year so this is a significant consideration. The electricity used in just one season can cost far more than the unit, so investing in efficiency generally has a reasonably fast payout.

So…I spent entirely too much money on the Old Vic this weekend. We pulled the trigger and added two more, high-end units.

Two new mini-splits at the Old Vic

Two new mini-splits at the Old Vic

These are 12,000 btu SEER 25 heat-pump units. The size and layout of the Old Vic makes these ideal for comfort, zoning, and energy savings. Based on our experience with the original one, we expect these to pay for themselves in well under 4 years just in utility savings.

The comfort value approaches priceless. These houses are hard to heat…as the heat rises to the top of the high ceilings…the mini-splits solve that. Mounted up high, they stir/blow the heat down from the ceiling and around the room. The difference in comfort in a room is amazing. When cooling, the high mounted unit grabs the hot/humid air from on high, and cools it, removing much more humidity than a window unit would…and out-does central air in this same task simply because the “intake points” are in each room. The comfort level is amazingly better.

The inside unit in the kitchen.

The inside unit in the kitchen.

The original unit I installed we will replace shortly…I bought it on the ‘net and installed it myself…and while my install was fine, we had trouble with the unit on multiple occasions. It turns out, for lack of a better description…to be a knock-off unit…and in discussion with my AC guy and looking at how the high-end units run, I’ve decided it’s not worth further repair efforts. The new ones are quieter (and the old one was quiet!), more efficient, and have a much better warranty and track record. I am disappointed with the old one’s service life, but we did break even with the utility savings so I shouldn’t be too hard on myself for going that route.

Turns out though…that I can get the high-end units…INSTALLED…for about the same money of me doing it myself (and much less effort).

Lessons learned…and comfort earned for the upcoming summer months.

And a bonus! I get to toss the window unit! Weeee! (hate those things taking up my gorgeous windows!)

Posted in Heat/Air Conditioning | Leave a comment

Deck work…

Part Two of the 8-billion part railing saga…

You may recall in this post that I started the railing project on The Old Vic…of course…that means doing lots of stuff other than railings.

We had always intended the deck to go to the edge of the house, but had only built part of it due to budgetary limitations…choosing to address other, more important infrastructure kinds of things first.

But…now it’s railing time…and I believe I’ve mentioned…I don’t like to do things twice. I don’t want to install railings and then have to re-do them when we expand the deck…

So…railing time turns to deck expansion time…and there’s a slight budget again so off we go!

This weekend I finished the deck extension that was needed before I could complete the railings on the back of the house.

The Deck Framing...overbuilt as usual.

The Deck Framing…overbuilt as usual.

I like solid decks.

I like solid decks.

Yes, you could park a truck on this thing. Please don't.

Yes, you could park a truck on this thing. Please don’t.

Ready for railings.

Ready for railings.

Stair railings done.

Stair railings done.

The railings are a decent look for a Victorian I think and will go well the with the columns on the front (with a proper paint-job of course).

Decent look for a Victorian I think...

Decent look for a Victorian I think…

Hopefully I can get the rest of the railings on next weekend.

Pleased with these.

Pleased with these.

Not a bad bit of work…for one guy…between the rainstorms.

And because it has to be done…

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

Posted in Carpentry/Structure, Rear Deck Railings | 2 Comments