Conservation hits the pocketbook!
As I said a little while back, I had my old boiler replaced with a high efficiency forced-air furnace and A/C, and my traditional (tank) gas water heater replaced with a tankless gas water heater.
Granted, it got warm, but I still take as many showers as ever, do dishes in the dishwasher, and laundry. I also have a high-efficiency washer and dryer (whirlpool duet).
Got my gas bill today: $34.05 Last month's? $176.06
I still haven't gotten my electric bill for this period, but I've already gotten a huge difference. The actual therms used breaks down to 18 for this month and 105 for last month.
I'm already pretty damn happy. Not sure what it'll be like in the dead of winter, but my biggest month since I moved in was February with 250 therms. That was also the month that I realized I had a leak in my hot water faucet in the bathroom (with the old water heater) and had them fix it.
Speaking of plumbers fixing things, I had a nice plumber here today installing the new faucet in the bathroom. The other plumber (they all work for the same company, they just have multiple plumbers working for them) said when he fixed the faucet that he couldn't guarantee how long it would be before it finally gave up for good. Also, the one that finally went was the cold water faucet - it went from dripping to "I turned it on and now it goes full blast and won't turn off" in a few hours. So I have been jump-started on the homestretch of redoing my bathroom, since there is now a hole around my shower faucet and spout that is covered with plastic tarp and duct tape. I got to see the layers of stuff on my bathroom walls - the current (ugly) white tile with tan specks is over a layer of cement board, which was installed over the old TIN tiles (yes, metal of some sort in a watery environment, oddly, it was covered with rust - wow, imagine that) which were installed over sheetrock as far as I can tell.
I wonder how much mold I'm going to yank out pulling all this crap off the walls. The thought occurred to me today that I can tile around the tub itself and not the rest of the bathroom, like it was in my old house. This will mean I can use the nicer glass tiles (I really love the stuff) that are more expensive and not break my bank. The plumber told me that he'd had his tub reglazed and it turned out to cost a lot less than I would have thought. I love the tub's size and shape, the finish is just shot to hell. I'm calling on Tuesday to get someone out here to redo the tub, and this weekend I'll be yanking crap off the walls. Whee!
The pictures of the original state of the bathroom when I moved in are up on my flickr account (djmuse) if you want to check them out. I'm almost done with shelving the CDs, and I'm painting the trim in the studio (it was originally cream-colored and I'm painting it white now) so I'll be finished and ready to take pictures soon to post on flickr. Hopefully I'll finish before i go to Florida to visit family and friends.
Granted, it got warm, but I still take as many showers as ever, do dishes in the dishwasher, and laundry. I also have a high-efficiency washer and dryer (whirlpool duet).
Got my gas bill today: $34.05 Last month's? $176.06
I still haven't gotten my electric bill for this period, but I've already gotten a huge difference. The actual therms used breaks down to 18 for this month and 105 for last month.
I'm already pretty damn happy. Not sure what it'll be like in the dead of winter, but my biggest month since I moved in was February with 250 therms. That was also the month that I realized I had a leak in my hot water faucet in the bathroom (with the old water heater) and had them fix it.
Speaking of plumbers fixing things, I had a nice plumber here today installing the new faucet in the bathroom. The other plumber (they all work for the same company, they just have multiple plumbers working for them) said when he fixed the faucet that he couldn't guarantee how long it would be before it finally gave up for good. Also, the one that finally went was the cold water faucet - it went from dripping to "I turned it on and now it goes full blast and won't turn off" in a few hours. So I have been jump-started on the homestretch of redoing my bathroom, since there is now a hole around my shower faucet and spout that is covered with plastic tarp and duct tape. I got to see the layers of stuff on my bathroom walls - the current (ugly) white tile with tan specks is over a layer of cement board, which was installed over the old TIN tiles (yes, metal of some sort in a watery environment, oddly, it was covered with rust - wow, imagine that) which were installed over sheetrock as far as I can tell.
I wonder how much mold I'm going to yank out pulling all this crap off the walls. The thought occurred to me today that I can tile around the tub itself and not the rest of the bathroom, like it was in my old house. This will mean I can use the nicer glass tiles (I really love the stuff) that are more expensive and not break my bank. The plumber told me that he'd had his tub reglazed and it turned out to cost a lot less than I would have thought. I love the tub's size and shape, the finish is just shot to hell. I'm calling on Tuesday to get someone out here to redo the tub, and this weekend I'll be yanking crap off the walls. Whee!
The pictures of the original state of the bathroom when I moved in are up on my flickr account (djmuse) if you want to check them out. I'm almost done with shelving the CDs, and I'm painting the trim in the studio (it was originally cream-colored and I'm painting it white now) so I'll be finished and ready to take pictures soon to post on flickr. Hopefully I'll finish before i go to Florida to visit family and friends.