I shoudl have my own DIY Channel...
...as much time as I've spent lately on this!
I utterly gave up on removing the wallpaper. The nice contractor came back with a steamer and in a few hours all was better. I actually almost, you know, RELAXED during that time. I was waiting for the walls to dry completely before primering, when I realized that the heat was not shutting off. In fact, it was getting HOTTER. I fiddled with the thermostat, and came to the conclusion that Something Is Not Right. I don't know a goddamn thing about the ancient heating and A/C unit we have; that's one thing on J's very short list of Things He Does. Unfortunately, he was at work. I called him, and his best suggestion was to take off the cover and give the "silver control box" a good whack. That's just never a good sign.
By the time he got home from work, it was 86 degrees in the house, and a delightful 46 degrees outside. He fooled with it and then did the best manly thing he could do: he called a heating and A/C company to come out. I think we both knew the poor old thing was in bad shape. It's a 1956 unit that uses water to cool with and gas to heat. The gas burner goes into a compartment to burn, which traps the carbon monoxide and sends it up the flue. Unfortunately, of our three gas burners, the middle one was crumbling. That's what those little metal bits were in the tray! A solenoid had also gotten stuck, which resulted in the gas staying on. And the thermostat is iffy. And the damn thing is so old that there are no donor parts around. Alas, poor furnace, we knew you well...
And here I was, thinking that we were starting to get ahead of the curve on things.
But then again, that's why we have a home improvement line of credit, for emergencies and things like this. At least there's no question of whether or not we can get a unit. That's not the case for some folks. As a matter of fact, a poor woman died of carbon monoxide poisoning because she was heating her house by running a generator... inside. She couldn't afford the PG&E bills. So I'm thinking we should be grateful that we are in a position to take on another expense without it breaking us. Also, I figure that when the next stimulus package hits, which should be bigger than the last one, that'll be about a third of the cost of the unit anyway. Might as well put it right back into the economy.
J was kind of bummed out over the new house crisis. I'm far more pragmatic. He was all set to run to Costco and get a heater, as we're not supposed to run the heat anymore because of the carbon monoxide danger. Once again, being pragmatic, I know that this old house retains heat very well, and tonight is not going to be that chilly. Right now, I'm sitting here quite comfortably at my desk in jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. I shut the bedroom door to keep it warmer for him (he's already crashed--his day started at 4 am), and I'll take the dogs in shortly, and they'll add some body heat to the room and we'll be fine. Tomorrow night will be colder, so I'll throw a sleeping bag across the bed. We'll manage. Hopefully, we'll get a quote on Friday and get the wheels in motion to get the new unit in place and life will be back to normal shortly.
So I sanded down the window ledge in the living room and prepped it for priming/painting in the next day or two, and then I went in to the bathroom, filled some holes and gaps in the walls, taped off the necessary parts, and primed and painted. I got down about an hour ago. I wanted to get it done tonight while the house was as warm as it was going to be for awhile; also, I wanted the walls protected when Jan goes in to shower tomorrow morning. I'm leaving the fan on all night to circulate the air and dry it faster, and he won't hit the shower until about 8 am. The walls are already quite dry to the touch. I did a better job of masking and painting to the mask and didn't have a lot of cleanup. Jan was napping when I started, but woke up and came and helped me for awhile, even though he was really tired. He gets bonus points for that. :)
New linoleum comes on Friday, and after that, I need to choose the lighthouse border and get it pasted up; my sis will help with that. I've never done anything with wallpaper except curse it. I'll finish the casement window and ledge then; I still have to choose a trim color, and I want to pull it from the border to make everything mesh together. If I really wanted to work hard on it, I could have both rooms completely done this weekend. But I don't think I'm going to move that hard. I want to take my time and do a good job on the woodwork.
Also, I threw out the old, slightly rusting mini blind from the bathroom! I'll need to find a little curtain tomorrow, as I'm sure the neighbors don't need to get flashed, even through frosted glass, and there ARE young kittens running around.
Other than that, I'm just trying to wind down so I can go crash.
I utterly gave up on removing the wallpaper. The nice contractor came back with a steamer and in a few hours all was better. I actually almost, you know, RELAXED during that time. I was waiting for the walls to dry completely before primering, when I realized that the heat was not shutting off. In fact, it was getting HOTTER. I fiddled with the thermostat, and came to the conclusion that Something Is Not Right. I don't know a goddamn thing about the ancient heating and A/C unit we have; that's one thing on J's very short list of Things He Does. Unfortunately, he was at work. I called him, and his best suggestion was to take off the cover and give the "silver control box" a good whack. That's just never a good sign.
By the time he got home from work, it was 86 degrees in the house, and a delightful 46 degrees outside. He fooled with it and then did the best manly thing he could do: he called a heating and A/C company to come out. I think we both knew the poor old thing was in bad shape. It's a 1956 unit that uses water to cool with and gas to heat. The gas burner goes into a compartment to burn, which traps the carbon monoxide and sends it up the flue. Unfortunately, of our three gas burners, the middle one was crumbling. That's what those little metal bits were in the tray! A solenoid had also gotten stuck, which resulted in the gas staying on. And the thermostat is iffy. And the damn thing is so old that there are no donor parts around. Alas, poor furnace, we knew you well...
And here I was, thinking that we were starting to get ahead of the curve on things.
But then again, that's why we have a home improvement line of credit, for emergencies and things like this. At least there's no question of whether or not we can get a unit. That's not the case for some folks. As a matter of fact, a poor woman died of carbon monoxide poisoning because she was heating her house by running a generator... inside. She couldn't afford the PG&E bills. So I'm thinking we should be grateful that we are in a position to take on another expense without it breaking us. Also, I figure that when the next stimulus package hits, which should be bigger than the last one, that'll be about a third of the cost of the unit anyway. Might as well put it right back into the economy.
J was kind of bummed out over the new house crisis. I'm far more pragmatic. He was all set to run to Costco and get a heater, as we're not supposed to run the heat anymore because of the carbon monoxide danger. Once again, being pragmatic, I know that this old house retains heat very well, and tonight is not going to be that chilly. Right now, I'm sitting here quite comfortably at my desk in jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. I shut the bedroom door to keep it warmer for him (he's already crashed--his day started at 4 am), and I'll take the dogs in shortly, and they'll add some body heat to the room and we'll be fine. Tomorrow night will be colder, so I'll throw a sleeping bag across the bed. We'll manage. Hopefully, we'll get a quote on Friday and get the wheels in motion to get the new unit in place and life will be back to normal shortly.
So I sanded down the window ledge in the living room and prepped it for priming/painting in the next day or two, and then I went in to the bathroom, filled some holes and gaps in the walls, taped off the necessary parts, and primed and painted. I got down about an hour ago. I wanted to get it done tonight while the house was as warm as it was going to be for awhile; also, I wanted the walls protected when Jan goes in to shower tomorrow morning. I'm leaving the fan on all night to circulate the air and dry it faster, and he won't hit the shower until about 8 am. The walls are already quite dry to the touch. I did a better job of masking and painting to the mask and didn't have a lot of cleanup. Jan was napping when I started, but woke up and came and helped me for awhile, even though he was really tired. He gets bonus points for that. :)
New linoleum comes on Friday, and after that, I need to choose the lighthouse border and get it pasted up; my sis will help with that. I've never done anything with wallpaper except curse it. I'll finish the casement window and ledge then; I still have to choose a trim color, and I want to pull it from the border to make everything mesh together. If I really wanted to work hard on it, I could have both rooms completely done this weekend. But I don't think I'm going to move that hard. I want to take my time and do a good job on the woodwork.
Also, I threw out the old, slightly rusting mini blind from the bathroom! I'll need to find a little curtain tomorrow, as I'm sure the neighbors don't need to get flashed, even through frosted glass, and there ARE young kittens running around.
Other than that, I'm just trying to wind down so I can go crash.