Gass remote!

It totaly dumbfounded me a few years ago when I purchased my first house. The sweet old lady that I purchased it from, I met at the Closing. She handed me an extra key and told me it was for the gas man to get into the house and read the meter. I was really shocked that people still do that. It was a different time then. Of course I had the gas company come and install the remote meter.

Same deal with this house. No sweet old lady though. I actually called the gas company soon after we purchased the house to have the remote installed. This time though the gas company told me to call back in the spring. They said they only order so many a year, so call back then. I put a post-it note on my office wall as a reminder. I called back in the spring and got on the list and I was told it would be a few weeks. Months later, I called back the gas company and they assrred me that I was still on the list and that it would be soon. That was 2 years ago.

Today! Finally I got the remote. I used to call in the readings, but I started getting nasty notes on my bill about it not actually being physically read by a person, and they would shut off my gas. So I called again and the scheduled a time and came out. I thought it would be the same old type of remote that uses a wire. But no! It's wireless. Took the guy about 10 minutes. Supposedly the battery lasts 18 years. Perhaps in the future they will power it with a fuel cell and the natural gas.

Vent fan outside!

We're embarking on improving the efficiency of our house. We will be putting cellulose insulation into the attic when we're all done. A few projects need to occur first. These include

1. A whole house fan
2. Venting bathroom fan outside.
3. Replace the attic fan.

This weekend was spent with running a vent outside for the bathroom fan, about only 2 and a half feet long. I looked around for a really nice high quality outside grill but I didn't have much luck. I settled on the standard 3 louver plastic vent, and I used that aluminum stretchy pipe. I purchased a 4 inch hole saw to cut a really nice opening. It worked great. I though this would take me 10 more minutes before I would be able to get out of the bad weather. No luck of course. The hole is an accurate 4 inches in diameter, but the plastic louver vent is one eighth inch larger. NUTS! I enlarged the hole with my trusty dremmel and a sand paper attachment, but that took another 15 minutes and was a real pain. When the vent did fit I caulked it and attached it with 4 stainless steel screws. Works great. Now that should help clear up the mold in the attic too.

Ironing the wrinkles out

Or little bundle of joy has taken up residence in the same room as the ironing board. It has now been a few months of putting up with my wife ironing on our bed at 6AM. I went out to Lowes and WOW I couldn't believe it how expensive those in wall ironing boards are. Actually, I purchased the ironing board last May but I never got to installing it.

After much deliberation my wife and I decided to install the ironing board actually in the upstairs hall way. That way it would be quieter for the other sleeping party (me). I needed electricity to the area as well so I ran a wire from one of our sockets, up and over through the attic and back down. Cutting the old plasterboard was quite messy. I should have put more cover over our open pore oak floor. Now the floor looks like it has white head zits. They will come out the next time I wax.

The chosen location was next to our bedroom door. The wall cavity is just an inch too small. I guess the door get's in the way. Out came the mighty reciprocating saw and it smote the wall stud. Fortunately it is not a loadbearing wall. How do I know? Because the wall runs parallel with the ceiling joist, and the joist is attached to the roof rafters. I don't expect any problems with the drywall. Our house has plaster board, browncoat and the finish coat that adds up to about an inch thick.

In the near future I'm going to shellac the door to try to match it to the rest of the wood work. Probably about the same time I get around to finishing that railing.