I have returned...
Jan. 19th, 2006 03:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zolaI got back from WV late tonight.
I'm glad I didn't try to turn on the water. I mentioned last night that the temperature was dropping. I had trash bags, so I slit them open and attached them over the windows that seemed especially drafty. This worked well until the wind picked up enough to actually blow the plastic off part of the front window.
The problem is that a lot of maintenance stuff was let go for entirely too long. The people who were there reframed the front window, but it's one of those ones with all the small square panes, and the caulking is so leaky that what woke me wasn't the plastic flapping but the face full of snow that got in with the wind. Not a lot, but enough that it sure woke me from a sound sleep!
Believe it or not, even with the draft, the space heater still kept it bearable. The first night, not only was I completely buried in the sleeping bag, but I had a heavy blanket over that and over my head and I still woke up because I got cold! This time, snow aside, it was cool but bearable. Still, you can't expect a little space heater to be able to make the room comfortable when you effectively have a window wide-open, so I decided against turning on the water because if we get a real cold snap, the heater won't be able to keep it above freezing I don't think.
I'm going to build a plexiglass frame here and bring it with me on the next trip with a few handfuls of finish nails to seal that window up. The deck has *got* to be ripped out--they took their life in their hands when they took those appliances out, it's so rotted that I'm amazed that the weight of them didn't collapse what was left. I measured it out before I left so I could estimate how much lumber will be needed. I figure a day to rip it out and pour quick-set concrete to protect the posts so they aren't touching the ground, a day to get it framed and levelled, and a day to lay down the floor and put up a railing. I'm looking up about building a ramp, which will be handy when we are trying to move stuff in. See, woodshop was good for something! ;)
I did find the bad spots in the floor, finally, but they aren't serious. And otherwise, things seemed to be in fairly decent shape. The window obviously is going to be a priority, but the only snow that gets in is the really fine powdery stuff, and only a little, so I am not worried about water damage, not short term. It rained the second day, and no rain got in at all.
The ceiling is really uneven, it was poorly installed, so I think that will end up having to come down as well. However, I'm thinking maybe I am going to talk to that repair guy that I'm in touch with and see what he thinks about perhaps re-framing the internal walls. Doing that is pretty simple, and it will make it possible to properly insulate the place. The electrical outlets and switches will have to be moved, but that's really not a big thing. If we do that, we can raise the ceiling higher, and I can make sure it's properly insulated under the roof as well. It would be a slow process but would make it easier to replace the windows and it would guarantee lower heating and cooling costs over time.
I'm starting to realize, seriously, how lucky I am to know this stuff. While I need extra hands now--I can't haul fifty-pound bags of cement like I used to--I still know what I know, and it makes it possible for us to do a lot of this stuff ourselves. I want to consult with the repair guy about structural soundness and that kind of thing. If this particular model has all the load-bearing walls on the outside, that makes it a piece of cake because putting the framing in would just reinforce that, and only cut into the outside perimeter by three inches or so, hardly noticeable, really. But that would also mean we could ditch the panelling and put up sheetrock, which could be papered or painted or what have you.
The DSL should be installed in a few weeks, they are going to put the phone in next week, and I am going to call around to arrange to get the furnace inspected before we turn on the gas. Once that's on, I'll turn on the water. I'm going to pick up weatherstripping and plastic for the smaller windows, and dust off the old staple gun.
And now that I have downloaded all the email and posted here, I am going to bed!
I'm glad I didn't try to turn on the water. I mentioned last night that the temperature was dropping. I had trash bags, so I slit them open and attached them over the windows that seemed especially drafty. This worked well until the wind picked up enough to actually blow the plastic off part of the front window.
The problem is that a lot of maintenance stuff was let go for entirely too long. The people who were there reframed the front window, but it's one of those ones with all the small square panes, and the caulking is so leaky that what woke me wasn't the plastic flapping but the face full of snow that got in with the wind. Not a lot, but enough that it sure woke me from a sound sleep!
Believe it or not, even with the draft, the space heater still kept it bearable. The first night, not only was I completely buried in the sleeping bag, but I had a heavy blanket over that and over my head and I still woke up because I got cold! This time, snow aside, it was cool but bearable. Still, you can't expect a little space heater to be able to make the room comfortable when you effectively have a window wide-open, so I decided against turning on the water because if we get a real cold snap, the heater won't be able to keep it above freezing I don't think.
I'm going to build a plexiglass frame here and bring it with me on the next trip with a few handfuls of finish nails to seal that window up. The deck has *got* to be ripped out--they took their life in their hands when they took those appliances out, it's so rotted that I'm amazed that the weight of them didn't collapse what was left. I measured it out before I left so I could estimate how much lumber will be needed. I figure a day to rip it out and pour quick-set concrete to protect the posts so they aren't touching the ground, a day to get it framed and levelled, and a day to lay down the floor and put up a railing. I'm looking up about building a ramp, which will be handy when we are trying to move stuff in. See, woodshop was good for something! ;)
I did find the bad spots in the floor, finally, but they aren't serious. And otherwise, things seemed to be in fairly decent shape. The window obviously is going to be a priority, but the only snow that gets in is the really fine powdery stuff, and only a little, so I am not worried about water damage, not short term. It rained the second day, and no rain got in at all.
The ceiling is really uneven, it was poorly installed, so I think that will end up having to come down as well. However, I'm thinking maybe I am going to talk to that repair guy that I'm in touch with and see what he thinks about perhaps re-framing the internal walls. Doing that is pretty simple, and it will make it possible to properly insulate the place. The electrical outlets and switches will have to be moved, but that's really not a big thing. If we do that, we can raise the ceiling higher, and I can make sure it's properly insulated under the roof as well. It would be a slow process but would make it easier to replace the windows and it would guarantee lower heating and cooling costs over time.
I'm starting to realize, seriously, how lucky I am to know this stuff. While I need extra hands now--I can't haul fifty-pound bags of cement like I used to--I still know what I know, and it makes it possible for us to do a lot of this stuff ourselves. I want to consult with the repair guy about structural soundness and that kind of thing. If this particular model has all the load-bearing walls on the outside, that makes it a piece of cake because putting the framing in would just reinforce that, and only cut into the outside perimeter by three inches or so, hardly noticeable, really. But that would also mean we could ditch the panelling and put up sheetrock, which could be papered or painted or what have you.
The DSL should be installed in a few weeks, they are going to put the phone in next week, and I am going to call around to arrange to get the furnace inspected before we turn on the gas. Once that's on, I'll turn on the water. I'm going to pick up weatherstripping and plastic for the smaller windows, and dust off the old staple gun.
And now that I have downloaded all the email and posted here, I am going to bed!
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 05:31 pm (UTC)I don't know what energy company you have there in WV but out here PG&E will help you out with the insulation and other things that help keep a house warm and tight.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-20 12:25 am (UTC)Welcome back, Zola!
Even if you can't do all the work, at least you know what is involved in each project.