'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Aforementioned heating issue still not solved.  Current outside temps: high: 52, low: 34.  Brrrrr.  And…we have five guests arriving tomorrow.  Maybe this last HVAC guy will have a solution.  Even if he does, the issue(S) are not likely to be resolved within 48 hours.  Good luck, Eli, I’m heading to Colorado for a few days for Christmas, where the outside temps will (strangely) be even warmer than here during the holidays!  Four space heaters, six adults, three dogs, and three days later, I hear two things: 1.) We have to get a new furnace and the soonest they can be here is in twelve days, and 2.) It has been COLD.

Never Buy an Old House

Eli can probably tell this story better than I can (from me, it’s just heresay)…but…

We’re getting a little desperate to have heat for our guests, not to mention for ourselves after all this time.  Because MC really is a handyman jack of lots of trades, he and Eli headed to the basement to troubleshoot the valve that was replaced (refer to yesterday’s post), troubleshoot the pilot assembly (refer to yesterday’s post), check things out (refer to yesterday’s post), etc (refer to yesterday’s post). 

Hours later, they came upstairs but we still had no heat.  “What’s the update?” I ask Eli.  Eli says, “MC says never buy an old house.”

How many HVAC guys does it take to fix a furnace?

Our furnace has become the ultimate puzzle... To make a long story short... When we had the house inspected a house inspector checked it out... he said it was fine. When we first moved in and were doing work it was hot so there was no need to run it, but the few times we tested it, it ran fine.

A few weeks after moving in, we called PG&E to come out and check all of our gas appliances just to be safe since when we first moved in there was a certain fleeing smell of gas. Although they didn't find anything major, they did recommend we fix the venting on the furnace, and the filter, but that other than being kind of old, the furnace was great.

When winter hit around November, we decided we would try out our furnace. We had gotten the new venting cleared, and it was supposedly in great shape.

Well, we turned it on... no heat. This was alarming as it had worked several times and now when we needed it... nothing. So we decided to mess with it a bit, but much to our dismay, it never produced hot air.

So we called PG&E and had them come out again. This time it was a different guy. He went down and inspected it and said that the gas valve seemed to have a small crack and for safety reasons it was best to fix it, but that it would be a relatively simple task that any handyman could do and that it wouldn't be too expensive. He assured me that after that it would run great. I asked him if we should just replace it in his opinion and he said "no way, it's great. It's old, but it will definitely last for a few more years. All it will require is normal basic maintenance".

I scour the Internet for about 2 weeks after that in search of a Honeywell gas valve that would be compatible with our 1971 Day & Night furnace (yes it's from the 70's and it's powder blue color is proof). I found the part and we ordered it and had MC install it.

Once again, it was all set up, we turned it on annnnd... the pilot light went out. The pilot light would not stay lit. I decided to look online about possible causes. MC and I then spent the next 3 hours in the basement trying to troubleshoot it. No matter what we did the pilot light would not stay on.

Finally we decided to turn to the HVAC guys (although we feared it would be expensive).

After 4 different HVAC guys I am now more confused than when we started. To sum up the whole experience here is what they said.

1st guy says: $300 to repair it, and it'll work, then calls back and says "he talked to his friend" and he was wrong, it's actually $800 and he wont guarantee it
2nd guy says: he won't work on old furnaces, so our only option is to get a new one for at least $2000 (does not include installation or removal of the old one)
3rd guy says: he won't work on furnaces so we have to get a new one for at least $1500 (also not including installation or removal of the old one)
4th HVAC guy says: totally broken and cracking need a new one... or he can retrofit our old one for $1200 (but once again NO guarantees)

Basically I think it's a bit fishy that they all have economic interest in fixing our furnace and all have a completely different take on our furnace. There was actually not one consistent remark about our furnace from any of them.

Then you take the guys who look at heaters every day for a living, are the ones in charge of clearing furnace safety for real estate purposes and a major gas company... and they all have consistent stories: the furnace is fine.

In the end however, all of this only amounts to one thing:

NO HEAT

A Room of Our Own

The long wait is over for our BIG bedroom window.  We’ve been using the tiny guest room while our room has its window replaced and all of the drywall is torn out (letting the little heat we do have out.) 

(Old window, drywall out)

One of the items on the 203k rehab loan list was to have MC replace the window with a bigger one.  This was one of the few items on the list that was not a livability issue and could have easily been discarded as bids and budgets came together, but Eli insisted it would increase our quality of life to have a BIG FAT view of the Bay, Golden Gate Bridge, and Bay Bridge to wake up to each morning.  Now, I couldn’t agree more.  The salvaged tub and master bedroom window are now my two favorite things about our house. 

(New BIG window)

It is Amazing how much two extra feet of window increase our view, the daylight coming in, and our daily sense of “we live here?!”  Not to mention, we can open and close it easily to welcome in fresh air and the sounds of the rooster two yards over (not kidding.)

(View of Golden Gate and Bay Bridges)

(View of San Francisco)

(Amazing)

Having the window done let us move onto finishing up our bedroom: Killz, ceiling paint, closet paint (inside and out), new outlets, wall paint, trim paint.  And our bed actually fits nicely in here! Ahhhhhhh…it’s so spacious and lovely.

And we can finally turn the guest room into a guest room…for our GUESTS!

It's Raining LEAD

and no, I'm not talking about some sort of detrimental byproduct of living in a city, or some weird California phenomenon-- I'm talking about our ceiling.

Yes, the ceiling. The same ceiling that constitutes 70% of our main floor (per KCA's estimate- always good to go with the engineers estimates over the liberal arts major's). I still remember feeling relieved when we found out the ceiling that we feared my be asbestos was indeed not. I spent several weeks after receiving that information fantasizing about taking a giant sander to it and not stopping until it was a smooth as a baby's bottom. Well, as it usually happens in our house, the original "plan" (funny that we even call them that anymore) fell by the wayside.

I was chatting with MC one afternoon (also the usual in our house at this point, really sometimes I think we should just offer him the guest room). He asked what we were planning on doing with the ceiling and I said very confidently, that I  was going to sand it smooth. After MC stopped laughing at the idea of KCA and I spending hours upon hours with heavy belt sanders above our heads as we perched on ladders, he said "but it's full of lead". *Pop* there went my bubble. "Lead? But the guy said it was ok." I refuted. "He said it didn't have asbestos.. it doesn't. It has lead." MC replied.

After consulting MC, we came to the conclusion that the only thing we could do was to encapsulate the ceiling. This means doing one solid coat of drywall mud and then two coats of topping and THEN sanding it all smooth. As KCA pointed out it also means having all of this done before painting, hanging art, or arranging furniture.
(Mudding Away)

We've spent several hours already, and have probably only covered 15% of it. Not to mention, we're still on the first coat... oh and that every time we drag a trowel over it, little lead particles try to fly into our eyes and mouth. Let the fun begin!

(THE Ceiling)

(ooo smooth)

Wash Going On?

So.  I’m anticipating some disappointment when you find out that this is now kca blogging about Sunkist.  Similar to what my dad said in and older post, “Eli’s a tough act to follow” when it comes to writing and being witty.  But Eli is so busy with school and work that I think I’ll give a shot at catching everyone up.  I’ll start with a subject that is mostly my doing around our household: laundry.  It feels like a pretty good tradeoff: kca does the laundry, Eli does the cooking.

Big News: We have a washer and dryer!  Like everything else, to truly appreciate something, you must live without it for awhile.  Try that with heat.  Try that with laundry machines.  It makes these things absolute luxuries once you have them back in your life again.  And we don’t even have designated laundry nights like we did at our SF apartment where our stuff is tossed out of the machine and off to the side sopping wet if our wash cycle runs past midnight on those designated nights!  Nope.  We have these all to ourselves.  Thanks to Stan Stepnitz, who spent time sanding out the rust and re-finishing, our washer is not only functional, but it is beautiful!  Here they are.

(Our Very Own Washer / Dryer)

Uh oh.  The washer leaks.  Not from one of the connections that could be fixed with mere tightening.  But from the bottom somewhere.  RR comes over to inspect it and finds a cracked water pump.  We order the replacement part online for $25, RR comes to replace it, and YES!, we have a washer that works and doesn’t leak!  Now let’s start doing some laundry.

Bathroom: Before and After

Toilet BEFORE 

 Toilet AFTER

Shower BEFORE

 Shower AFTER

 Bathtub BEFORE

 Bathtub AFTER

Sink BEFORE

 Sink AFTER

 Mirror BEFORE

 Mirror AFTER

Vanity BEFORE

 Vanity AFTER

 Light BEFORE

 Light AFTER