Posts Tagged ‘home maintenance’
Neighborly Advice
In our ongoing consultation with experts about the possible source of water on the basement floor, I reached out to the realtor who found this property for us. She consulted with her cousin who lives in this area and came up with the name of a home inspector for us.
I recognized the name as a neighbor who lives around the corner. He and his wife and one of their sons are the only people who have stopped by our place (1 time) on Halloween night since we moved here in 2012. He recently made a transition from Realtor to Inspector and after a brief phone conversation offered to come look at our place at no charge.
Cyndie quickly baked a batch of small hand pies to share as a thank-you. Turns out his wife is an avid baker. We have invited them to dinner to get to know both of them and visit without the agenda of formally inspecting our house. Informally, who doesn’t “inspect” a home they visit for the first time?
The general consensus about water issues around our house is that the landscaping should be updated to compensate for the settling that has occurred. We came up with nothing definitive to explain why our basement floor got so wet a week or so ago.
I have a new theory regarding the area around the geothermal lines that come up through the concrete floor. Those were added since we moved in and they cut through the slab. I don’t know how tightly that opening was sealed when all their work was done. It’s the first place I’ll check next time it rains.
There’s no rain in the immediate forecast for us. Snow is expected this afternoon, followed by days of Arctic cold temperatures.
A while back I think I mentioned we were going to meet a new volunteer for This Old Horse who wants to connect with horses closer to where she lives. In addition to loving horses, she happens to be a big fan of labyrinths and has a deep passion for trees. She told us her husband was home prepping logs for a house they plan to build on their land.
We intend to invite them for dinner soon, too. Their last name is Asher.
Really.
We are looking forward to making some new connections with folks living on this side of the St. Croix River. That hasn’t happened as often as we’ve hoped it might over the years.
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Light Dusting
We received a light dusting of snow overnight that presented an opportunity to test out my thinking of using Cyndie’s battery-powered blower to clear the front steps and stone-covered walkway. Other than needing to endure the god-awful noise of the appliance, it proved to be a nice solution in place of the simple broom I would otherwise have used.
Today, we are looking forward to meeting a new volunteer for This Old Horse who could become an added resource for us to call upon if we are away from home during feeding times.
Other than that, things are pretty quiet around the ranch. Yesterday, while walking Asher around the hay field, the horses made a friendly gesture of approaching us and resuming their grazing close to the fence.
This morning, after the dusting of snow, I came upon fresh evidence that hydrostatic pressure is still pushing water to the surface in places.
I don’t know what to make of the fact we haven’t seen any new wetness in the basement since we cleaned up all the rugs that got soaked. Not that I’m seeking another bout of wet floor down there. That event still bothers me for the lack of clarity about what really occurred.
Our current premise is all conjecture. That doesn’t matter if we don’t experience another occasion of wet basement but it doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling about the integrity of our foundation.
A professional assessment is included on our list of home maintenance issues to be addressed.
Are home inspections something that can be done any season of the year? When I answer that, I’ll better know what level of procrastination I can allow myself on the concern.
I’ve still got plenty of trimmed tree branches to remove from beneath the grove of pines in the north loop of our property. The hinted possibility of accumulating snow in our future puts a fresh priority on completing that task.
Pondering issues such as these is a luxury of things being pretty quiet around here. No complaint from me on that!
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Hydrostatic Pressure
We have a new theory about the water in our basement and I have Cyndie’s brother, Ben to thank for bringing it to my attention. Ben described a situation he experienced where a rug was acting like a sponge to pull moisture out of his basement floor. That could easily apply to the soaked rugs we encountered on our basement floor.
Coincidentally, hours before Ben called I had taken pictures of an interesting phenomenon occurring in the paddocks. Rain that we received around Christmas saturated our predominantly clay soil. I am always amazed in the winter when liquid water gets pushed up to the surface by natural hydrostatic pressure (the pressure exerted by a fluid… due to the force of gravity) and then freezes. It seems counterintuitive to me that there would be liquid water near the surface in the winter.
Well, with the uncharacteristically warm winter we have been having, there seems to be more liquid water than usual.
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The darkened areas are “rivers” of ice that are forming where hydrostatic pressure is pushing water to the surface.
It would not surprise me if the water pressure in the ground around our foundation was pushing its way through the concrete in some way. We aren’t putting any rugs back down for the foreseeable future.
We happen to have a “lift system” to push basement wastewater up to the pipe that drains to our septic tank. After talking with the plumber on the phone, I looked into information on troubleshooting whether that pump was functioning properly. I admit that in the 11 years we have lived here, I’ve barely given that system a thought.
Apparently, it is recommended that an annual inspection be done to avoid major problems. Now we are considering having it checked for its first-in-a-decade inspection… whether it needs it, or not.
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No Worse
Things being “no worse” is not a ringing endorsement of happiness but I’m claiming it as a victory. There was no sign of water on the floor in the laundry room one day after Cyndie had cleaned it all up. Instead of blindly calling any plumber to help us diagnose a potential problem with the water softener, I figured I should at least try to learn enough about it to discuss its functions.
In searching online for a manual, I learned of a company in Red Wing that services our model. Without needing to see it in person, a plumber talked me through testing the “regen” operations over the phone. At each step, he could tell me where to look for the possibility of leaking water.
The good news is that by his analysis, the softener was unlikely to be the source of the leak. The bad news is we are now even more confused about where the water had come from to soak all our throw rugs. The plumber offered his thoughts about other possible causes, but nothing definitive came of it. For now, we are hovering in an observation mode and not returning any rugs to the floor.
Asher kept busy by familiarizing himself with a new pull-apart toy Elysa gave him for Christmas. I think he’s getting the hang of it.
My project for the ethernet cabling to the Wi-Fi repeater faired much better than being labeled, “no worse.” I reviewed the wiring in the last connector I crimped, using a magnifying glass, and deemed it visibly faultless. That led me to dig deeper into the software initialization of the hardware.
In a phone conversation with Julian, we were making our way through the connections and I climbed up to look one more time at the original router and associated hardware on top of the desk shelf in the den. The answer appeared right before my eyes. I had failed to plug in an RJ45 connector that I had disconnected when testing the attic cabling.
2024 is already looking better for us on day 3.
After succeeding with the repeater, my next step shifted to getting the camera mounted and connected to AC power down at the barn. I was thrilled to find the horses curious but not the least bit disturbed by my showing up with unfamiliar tools, making potentially scary sounds, and focusing on my task when they were expecting me to be serving feed for them.
I couldn’t finish last night, but completing the camera installation should be in reach today. Although, I am beyond committing myself to actually reaching such a goal.
At this point, I’m leaning toward seeking to make things ‘no worse’ for two days in a row. I’m on a roll!
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Pitiful Disarray
I was thinking about titling this post, “Hot Mess” but felt it might not be the best use of the phrase. I did a little research and found that ‘Hot Mess’ describes something in pitiful disarray. That fit even better.
I was teasing Cyndie that her Christmas present from me this year is my completing a long overdue house maintenance task. Our usual routine is to buy a joint treat like an expensive, fancy vacuum or other long-married couple versions of a handy appliance.
The light fixture over our dining room table has been limping along with old compact fluorescent bulbs and two randomly intermittent lightbulb bases. I tried a couple of times to analyze what appeared to be a loose connection in one arm of the fixture but I could never figure out how to get access to where the wires connect.
Fixing it always got pushed aside because I didn’t know which circuit breaker needed to be flipped. Also, working on a light fixture without electricity in a dark area of our house would require setting up supplemental lighting. It doesn’t take much to trigger my skills at procrastination.
Well, Ho-Ho-Ho, this Santa’s elf got past all the excuses yesterday and dove into the project with some tricks up his sleeve. I had done some shopping on my recent trek to the Cities.
This brings me to the hot mess… Do you want to know why I didn’t know which circuit breaker controls this particular light fixture? I present to you, exhibit A:
Speaking of pitiful disarray, the original electrician doing the labeling didn’t do himself proud, and every modifier since has only made things miserably worse. Part of me thinks I should have long ago cleaned up the chart with clearly legible and easily interpreted references, but a larger part of me notices we’ve gotten along well enough thus far with things just the way they are.
When do you usually need to flip a circuit breaker? After it has tripped. Those are pretty easy to find. The hard part is when you want to cut power to something via a circuit breaker. That’s more of a challenge, but the need to do that is so rare, it hasn’t significantly forced the issue. That complication actually serves as a feature for a procrastinator.
For the record, the dining room chandelier circuit breaker is position 9. I flipped most of the single pole breakers, one at a time, and hollered up to Cyndie to find out if the light was still on.
With the power cut, I was able to reverse-engineer the assembly features of the fixture and tighten everything up snugly. While I was at it, I threw in a bonus of a new switch on the wall which included a slider for dimming the new LED bulbs I bought to replace the old CFL bulbs.
Next time Cyndie works on an art project on that table she will finally be able to clearly see what she is doing.
If I knew what the rest of the circuit breakers controlled, I would make a new chart for the panel, but figuring that out can wait a little bit longer…
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Roof Raking
It’s a dose of preventive medicine. I pull snow off the edges of the roof of our house to avert possible ice dams that can cause water leaks. It is a project that looms ominously before I can get to it, as icicles grow to incredible lengths. The work is strenuous to execute, requiring extended time with my arms overhead wrestling the rake into position and pulling it back down full of snow. That effort creates a mess below that needs to be shoveled away after it has compacted into a hard and heavy pile. But when completed, it offers a pleasing psychological reward every time I walk toward the house and spot the cleaned eaves.
I cleared the valley over the front door a day earlier and since then, plenty of evaporation has already occurred.
The toughest part of the whole project is that it only lasts until the next snowstorm.
In the meantime, the absence of concern about out-of-sight water problems is a deeply satisfying reward for the hassles associated with raking snow off the roof.
Since today happens to be January 7th, 2023, I would like to give a shout-out to anyone who happens to become old enough on this date to qualify for collecting their social security funds. Happy Birthday, DRH! Hope you don’t have mountains of snow on your roof up in the northland.
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Driveway 2.0
Our next big project is now underway. We have committed to spending too many of our hard-earned saved dollars to fix the driveway that has been crumbling since the first few months after we arrived here. That was almost ten years ago. In the ongoing saga of our adventure of leaving the suburbs to create a sanctuary of rural bliss that we call Wintervale, this improvement on the land might be the least important but the most visible.
The old dilapidated pavement was still driveable, but it looked completely neglected (it was!) and was becoming increasingly more of a nuisance by the day. Smooth new asphalt will be a joy to have and it will make this place look even more amazing than it already did despite the lousy driveway surface.
We are contracting with two different companies that have worked together many times before. Yesterday, the excavating company that has supported us on multiple projects in the past, started the process of removing the old asphalt from a majority of the length. Specifically, the portion just above the shop garage all the way down to the road.
The asphalt company will overlay new pavement on top of the old asphalt in front of the shop garage and up to the house where little deterioration was evident.
After the excavators pulled up the first chunks of asphalt, they deduced the material used for the base looked like it was not as coarse as they recommend and it was not applied as thick as it should have been, especially in the low area where wetness and our clay soil combine to create a potential for problems.
Watching the process was mesmerizing for me. I stared in wonder like a little kid. The man operating the backhoe was an artist, deftly manipulating the controls to efficiently pull up and then break chunks of asphalt in one smooth motion.
After the first load of broken asphalt was hauled away, the truck returned with a full load of gravel to slowly pour out over the length of the excavated section. Then, that truck would be positioned beside the backhoe to receive more removed asphalt.
Eventually, a second truck showed up with gravel and joined the rotation. By quitting time, they had torn up about three-quarters of the length. They should be able to finish the entirety of their portion of the work before the end of the day today.
The asphalt company has us on their schedule to start next Monday with their work. When the quote was made this spring, the man said it would be best if they could lay the pavement during the hottest days of summer. It is looking good at this point with high temperatures in the 90s°F expected.
When your driveway is 900 feet long over two rolling hills, it becomes a significant feature of the overall property. I’m really looking forward to having ours updated to a new and improved version 2.0.
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New Door
Back in May, Cyndie and I ordered a replacement storm door for our front entry. We were told the lead time was going to be 90-days. Happily, they surprised us by calling me while I was on my bike trip to say the door was ready for pickup much earlier than expected. I forwarded the message to Cyndie in case she might be able to swing by and get it before I got home.
The good news is that she was able to pick it up and save us a lot of money on a delivery charge. The bad news is that she forgot to pick up the handles. We didn’t pay for professional installation so that adventure landed on me. It was only supposed to be a couple of hours of work but it took me two long days.
It will be time well spent because we were both growing increasingly irritated with the old storm door that had broken antique-looking handles, sagged on its worn hinges, and didn’t latch well without a manual assist.
Yesterday, after the errand to pick up the handles, I resumed the struggle of getting the frame mounted into the imperfect dimensioned opening so that the door would swing and close without obstruction. Minor modifications were required. I also needed to ad-lib a seal along the width at the bottom.
It was a massive effort of suspending my perfectionistic urges and allowing for “good enough” to carry the day.
The best reward came to me from hearing Cyndie report being happy with the way it looks. Now, if I can adjust things so it requires no assistance to close completely and also seal tightly, I’ll have achieved the jackpot of having it both work well and look good! Double bonus!
Too bad I will still remember the steps in the instructions that I couldn’t get to work as they intended. I’m going to try reframing my creative workarounds as icing on the cake of simply having a door that works.
Figuring out how to dispose of the old door and all its worn parts will become a project for another day.
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Freshly Sealed
At long last, the logs of our home have a fresh seal from the elements. Last year there were two primary maintenance projects that were both reaching burdensome levels of urgency against the elements: our deck and the walls of the house. We ended up doing the deck ourselves and hiring out the sealing of our logs.
The contract was accepted last year, but they weren’t able to get to us before winter arrived and so the work was rescheduled to first thing after the weather warmed this spring. That didn’t play out as we expected. It took until mid-July, but now the job is finally done.
Over the weekend, we got the resealed wagon wheels remounted on the front steps to cap off the completion of the weatherization of the house.
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The house looks good as new.
I’m very pleased over the professional opinion of the contractor who told us that our deck project looked well done and didn’t warrant any additional seal coat of its own.
That suits me just fine.
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Wagon Wheels
All these years, I’ve been walking past them. Mounted as handrails on either side of the steps to our front door are two wagon wheels.
They don’t actually make for great handrails, so I’ve never been all that enamored with them. In fact, I suspected they were simply replicas. I’m a little embarrassed to admit I’ve never really looked at these wheels closely, despite shoveling snow around them every winter.
Last week, when Matthew was here sealing the logs of our house, he pointed out that the wheels deserved some attention, too, and that they were simply screwed into the steps with three lag bolts each. He advised I remove them to sand each one down and put a couple coats of sealer on them myself.
So, I removed them.
It didn’t take long for me to discover these are REAL wagon wheels. Given the fantastic discoveries this past February that three families of my ancestors lived just about ten miles south of here in the 1860s-70s, and that my 2nd-great-grandfather, Stephen W. Hays was a wagon maker who managed a factory that manufactured wheels… having my hands on these beautiful relics is synchronous to an exponential degree for me.
I doubt it would be possible to verify the provenance of these wagon wheels, but I’m happy to just marvel over the weird coincidence of my working on these genuine wheels, given all I’ve learned about what was happening here 150-years ago that my ancestors’ hands were involved in creating.
I’ve got a second coat of sealer to apply and then I will remount these two to the front steps, and I will never walk past them again with the same cavalier regard as I had before.
Of all the features to find mounted on the front steps of a house we bought while entirely clueless about the history of the region and my ancestors’ contributions to it… It just boggles my mind.
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Relative Something 