Old Stone House

Last weekend our water heater sprang a leak. Not a big leak, but a leak none the less. The water heater was a rental so we phoned the utility company. They dispatched a local representative who came out to the house in a matter of hours, assessed the problem, and informed us that they would replace the unit – scheduling an appointment for the next morning. The rep. was good enough to note that the venting on old water heater would no longer meet code for a new unit, and it would need to be replaced. He explained that ‘his guys’ would replace the venting – and charge me dearly for it – or I could replace it myself. I told him I would do it myself, and thanked him for the heads-up.

I visited the DIY store that same day and purchased some lengths of 636 pipe and assorted fittings, and spent the rest of the afternoon ripping out the old vent and replacing it with the new.

The next day came and went and no one arrived at the house. I phoned the utility company and they explained that they had no record of a service appointment having been made. They apologized for the confusion, and immediately booked an appointment for the following afternoon.

That next day I stayed home from work and waited for the repair person to arrive. They never did. I again phoned the utility company and asked for an explanation. According to their notes the repair person arrived at our door at the scheduled time and attempted to phone us, but did not receive and answer. They subsequently canceled the appointment. (Admittedly, there was a ‘unknown caller’ record on our phone)

I was a little more than irate that they hadn’t bother to knock, and made it clear that I was unhappy. The utility rep on the other side of the phone was gracious and understanding (I later apologized to them) and booked another appointment for me the following morning at 7:00 a.m. – with explicit instructions to knock.

The next morning the repairmen arrived on time and followed me to the basement. They immediately praised the new venting, explaining it was ‘perfect’ and thanking me for making their job much easier. No sooner had they patted me on the back when the the one gentleman asked what type of glue I used?

I handed then the container of the 636 glue and he immediately told me I had used the wrong glue. He explained that the glue I used was intended for transitioning between two different types of pipe (PVC / CPVC / ABS pipe) but that same glue could not be used to join ‘like’ pipes. He went on to explain that as a licensed gas fitter he couldn’t hook up the new water heater to ‘this’ venting…

We agreed that I would replace the venting (again) that evening and he would arrive (again) the next morning.  I purchased all new pipe and fittings ripped out all of the ‘new’ venting and replaced it with ‘newer’ venting.

The repair team arrived on my doorstep the next morning and finally replaced the water heater. It took them 42 minutes… They thanked me for my efforts, apologized for the delays, and assured me that for all the effort I had still saved a good deal of money having replaced the venting myself – despite the fact I had done it twice.

I’m hoping I’ll get 10 years of service out of this water heater before I ever have to do this again…

Inspiration can sometimes come from the most unlikely sources. We decided to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon cleaning up our Christmas ephemera, and as per usual, we took it as an opportunity to do some puttering. Nothing major, a little bit of putty here, a touch of paint there – those ‘touch-ups’ that help keep the house maintained.

One such chore was to clean out the closet under the stairs. We keep a good deal of seasonal stuff – decorations, old coats etc in this closet, but have never really liked it. The closet is in the centre of the house and therefore always inconvenient to use – you simply don’t step in from inside and hang up your coat. Second, the closet appears to be an afterthought in the house – not one of the original features, as the door is cheap and the trim isn’t a perfect match. As well the door opens into our dining room, for a grand door-total of four doors and one passageway. Needless to say, we’ve never really liked it.

I was in the back of the closet when I took notice of the rails supporting the shelves. There, hidden away from sight was an original piece of trim. (we are missing a good deal of trim on some of our doors, a result of generations of renovations) it was actually an exciting find as now we had a template for later milling and matching.

We started talking about the trim and pondered why the closet had never been converted into a ‘water closet like so many of the surrounding homes. This spurred many other thoughts, and when we had finished talking we had decided to: tear out out existing main-floor bathroom and relocate it under the stairs; convert the existing bathroom into a proper laundry/ mud room; reconfigure the pantry.

In truth, these are modest changes – and although a little challenging, we are fortunate that the renovations we have made over the last 4 years – particularly the upgrades to the plumbing and electrical – will make this much easier then in might have been.

Feels good to have a project. It’s been a while since we last tore the house apart. We were starting to get bored!

Over the past few weeks Project Porchlight has been distributing compact fluorescent light bulbs to local churches, community centres etc., and offering a free 13w/60w light bulb to all families. The goal of the project is to help encourage homeowners to think green, and to save energy. Project Porchlight asserts that if every Canadian household changes only one light – their “porch light” – to a new CFL, the energy savings will be the equivalent to removing 60,000 cars from the road. (more agony and joy…)

In support of blog action day, here is a small contribution.

The first winter we stayed in oldstonehouse we were quite surprised at how cold the house was, as well as how expensive it was to keep the house that ‘cold’. Our average heating bill cost about 700% more per month then our previous home – and this was to simply maintain a temperature of 18C/65F! Needless to say we were fairly determined to remedy the issue.

(more agony and joy…)

One of the more interesting discussions about our house has to do with ‘dead air space’ and energy conservation. Our house, like all others of its era, was never insulated – despite this it keeps temperature/heat quite well. Naturally it is more expensive to heat then new homes, but I was surprised to find that it wasn’t as bad as expected. An older contractor explained that the reason for this was that the house was in fact insulated somewhat with ‘dead air space’.

(more agony and joy…)