Ever since the first snowfall a few days into December we have had snow on the ground. And even after a week of above freezing temps there is still a lot of snow. And we’ll get more. But anyway, when we returned from our trip to Europe the roofers had finished up our roof. It feels pretty great not to have to worry about rain or snow anymore. We worried for three years, every time it rained that there would be a new leak. And in the winter, we worried about ice dams. And last summer when we had no roof but only tarps was the worst of all of it. No more of that. 🙂
This photo is taken the day after the big snowstorm we got with 18" of snow.
And when the snow slides off or melts, the roof is red.
In February our back yard looked like this:
The fencing around the garden is about 3 feet high, the stakes are about 4.5 feet.
We have been working on indoor projects which mostly include electric wiring. We ran the wires from the main panel to the kitchen circuits. Now we have all of the main house electricity on the main panel and the subpanel is free to go to the garage, where my kiln will finally get power. Redoing the wiring and cleaning it up a bit will also give us better access to the joists for some of the structural work that we need to do. I have also been putting in some hours painting the siding we bought last fall for the gables and dormer. I am almost done, only one more bundle and some shorties left to do.
Painted siding in new attic space.
In January, we also had to perform a little furnace repair. The exhaust blower started to get a bit loud, especially when it first kicked on. We researched a replacement part and debated whether we should just order one to have it on hand. We hoped that the furnace would last us through this winter as the plan is to get our hydronic heat ready for next winter. The next day, the noise got even louder so we quickly decided we should order that part. We debated the shipping method hoping that we would have enough time to ship it regular ground. Our instincts, however, told us otherwise so we settled on 2nd day air. The evening of the next day, while sitting on the couch watching TV, the furnace kicks on and the blower starts shrieking, slowly getting slower. A. quickly ran to the basement and turned off the whole furnace. The new blower arrived the next day, luckily a workday for me so I didn’t have to sit in a cold house. A. installed it that night and we were back in business.
New blower in old furnace.
This is a super easy repair and only cost us the price of the part. Through a bit of research, we learned that these high efficiency furnaces with assisted vents (the blower forces the exhaust air out of a pipe instead of relying on a natural chimney draft) commonly have these blowers go out. If we had called a HVAC repair, they would have probably charged us extra for the part and an arm and a leg for the blower and then a charge for just coming to our house to look at it. So, if you have one of these, learn a bit about them.The repair only required common tools and the ability to connect 4 wires, a hose clamp and three screws and the part was available on amazon. Oh, and if you start noticing that the blower is getting a bit loud, especially when it first kicks on, order that part right away. From us noticing that something was up to the complete failure of the thing took about 5 days.
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