One Duke Energy Call From Heat
The two-man crew from Baker, Bauer, and Fish, my HVAC company, have been busy this week installing the remaining air ducts and Armstrong Air furnace unit in my basement. It meant I needed to get back to patching floors on the first floor, so they could install the remaining air vents. There are several areas in the kitchen that need patching, but the three pieces next to the rear wall were first priority due to the kitchen vent location.
Thanks to my neighbor Bill, the flooring I had left over from upstairs was ripped down to the right width to be used downstairs. Both floors are pine, but the upstairs floors had wider planks than down. I am really enjoying this newfound skill set. Patching floors is fun and for a rookie I do a pretty good job. Too bad most of that patch will be covered by the kitchen cabinets.
It’s really amazing watching how they ran these lines. I really hope this old house is the first of many I’ll work on (I want to be the Nicole Curtis of Camp Washington), but I wonder how central air/heat would be possible if I had not taken my house down to the studs. I’ve taken on a lot myself, but I am certainly grateful to have Baker, Bauer, and Fish handling this project for me. Tom Bauer has been fabulous to work with.
The thermostat has been hung in the living room and I’ve been told that I can actually run the fan now. With the windows open the unit will pull air and circulate it throughout the house. That will be needed as until I can get my backyard graded to slope 
away from my house I am not going to have the unit for air conditioning installed. It will be placed near the fence and although it may be hard to see from this photo, when it rains I get a large puddle that sits to the left of the steps.
I’ve been holding off having that work done in hopes that it can be done in conjunction with the building of the garage or at least with the pouring of the slab for it. I unfortunately had a negative encounter with the architect that did my house plans, Sean Keith. I paid him to do the plans for the garage and due to some personal challenges he’s experiencing he never produced them, nor returned the fee I paid. Thankfully Couper Gardiner with M.Arch stepped in and completed the plans.
Because my father and I had run the electric wires I knew I had enough wire to drop the light. With the help of my handy 
want to disrupt the seam where the wall meets the ceiling, my top cut fell right at the top of the light fixture, causing me to not have an anchor point at the top. No worries I attached a 2×4 at the top before placing the new drywall, so I could anchor with screws.
Key to decluttering………LET IT GO! This was easier for me than I thought. What I realized quickly is that I have been existing around objects that I never placed in this house and didn’t even know were here. For instance, the laundry room closet was jammed with stuff. Steve said he wanted to be able to see the floor. Once I went through it I realized there were things in that closet I had not touched before my mother died. The vacuum, iron board, and laundry supplies were never kept inside the closet until now.
The office was a whole other beast. I’ll admit, I had years of various statements piled on the floor and in boxes. Basically when I needed to clear the kitchen counter and table I’d throw whatever was in the way in a box and into the office where I’d close the door during the gathering. It took me about 6 episodes of the new season of Ozark to get through all the piles and decipher what could go and what should stay. The vast majority of it went and I divided that material into two piles, trash and shredder. Anything with account numbers (current or expired) I put in the shred pile and that filled two construction garbage bags. I had hoped to take advantage of a free shred program Furniture Fair was holding to raise funds for Crime Stoppers, but their event was cancelled due to weather. I did find Shred It, located in Fairfield, who only charged $75 for up to 10 bags or boxes.
replaced. He thankfully altered his schedule and arrived the next morning. I have never lived in a house that had windows in the bathroom. I have five in this room. The trio on the side of the house are in the shower or in front of the tub. I decided to make the two small windows picture windows, full glass non-functioning. They are obscure (no peep shows) and tempered. Only the shower window was required to be tempered, but I decided to 
make them all that way. The center window is normal double-hung, with obscure and tempered bottom pane. The windows in the front dormer and water closet will be double-hung and bottom obscure, but not tempered.
