Category Archives: Renovation & Building

A/C Sensor Bad

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A/C guy was here yesterday. He checked everything and finally told us “it’s this sensing module that is bad”

The basic long and short of it is, I don’t really know why we need it, guess it’s a fine tuner, making everything work well no matter what temps you put in or something. He said that MOST systems will run OK without it but don’t go lower than 68 or 67 or 66 on your thermostat settings without the module installed.

Bottom line: Our house cooled down and the humidity level slowly went down. Upstairs kept constant temp. Downstairs in livingroom constant temp. Basement, in my office, constant temp (still an issue with the other side of the basement.)

The humidity level is still an issue, but not quite as bad as it had become (nothing worse than cold wet air inside the house! well, yes there is: HOT WET AIR!) Right now it’s 49% H. in the living room (only place I have a sensor for such a task) but the A/C isn’t running a lot since it’s nighttime and there no heating issue from outside. Seems reasonable. Also I am guessing our missing module would help, I hope. I truly do hope.

The part is on order, maybe it’ll arrive tomorrow, was the idea given. For now, things are cooler in a more stable way, thus far.

Nothing looks frozen with the equipment that is outside. I noticed the air coming on during the night (sometimes I wake up at night for awhile.) It’s great that this is being solved finally. Was the sensor bad all along? Back first night it was installed, it was hot in the house and it was “finished and on” for hours and hours and hours before it got cool enough not to sweat at every move or while sitting still. I wasn’t impressed with it the next day either. So not impressed as days went on. How does that sound now? Sounds like the only thing that is the problem right now is the module. Once that’s replaces, must tackle the “does it work NOW” possible problem. If it answers more questions than it makes, awesome!

Trane makes a wonderful new thermostat, it’s so very awesome. I’d love that sort (man though, 3 of them? Ouch!) There are other possible things I’d like added on to the system, but it’s so hard to make it do-able. To make others see why it would be right to add it to The ‘have to move this to the top of the list’ List.

So regarding temperatures, right now it’s a wonderful 57 degrees F. outside, with 70+% humidity. Feels wonderful! Forecast has our area going to 79 degrees F. today. That’ll be a nice little test, especially seeing as it’ll be MOSTLY SUNNY! [it's been sooooo cloudly of late]

August Begins

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August begins on a Monday this year. It’s so ‘school’ feeling. :)

That’s odd. We homeschool. It’s not anything we don’t ever do, totally. I’m getting a few super-lax weeks souped up today. I set it up as a plan last week, and this is the day.

New Era. I’m using my calendars (google, of course) to be the glue that holds this all together. It’s not that I hadn’t ever had calendars and planning and such, but I’m going from being relaxed about it, doing it that way. I’m trying to MAKE things happen before too much time goes on, MAKE life happen, then have things done instead of me having to say “Did you … yet?” to each person, and get the “nah, not yet” answers.

It still is summer though. We are in a hot southern state and summer isn’t the same for us as many others. We are in A/C with some outdoor ability, but no pool or anything. We are more outdoor oriented in the Autumn and Winter. That goes over fine for me, being the sort of person I am, with husband not around most of the time, we just hang out together and wander the property looking at whatever there is to look at. Some running, mostly not for me, just the younger 2 children, and the Cedar Works structure we have just sits dormant, needing a new swing ladder probably. New swings too. It’s a sad testament to what once was, and what should be, and speaks loudly of what will never be.

I hear you loud and clear climbing structure … all hope is gone. (I’m holding out hope though, for something to happen sooner than later!)

HVAC Countdown

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One more day, after today, to get through, then it’s HVAC start up! I hate “wishing time away” I so hate it. I’m so familiar with it. More than I even want to think about. Anyhow, here we are a few days after having 4 guys (seemed like a ton of people!) traipsing through and then giving us quotes. It’s been hot, even hotter than hot.

We haven’t had good air in this house ever. What we did have only worked for 6 years, maybe, then started having problems. Did we ever have it overhauled, or have it gone over to fix anything? No. It had no maintenance all along (maybe recharged once years ago.)

So we are getting a Trane, 3-zone system. More thermostats, more returns, more vents. Hopefully it’ll go well. The thing is we have lots of drywall to fix and install still. This job of installing the HVAC may enlarge the drywall job. But that’s OK. Air is important. For me it’s very important! I’m not so special. I think it would be important to any human or animal. Like right now, the air is thick and blah, I feel like I can barely breathe. That’s what my main house has been like for year after year, after year. For a long time the upstairs bedrooms were moreso the cool rooms. I’m just waiting to see what happens, I like fresh cool dry air all the time, I don’t like it cycling on and off and pretty much run the ‘fan’ all the time. I don’t know what the zones will be like, and how it’ll work out. Maybe we’ll have cool air in the cathedral ceiling living room, not get baked out of the kitchen. Huh.

So this morning the countdown is at 3. Tomorrow it’ll 2, and Wednesday it will be 1. And whenever they get here … Blast Off!

It’s a New Year, a week in already

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The first week of the new year (2011) has gone quite fast, yet seems slow as well. The new year started with warmer weather, and that lasted a few days, then back to cold enough to start a fire in the fireplace again. It’s not terribly cold, just normal cold for The South where we live.

There is a weather system that is supposed to form over the The Gulf this weekend, and bring a winter storm to us through Tuesday. It isn’t our first, we actually had snow on Christmas Day, though it started late in the daylight hours and continued through the night into the next day. We had a few inches at least, over 2 for sure. The snow lasted that day then, the next, starting to melt, but on our property we had a lot of snow the day after still, then only in spots, then none at all. Then it was warm, early spring warm. We had fireworks to shoot off on New Years Eve. We were outside with barely light jackets at 9pm through to midnight when we shot our two cakes off.

We didn’t get enough wood to burn before the season, so we were glad for the warm-up some. We stocked up with more wood after 2011 started, and have enough for awhile, and will get more when we get paid again. We did get a nice wood rack to setup outside, an arched bridge sort, it needs to be assembled still. Once that is put together the wood will get stacked neatly behind the garage and really look NICE!

I haven’t written a lot on this blog, more on my other blog, but not much anywhere. I’m trying to do things to make myself do more, get more done, more creativity, which spawns more posts here and there.

I did make a Christmas Card this year. I had a hard time getting a picture for the inside, finally accomplished that quite late, and got them printed on my HP printer (got it new this past autumn, it’s awesome to have a color printer that can print great photos!) trimmed and removable glue dotted into the card (so the photo could be easily taken out by the end user if desired.) I only sent out 10 cards in the end. I was going to send more out, but then canceled ever getting ANY out when the photo shoots I took made for nothing good to use. I was not happy, but just couldn’t get any card out without the plan of the photo for inside. It was a totally handmade card, lots of effort put into making it. Anyhow, the radio was on when we were out doing some shopping one of the last days before Christmas, and they said “get your cards to the postoffice by Noon so they’ll arrive before Christmas!” and that sunk deep into my head and the next morning I had the 10 cards ready and off to the postoffice they went. So maybe a tad late, but not entirely, and at least they went out. That was a sucess, partially. I mean, I had so many others I could have sent cards to, and didn’t. FWIW.

Anyhow, I feel sort of stuck in some ways right now. Things are sort of tight, still not done enough (the house) and trying to work through getting some of that done sooner than later. We actually moved our kitchen back to the start of where it was in 1997. I hate it. It’s not permanent, thanks be to God for that. I can’t live with it like this and we will change it again, to where it works better, basically flipping it on end. It’s do-able, and we need to do a few extra things to make it work out to be permanent and done right, and get everything installed that is supposed to be installed. This all will work to make a better place to live, even though it’s still small and will always be smaller as my family is growing.

My eldest is now 14. He’s way bigger than me now. So in essence it’s like having 3 adults in the house now. Two years ago it wasn’t. Now it sure is.

Status Quo

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We had a mini-vacation by going to Charlotte for CKC there last week. Hubby had business there too (made the trip useful for him to be able to create appointments since we’d be there.)

It was nice, in some ways. Hard, in many ways. Nice to get home. Not nice to get home.

Home is static. Flooring waiting to be installed. Stuff waiting to get sorted through. Never enough energy for the latter. Never enough help to gain such energy (by shared effort.)

My kitchen is a sore point. My living room is a sore point. My basement “family room” is anything but nice. Junky couch (really a partial couch) and not enough seating for my family unless bringing in kitchen chairs if we watch a movie together.

Anyhow, I’m just tired thinking of it all. Same old, same old. There are other things to do, always. So we live with it all. Going away just makes it more painful to live with again when returning. It’s like a wound, scabbed over, the wound is there, but covered with scab. Going away it seems like the scab falls off, wound healed. Coming back it’s just like the scab was just masquerading as healed, and it’s split wide open with the effort of going back realized.

It helps to write about it. Hopefully my hubby and I can get some things done in the house now that we have no “trip” that’s coming up. If only he’d be able to be motivated. Oh, then there is the long summer grass. It’s getting longer every day. That takes up so much time. I hate grass. It’s the enemy of household renovation, of weekend fun. It’s a slave driver. I’m full of cheerful thoughts today, aren’t I?