Showing posts with label home repair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home repair. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Vinyl Day


Day 180: Every year, I try to save up so that I can have some project done on my home and property. It might be something as simple and inexpensive as painting a room or, like last year, as costly as gravelling the driveway. It might manifest as digging a new flower bed or planting a tree, or it might be something urgent, like fixing a leaky roof. As a low-income homeowner, I have occasionally had financial assistance from community resources for the more major projects, and this year...today...I had my two big living room windows replaced out of my own pocket while a service group funded replacement of the kitchen sliding glass door. I've been on the wait list for three years, and held off replacing the windows in the hopes of getting a better deal from the contractor if they could do all the work at once. It was a wise move.

It took these two gentlemen just over three hours to remove the old single-pane aluminum frames and pop in new double-pane vinyl. There were no unpleasant surprises (something I'd been worried about), and the job went very smoothly. It is s much quieter in my living room now, and I'm sure the savings on my heating bill will pay for the windows in the long term.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Chimney Deconstruction


Day 127: With the oil furnace decommissioned and a gas insert in the fireplace, the decaying brick chimney served no purpose, and it was decided that the best course of action was to remove the external portion entirely. Once the roofer had the bricks knocked apart, the source of the leak in the roof was clear. We could see where water had been coming in on the uphill side. Fortunately, there was no major structural damage. The hole was patched with plywood and a double layer of torchdown was applied and sealed. Very few of the bricks are salvageable, so the roofer will be returning with an assistant to haul them away.