home improvement – Page 2

Door Adornment

January 14, 2024 WolseyLeave a comment

While I did the wooden butcher block backsplashes, I wanted to extend the backsplash upwards a bit. I cook a lot, and it includes things like canning jam, and frying up things. My kitchen runs hot and heavy, and I would just like to be able to wipe down the walls behind my counters easier. From experience, it’s nicer to have an easy to clean surface.

My first attempt was to buy some self sticking backsplash tiles off amazon. (Not an affiliate link, I don’t have affiliate links.) They said stickers, and I guess they really were, because I would not use them for a backsplash. They also weren’t sticky enough that I trusted them to stay up. Surprisingly some of them came with a pinkish background, so not the colors I was going for.

However, I got to thinking about them, and decided to adorn my very white front and back doors with them. I figured it might look nice to have them in the panels of the doors.

*I tested one to see if they would stick and work out.*

First I measured every panel I wanted to do, in order to make sure every panel’s measurement was what I expected it to be. I like to be thorough on measuring because sometimes things are made off by manufacturers.

*Notice my really cool NicPro Carpenter pencil! OMG, I can’t break the lead on this thing. Sooooo recommended. My hands shake and I always break pencil lead, so that is a cool pencil.*

The tiles were supposed to be 6′ square, but they aren’t. They were 5 and 15/16ths. That’s just enough to be annoying.

I then used piece of paper with the size of the sticker tile, and then split how much I needed to take off into 2, and marked each side, so I could take an even amount off of each sticker tile.

*I used this for every tile I had, so I could get them all at 5 1/2 inches wide without having to measure each one. Safer that way!*

I then used a normal Fiskar paper cuter to cut the tiles.

*I’ve had this old paper cuter forever, and it works great.*

To do the length down in the center panels, it was a little trickier. The center panels were 22″ down, but 4 tiles was 1.5″ longer than that. I divided it by 4 using a fraction calculator online, then divided that by 2, and made another little paper template so I could make marks and cut all four of the tiles, making sure to take the same amount off the top and bottom.

The bottom panel was the opposite problem. It was only 1/4″ longer than the length of 3 tiles, and I did not want to cut down 4 tiles that much. Instead, I just applied those bottom panel tiles 1/8″ lower than the true top, and you couldn’t even tell.

Applying the tiles is similar to applying a Cricut vinyl project. I used a scraper to smooth out the bubbles. The sticker tiles were not especially sticky, and if I had an issue with a bubble they were easy to peal off and do again.

One thing I think was important for me, was to accept that was it was impossible to make it perfect. The tiles slid, and cut funky, and applying them was a little odd from the normal vinyl I was used to. However, with the white door background, you could not tell unless you got nose to door with where there were imperfections.

I think sometimes it’s easy, especially for me, to just give up if I can’t make things mathematically perfect. However the tiles themselves did not have a perfect printing run with some uncentered tiles, so I just went with it, and I am glad I did.

*Finished back door with Tally, who “helped” the entire time* for certain definitions of “helping”.

I’m pretty glad I did this. I like it. My home is not a show home, or a “normal” home, but it is my home. I don’t ever plan to leave it, and I want to live in a place that feels good for me. I don’t want plane white doors.

I did have enough extra I added some to my super cheap white IKEA desk, too.

This cheap IKEA desk was what I got when we moved in. Most of our furniture was super cheap as the house cost was a lot! Personalizing it is a good step until I need to replace it for a longer lasting desk.

This was a last minute project because I had these stickers and I didn’t want to return them. I am glad I did it. It took me an hour or so, and nothing is better than a project with instant gratification.

Backsplash Success

January 5, 2024January 5, 2024 Wolsey2 Comments

Remember that disaster contractor I had back when I moved in a year ago?

To recap, I had hired this grifter to remove a floor to ceiling skinny cabinet, install my dishwasher in it’s place, lay a butcher block counter across the cabinets instead of the plastic countertops, build a cabinet box on the other side of the dishwasher, and then install a sink, a hot water dispenser, and the faucets.

I found him on Angi’s List and it was so bad, I won a judgment against him for the work he screwed up. It’s just stunning. I basically had to redo all his work, or fix his work, because it was so terrible.

One of the things that killed me was that he installed the butcher block backsplashes crooked with up to 3/8ths between the back splash and the counters, and cut all the backsplashes short from the counters.

His work as a self professed “finish carpenter.”

*Every edge was like this. It’s like he didn’t take his saw blade position in account when he cut the backsplashes.*

*The backsplash was raised up at least 3/8″ off the counters.*

Turns out the backsplashes were super easy to pop off. They were held on with white silicone sealant which scrapped off super easy.

*Blobs of silicone sealant I just scraped off the backsplashes after I popped them off.*

The galling thing was I had an entire new board he could have used in case he’d made mistakes and had told him to use it freely, and I didn’t care because I could not return it.

Before I cut any new boards, I dry fitted the existing boards he had across the back, with the biggest gaps, and I’ll be damned if it didn’t just sit fine? Like no gaps. He’d just installed it crooked and running upwards at an angle.

I’d asked him about the gaps when I saw it the day of the install, and he’d told me “you have to expect irregularities in wood and it would not be perfect.” He’d also told me he was a finish carpenter, so that was a fascinating bit of bullshit. I told him I needed it fixed and he said it was impossible.

I am a total amateur, but if I can fit the backsplash pieces better than a self professed finish carpenter, I think I have some issues with his credentials.

I was able to recycle most of the pieces of backsplash, use some liquid nails and finish nails, and cut them to the right length. I even filled the nail holes, and sealed it with clear silicone sealer across all the edges, especially behind the sink where water is a concern.

*I guess my amateur self can cut wood to length.*

I paid him a lot, and he took advantage of my wife and I because I guess I was too forthcoming with having a disability that prevented me from doing the work. He never paid us the settlement he owed from arbitration with Angi’s List, either. They eventually yanked his business from the site.

The side piece was a bit wonky, so I scribed it, and made it fit. It was the first time I have ever done that. It took me 20 minutes to fix it so it had no gaps.

My wife came in and said it best. We were not looking for perfection at all, but we could have done it together with just me directing and her helping and get this result the first time.

I guess I was really lucky I could afford to take the hit financially, and had the ability to fix it myself when it was clear there was a problem. I don’t know how long I have where I can work like this with my degenerative joint issues, but at least for now I can. I am grateful for that.

I am also grateful that I can now look at my kitchen counters and know it’s done. They may not be finish carpenter level, but they are good enough. That’s all I ever wanted.

The last thing I need to do, is have the electrician we have coming in this year look at his electrical install of the dishwasher and make sure it’s not a problem. Then I will be able to put this all behind me.

Cutting a hole in my wall for cables.

December 24, 2023 Wolsey1 Comment

Remember that shelf I put up for the router and modem?

On the exact opposite side of the wall is my wife’s workspace. Our living room is actually the front bedroom in the house as we live in 899 square feet, and it’s not a huge place. My wife has her desk literally in the bedroom closet, and it’s worked out great for soundproofing for her video creation.

The top shelf is where she keeps her gaming PC, and KVM switch, and all the other wired things. We wanted to punch a hole between the modem and router shelf in that room into the top shelf of my wife’s workspace in our living room.

The plan is to use a long drill bit to drill a guide hole, then use that to use a large hole bit to drill into each side, then put in a 1.25″ PVC pipe, cut it off, and use paintable caulk to glue it in. it’s pretty easy, and you don’t need much to do it. PVC is easy to work with, and can be cut with a hand tool, and the drill bits were not expensive.

*Drilling with an extra long drill bit to make a pilot hole between both sides of the wall.*

I knew where the studs were already from hanging the shelves, so I just put the hole along side the stud.

*Drill bit sticking out of the other side of the wall.*

The long drill bit creates the hole so you can use it to line up the hole bit, and it will match on both sides.

It’s important to drill the hole in from the outside, on both walls. That way if you have any blow out, it will be in the interior of the wall. It just gives a cleaner round hole to work with.

I didn’t want to just have a hole in the sheetrock. I was worried cable and cord movement would degrade the sheetrock in the wall over time and I didn’t like how it looked to just see inside the wall. Not to mention I didn’t need anything important falling into the wall, where I’d have to rip it apart to get it out later.

The PVC pipe was a good solution for me, as it could be just caulked in, and would protect the sheet work, and keep me from dropping anything in the wall.

This is where I realized, I had grabbed my larger sized hole saw, and had a full on panic that it would not work well. The last time I did this, I had the exact hole size as the PVC, and it was a bit more slick, but this worked too with enough paintable caulk.

*Caulked in PVC pipe so you can run cables from the other room.*

I just caulked it in with a bit of extra caulk. This is still wet in the above picture. It needs sanded down, but I am lazy, and I’ll sand it down when I go to repaint that room.

*Finished hole into my wife’s work space.*

*Cables in another cord run from one closet to the other.*

It actually worked out really well. My wife likes to wire her computer gear in instead of using the wifi, so she can now do that without running cables around the doors into the other room.

I know there are some grommets you can buy, but they didn’t extend through the wall and only were on the surface, like a desk grommet for wires. I also have exceptionally thin walls in this circa 1910, so an out of the box solution probably wouldn’t fit my house.

They do need a little sanding and painting, but that’s for another day. I am just happy my wife’s workspace set up and be organized the way she likes it.

Shelves

December 10, 2023 Wolsey3 Comments

I have been down for the count a bit this last month. I have to go have a surgery, which I did not want to have. It’s not like I am going to die, but it will greatly improve my life. It gets in the way of my projects, and my life in general, but what are you going to do?

I did manage to get myself together enough to get some shelves installed. In our spare bedroom we have a wardrobe/walk in closet area for my wife, with her makeup desk and its large lighted mirror. I get the small closet for my hanging clothing, and a small table for my sewing machine. It’s also where the home wifi, router, and modem come into the house. It’s all utilitarian, and as such we needed more shelves.

I had two sections of shelves to put up, the first being a wifi and router shelf above my wife’s makeup table.

*I will move the mirror and the jewelry hanger, slightly, and put up the shelves.*

I used my stud finder to find the studs, and actually drilled an extra screw hole in the brackets. They are technically supposed to go into a closet made system, but will hold to the wall studs just fine for what we are doing.

*The studs aren’t always where I expected them to be in this ancient little house so a stud finder is invaluable.*

I prefer these double hook hanger style shelf brackets. I have the single ones pictured below in the bathroom and they are not that secure. Sure they won’t fall off the wall, but the shelves wiggle to much. I will replace them with the double style versions once above when I get around to it because life’s too short to be irritated by wiggly shelves. Plus, the double style brackets have holes to screw the shelves to the brackets so you never have to worry about accidentally knocking them down.

*Sure the brackets are long, but we might want that later. The mirror isn’t up yet because I am waiting on more command strip picture hangers to put it back.*

The router and wifi will fit up there, and it’s tall enough my wife can’t bonk her head. Few people are taller than her, so I think it will work.

Part of the reason for it’s placement here is to get it away from the electrical panel so there’s less interference, put it closer to the center of the house, for better wifi coverage, and to place it on the other side of the wall from my wife’s desk so she can hard wife into it for YouTube uploads. Her desk is actually set into a closet, and her computer equipment is on the top shelf, so I will be putting a hole through it so we can run cords through for her to hard wire to it.

The second set is above my wife’s dresser. I wanted to center them over the printer, but the studs were not where you’d expect, and it was just more secure to do it this way. I will have to forever live with it not being centered. It won’t bother my wife, but I will probably rework this problem in my head for as long as this is set up this way. Maybe by next year when we repaint, I will think of something.

*You can see the issue with why we need somewhere to put the papers.*

My wife makes these great 5 x 7 laminated card stock game cards for her tabletop games. She creates them for missions, characters, NPCs, items, and locations. They are amazing and look like professionally made game pieces. We bought an Epson liquid toner printer for it, which as a great bargain as we’ve done hundreds of prints on the original cartridges. This means she needs space to put her supplies.

Once again, this was as easy as using a stud finder to find the wonky stud placement. Interior walls in the little blue house are sometimes not there? Like you’d expect them to be 18 on center, but they skimped. This means, sometimes there are no studs at all in places you’d expect them. Old houses are weird. The external walls are fine, but just the interior ones are like this.

It took me very little time to get the shelves up and secured.

This would probably not be optimal if it was for me, because I am 5’6″. However at my wife’s 6’2″ she can reach the top shelf without a ladder.

I am sure she will organize these when she gets to it. We are thinking baskets or bins, as that works with her ADHD, and my need for organization both.

I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have a home because I can do this. If we find we don’t like it? I’ll just rip it out, patch it and do something else. Just having that freedom is astounding. I wish everyone could have a home they could do that with.

The funniest part of this entire process is now my shelves are level and straight to a degree the rest of the house isn’t. The little blue house isn’t terrible, but it’s old, and not as level as you’d hope.

10 Windows in 899 Square Feet

November 11, 2023November 9, 2023 WolseyLeave a comment

My home has a lot of windows. This is amazing, because the 630 sq ft apartment we had before this had two total and there was no light. I love that I have so many windows now.

However, my home came stock standard with white blinds. I am not a fan of blinds. I hate raising them, lowering them, and twisting the little rod to get them to angle the blinds in the right direction. They are not really energy efficient, and hot summer and cold winter weather came right through them. Plus, I never ever feel like they are completely closed. I know they are, but I always feel like you can see into them.

*The window blinds that came with my house. The fuzzy platform is a cat shelf I have installed so my little monster can scream at other cats, squirrels, and god knows what at 3am.*

I like blackout/insulated curtains, and I found this great blackout fabric on Amazon. (not an affiliate link) The fabric is insulated, so it helps keep heat in during the winter and out during the summer. It’s white, so from outside you see white curtains with the blue house, and that looks cute.

For the inside layer of curtain fabric, I bought sheets for everything but the bathroom. I got jellyfish fabric for the bathroom to keep with my undersea theme. I needed ten windows worth of fabric, and that’s a lot. Joanne’s seems to be dying a long tragic death, and has little in the way of selection, and Fabric.com got bought out and closed by Amazon. Because of all this, it was just easier and cheaper to buy flat sheets from Walmart for fabric.

It was a really easy job to sew them up. I just made a big pocket and doubled over the top for the rod to slip through.

I added some inexpensive curtain rods to the my windows. Maybe when I do the rooms in their final colorful fun form I’ll replace those rods with fancy ones. I don’t know yet.

*Curtain rods were easy to install and were not crooked. The camera angel just makes it look that way.*

I also don’t want my neighbors seeing into my home, so I got double rods for all of my larger windows. This allows me to put sheers into the inner rod, so we can see out, but nobody can see in.

*They have an Arlo camera right at our bedroom window there, so I like having a privacy option. I don’t know how much they can see, but I’d rather be safe than sorry!*

I started this project last year in December, and I have 7 out of 10 curtains done. The last windows in the dining/kitchen area need done still, but are challenging because I need to figure out how to hang them when the windows but up against the cabinets with zero space to spare.

What I didn’t expect was how effective on heat and cold insulation these curtains would be. You can physically feel the different behind the curtain when it’s hot or cold out. The difference is shocking. If I had know these kind of insulating fabric for curtains existed, I would have done this years ago. Not to mention the black out effect is better than any store bought black out curtains I have ever had. I can sleep midday and it’s dark in my room now.

This makes this project far more effective than I could have imagined. First, I feel safer in my home with windows that feel fulling closed. You can’t put a price on that. Second, the insulation quality of the curtains with that black out fabric was off the charts. I totally underestimated how much of a difference this would make. I highly recommend this, if you can sew even a tiny bit. This is an easy project to help insulate your home and depending on how old your windows are? This could really help.

Squirrel Interdiction Fail and Rats?!

October 26, 2023 Wolsey2 Comments

I was working on my garden this last Saturday when as I stepped out on my back porch, a common brown roof rat shot out from under the stairs and across the yard. It had been eating dropped bird seed.

*This is not the actual rat, as it was so fast I didn’t get more than a moment before it was gone.*

It went in the direction of a neighbor’s yard that isn’t usually mowed, and has a lot of shrubbery and overgrowth. I was shocked because it was dead middle of the day. It was black and small, so I think it was a roof rat. It was not one of the bigger ones.

I do find this a little concerning, and this might be the inevitable outcome of bird feeders, and a garden.

I did some research and learned that you can add spicy pepper to your feed mixes and the birds can’t taste it, but mammals can. This actually might help with the squirrels which are literally digging up my entire yard and garden.

I tested it with the peanut tray, which the squirrels get into, and boy do they hate it! It’s 3TBSP to a pound of seed, and it works well. I added a little olive oil to make sure it stuck, and it worked. The crows still got the peanuts we feed them, and the squirrels are off elsewhere.

My wife is sad, but they are literally destroying the yard, digging up all the clover seeds, and every garden bed I have looks like this now below.

*This bed was level and had leftover mulch, until the squirrels decided to go HAM on the beds. My Beet bed, and my tomato bed look the same.*

As for my Squirrel Interdiction efforts? The reason they got into the area was that I used chicken wire. Chicken wire has too big a holes to use. I just ordered $300 in hardware cloth with 1/2 by 1/2 squares, and not I have to redo the entire structure this winter.

Sigh. Squirrels 1, me 0.

My New Plan

I am going to wrap the structure in hardware cloth. I am just going to do it over the chicken wire. I can’t see how that would matter at all. It will just create a double layer of fuck you to the squirrels.

I am going to cayenne pepper the bird seed and peanuts. That will give them less incentive to destroy my yard and my garden, and my wife will still have all the birds. The hawk that sits on the fence and looks for rodents might have to look elsewhere, but I am fine with that.

Insulation and Roof Venting

October 12, 2023October 9, 2023 Wolsey2 Comments

This last month we had to upgrades to the house related to insulation and heat issues.

Insulation

Over the last winter our house could not maintain heat. The floors were icy, and the heat cycled on every ten minutes. At one point during an ice storm it felt like the heat was running constantly for 24 hours straight. It was just that cold and the heater could not keep up.

We were recommended Boulton Insulation from our home inspectors, and we had them come. The inspector (Kevin) was honest, and really fair in his assessment. He was also super knowledgeable about heat pumps which is on our home list. He said it would be an easy job to put the insulation under the house.

If I was 20 years younger, or didn’t have my disability, I’d have done it myself, but I just can’t anymore.

Our quote came in at approximately $1200, after a power company rebate. That is less than the iPad I was eyeballing. Sold!

They scheduled us and had it done in a week. It was a one day job, and the next morning we noticed an immediate difference. The floors were warm. We could walk barefoot. As the mornings are getting colder, we have only turned the heat on for ten minutes in the morning and our tiny house just heats up and stays heated. If we cook or run the dishwasher we don’t even need it.

Best of all, my wife is comfortable. That is worth a lot to me.

Roof Venting

The second issue we had was the house roof was done by the previous owners, and while it’s a fairly good job, there is literally no venting in it. Like none! The blown in insulation in the attic is five star good according to Kevin from Boulton, but the lack of venting means it heats up in there, and just cooks us in the house.

On a sunny day you can literally feel the heat in the ceiling start drifting down and making the house hot. In the most recent sunny day, it was 74F, and the house was 85F just because of this with windows open. On a really hot day, our air conditioners struggled to fight it.

Kevin at Boulton gave me a recommendation for Patrick at Sound Roof Care, and I got a quote. Like Kevin, Patrick was fair, and gave me a reasonable bit of information that mirrored my own experience and research. Basically, I was risking mold and reducing the life of my shingles because I had no venting.

The quote to add venting along the entire roof was approximately $2700. That’s great, because I went up there to seal some nails and the roof cap on the recommendation of the home inspectors report, and I hate doing that. Even if my body was able, nope! There is no fucking way.

I helped my father roof two homes when I was a kid, just being up there and nailing down shingles. I don’t remember having an issue. Now, I apparently am not okay with doing this at all.

So as far as I am concerned $2700 is a fair price. We got scheduled and they were pretty quick at finishing the job.

*Super heroes adding roof venting to my roof.*

I probably won’t know for sure how this feels until it’s warm again next summer. I do know it’s a good preventative measure to make sure my roof lasts and I don’t end up with a moldy attic crawlspace.

I do know, it can’t hurt, and I can’t wait to see how a hot sunny day is in my home now.

A Transgender Aside

My wife and I are both trans, with my wife being visibly transgender. Part of hiring people in during the current political climate is fraught with concern that people might refuse to work with us, or treat us terrible for being transgender. Since my wife is the visible one, that will fall on her. She takes more than enough abuse when we go out, that bringing it home to her isn’t something I want to do.

I have to say these were concerns we had when we looked for professionals to work on our house. Yet, both Kevin from Boulton (and the office staff when we went in the pay it off) and Patrick from Sound, were kind and respectful.

If you have never had to consider this, it might seem strange to worry that someone you are paying may not want to work with you. It happens though. It might seem like a low bar to have to be happy someone treats you with respect, but we’ve had companies in recent years refuse our business. Not everyone takes a cake lawsuit to the Supreme Court. Some of us just go somewhere else and put our money in small businesses that are not staffed with bigots.

I can say these two companies were fantastic, and respectful, and safe for transgender clients as far as our experiences go. I am so happy we chose them, and will definitely be recommending them to everyone that asked now.

Current Garden Project List

October 9, 2023 WolseyLeave a comment

We might be winding down, but I still have a few things to do before next season. This is the list of things I am planning.

Squirrel Interdiction. They are getting into the back wall of my garden. I think it’s under the wall I created, so I am going to buy some hardware cloth and bricks and try sealing that area up. Then I have to see if that works. It’s an arm race between me and the squirrels.
New front bed. I need to buy some soil and fill it. I used the garbage dirt I had in a pile for the bottom of the raised bed, but it still needs real honest to god good dirt. I plan to transplant my strawberries come spring, in it.
New back bed. Same thing. Except I am going to plant sunflowers in it. They will be beautiful to look at, pull in pollinators, and block my neighbors Arlo house cam from pointing into my bedroom window. That’s a lot of wins.
Two raised herb garden beds. I have two picked out at Amazon’s and need to buy and set them up. I want to move my herbs onto the deck so I can grab them for dinner faster. it will also open up areas for planting other vegetables and flowers.
Soil. I need soil for the rest of my beds. They settled down a lot. I hadn’t realized just how much they would, so I need to top them off, with soil and some compost.
New composter. I am close to being down with my first compost bin. I have filled it, and it’s been good. However, it is still cooking for next spring. I need to buy a second one. I am thinking one of those rotating composters because with my physical issues, it’s actually kind of hard to turn it otherwise.

On a sad note, for reasons that elude me, the cabbage I was going to make into saurkraut today exploded and looks half eaten. maybe too much water with the rain, and maybe squirrel action. In any event, no saurkraut from that. I have two smaller ones I am going to pull. So we will see if I get to that.

I am also trying to grow clover in the raw dirt areas in my yard, because I am tracking so much mud into the house. I probably will have to pay a landscaper to come put a walkway around the garden because I am not physically capable. That would help and I could go barefoot to grab the watering can.

Wool Dryer Balls Never Worked for Me

September 28, 2023September 28, 2023 Wolsey1 Comment

I don’t like using disposable products so I thought I would buy myself some wool dryer balls.

*5 Wool Dryer balls stacked on the washing machine.*

I read the directions, and then looked online and read all those directions, and just tossed 3 of them in with a load of laundry. It was nothing special, just some of my microfiber towels, and clothing. Like just about every load of laundry I have. We don’t sort it, because it’s survival of the fittest in our household. If it can’t survive the wash, it deserves to die!

My first impression was the noise. I am glad I am in a house now, because my old downstairs neighbors sure as hell would have complained about the bouncing sound. I could live with that though, if they reduced static. I don’t care about drying time so I didn’t check that at all.

I was a bit excited to see how it turned out when I pulled a towel out of the dryer. It cracked so loudly with static it startled the cat, and my microfiber towel then suctioned itself against my body, and when I pulled it off, it then suctioned itself to the wash machine.

I thought, okay, maybe I didn’t know how to use them, so I went back to the drawing board. I read the directions, went back online, where everyone assured me they take away static.

My second test was no better than the first. STATIC, in big capital letters. I had to put it all back in the dryer with a dryer sheet to get it to stop.

I have since found some debates on if they work. This article discusses how folks didn’t really see much benefit to them.

I feel a bit taken in. In all honesty, I have no idea what a ball of wool or plastic would have as a working mechanism to reduce static cling, but I was hoping.

It’s okay, though, because now the cat has some new cat toys. She loves them.

Dryer rate: 0

Cat rating: 10

*Tally attacking a wool ball. She lost her damn mind on them, and it was so hard to get a picture because she kept murdering them.*

Housing Upgrades

September 21, 2023September 19, 2023 Wolsey2 Comments

*This is the layout for my 899 square foot home from the sale paperwork. We use the front bedroom as a living room, and the living room as a kitchen/project room.*

When we moved in, we knew that the house needed some upgrades. The floors were icy to touch with bare feet, and in summer the attic crawlspace might have a lot of insulation, but would hot box the entire house anytime it was sunny and over 75F.

We held off on any more work because our nightmare experiences with the last contractor.

We had gone through Angi’s List and it was so bad their arbitration process gave us back $675, of which the contractor never paid us. Angi’s list when they suspended him for that, but my experience as an auditor says he’ll probably just pick up a new business license and start all over again. But at least his absolute trash fire of a predatory business will be inconvenienced a little before he takes advantage of someone else.

As an aside, the craziest thing about that was the last day he was at my house when he told me he never gets repeat business, and some angry man called him on the phone to tell him his plumbing no longer drained where the contractor worked on it. This was literally as the contractor was destroying my plumbing. Never again without word of mouth references.

Issue 1:
Turns out I have no insulation under my house for like 80% of the home. I called Boulton Insulation, and this really cool guy named Kevin came out. he walked us through it all, and answered questions about things that weren’t even insulation related. He talked to us about the roof and mini splits. He was really on top of things. I cannot suggest them enough. This is the second time I have worked with Boulton.

What I liked was he didn’t try to upsell us. The bid was under $1300 to fully insulate the underside of my home, and wrap the pipes. That is doable. He even gave me the name of a reliable roofer.

They are coming out next week to do the insulation. My wife will no longer have icy toes when it’s chilly. I can’t wait!

Issue 2:
I also don’t have any venting on the roof. the previous home owner did the roof himself, and while he did a good job, you have to have venting.

This is deceptive becuase you would think the more airtight the better, right? Totally wrong. Without venting on your roof, on hot sunny days, it just cooks in there no matter how much insulation you have. I have great insulation, too, up there. As it gets hotter and hotter, heat then radiates down into the house, and cooks your shingles, lowering their lifespan. Plus it can create moisture trapped in your crawlspace that can mold. You just have to have venting.

I received a bid from Patrick at Sound Roof Care. Venting out my entire 899 square foot roof will cost me about $2700. Once again, very nice on price. I liked Patrick. He seemed honest and pointed out things I hadn’t even seen but were obvious to me once he saw them. He was well educated in his trade, and what he told me aligned with what I researched. He also didn’t try to upsell me.

I haven’t got a start date for him, but that will be soon too. With that done, next summer will not be so miserable every time the sun comes out.

Issue 3:
Our next plan is for an electrician to come out so we can solve the issue with the kitchen circuit flipping every time we run the microwave, the fridge, or the dishwasher at the same time. We also want to run some electrical to the shed. This will probably be a big ticket item as I think we need a new electrical panel, and I am not sure if we need it run to the power lines from scratch.

We simply use more electricity than the elderly lady that lived here before us. We run a lot of electronics for work, and have appliances that are much more modern than the original house versions.

I also want to make sure everything is safe after that contractor put in an electrical plug for the dishwasher. I don’t trust his work at all after I had to redo like 60% of it for being dead wrong and detrimental to my home.

Issue 4:
The last item on my list is to have mini split heat pumps put in for heating and cooling. I would like to have air conditioning, and get rid of all the portable air conditioners. There are some rebates from our local power company for this, so hopefully that will not be too expensive. We will look at that later next year or so. Getting the first two issues done will make this home much more comfortable temperature wise so even if we are starting to get 90F days here in the Pacific Northwest, it won’t be like this last summer when the entire house felt like an oven.

I feel like I am in a real life Minecraft game. I am building up my base, and making it cool.