We were not idle
In his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul admonishes his readers to work hard and not let their hands be idle. I'd say the Bear's got this one down pat lately. Since he lost his 'day job' about a month and a half ago, he's been picking up what work he can with the competition on a contract basis, and working hard enough at that to bring some increased business for them as well. He's also been tracking down other options to build up opportunities with other clients for himself and scoping out deals on the tools he'll need.
But when there's no paying work to be had, the Bear's been busy tackling the many small and not so small issues that come with a nearly century old house. The first and biggest job was one we tried to get 'the pros' to do over the summer, but finally got going once the Bear started the work himself. That was replacing the furnace with a heat pump and rerunning most of the duct work. The furnace is now in the corner and the ductwork neatly run along the basement walls. With 6 foot ceilings, that has greatly reduced the incidence of smashed head syndrome, as well as eliminating the fire hazard that was the exhaust pipe running across the room just above knee height, and the ugly spaghetti of dead end ducts.
Of course for this work to happen, we had to move a pile of boxes and stuff upstairs to the spare room so there'd be space to work. Which means the next job is sifting through all those boxes before we bring them down again, with the idea being we bring a lot fewer boxes back down and a lot of crap goes out the door! These shelves were put up to keep those that do come down in some sort of order.
And with the duct work being vastly improved, a couple of old air returns were no longer needed. The antique cast iron cover on the one was pretty, but being right in the middle of the hall by the front door, it was a dust trap and a tripping hazard. Here's the crisp new floor patch. With a little help from the dogs we won't need to do as much staining to match the old floors ;). (We're pretty sure the floors are original - ninety-some years old - as the Bear was pulling out square nails as he prepped the holes for the patches.)
Then there is the replacement of a number of old doorknobs with nice lever handles. They're very handy for opening with elbows and knees when arms are full of baby. While he was at it, he realigned a few doors so they'd actually close and latch properly (particularly appreciated in the bathroom), and put in new weather stripping for the exterior doors.
Still on the list is replacement of a number of interior doors (once nice solid wood doors now buried in ten or more coats of cracked, multicolored paint) with these fresh solid pine doors he found at a bargain promo price. The divided lite french door on the left is staying; it's still pretty in spite of some damage done by a certain canine (grrr).
And one of my favourite additions, we now have five lovely pegs to hang coats on, instead of the one knob at the bottom of the stair rail.
He's one up on Red Green: handsome and handy!
But when there's no paying work to be had, the Bear's been busy tackling the many small and not so small issues that come with a nearly century old house. The first and biggest job was one we tried to get 'the pros' to do over the summer, but finally got going once the Bear started the work himself. That was replacing the furnace with a heat pump and rerunning most of the duct work. The furnace is now in the corner and the ductwork neatly run along the basement walls. With 6 foot ceilings, that has greatly reduced the incidence of smashed head syndrome, as well as eliminating the fire hazard that was the exhaust pipe running across the room just above knee height, and the ugly spaghetti of dead end ducts.
Of course for this work to happen, we had to move a pile of boxes and stuff upstairs to the spare room so there'd be space to work. Which means the next job is sifting through all those boxes before we bring them down again, with the idea being we bring a lot fewer boxes back down and a lot of crap goes out the door! These shelves were put up to keep those that do come down in some sort of order.
And with the duct work being vastly improved, a couple of old air returns were no longer needed. The antique cast iron cover on the one was pretty, but being right in the middle of the hall by the front door, it was a dust trap and a tripping hazard. Here's the crisp new floor patch. With a little help from the dogs we won't need to do as much staining to match the old floors ;). (We're pretty sure the floors are original - ninety-some years old - as the Bear was pulling out square nails as he prepped the holes for the patches.)
Then there is the replacement of a number of old doorknobs with nice lever handles. They're very handy for opening with elbows and knees when arms are full of baby. While he was at it, he realigned a few doors so they'd actually close and latch properly (particularly appreciated in the bathroom), and put in new weather stripping for the exterior doors.
Still on the list is replacement of a number of interior doors (once nice solid wood doors now buried in ten or more coats of cracked, multicolored paint) with these fresh solid pine doors he found at a bargain promo price. The divided lite french door on the left is staying; it's still pretty in spite of some damage done by a certain canine (grrr).
And one of my favourite additions, we now have five lovely pegs to hang coats on, instead of the one knob at the bottom of the stair rail.
He's one up on Red Green: handsome and handy!
Labels: News
posted by Coastal at
11:19 p.m.
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