Warming Things Up

At the end of January, an Arctic blast brought super-cold temps to New England, but even down here in Maryland we saw a rapid drop in temperatures down to the low teens. Thankfully, it came after we got the furnace repaired.

The week before the Arctic blast started off pretty warm, which is why it took until late Tuesday for me to notice that the house was chillier than it should have been. The Nest thermostat is programmed to stay around 64°F during the day unless we raise it (which happens more often now every day is a work-from-home day). I was feeling a little chill, so I bumped up the heat a few degrees and noticed that the display was saying it was currently 60°F inside. What was really odd is that Nest reported the furnace had been running for about 12 hours the day before, instead of the usual three or four hours.

I went to check the furnace and it was cycling, but not properly firing, so ... time to call the HVAC guy (the same guy who did a great job with our AC in 2017).

He was able to stop by late that afternoon to check things out; unfortunately, the diagnosis wasn't good. The gas valve was shot and needed replacing ... something he wouldn't be able to do until talking to the manufacturer in the morning.

Overnight, we added some extra blankets (including for the guinea pig) and by morning the temperature in the house had fallen to about 50°F. We pulled out a space heater to try and warm things up a little bit, and it did help some. We were able to raise things to about 54°F...

After initially hearing from the HVAC guy that the parts store's computer systems were down and he wasn't sure when he'd be able to find out the proper replacement part (and whether or not we were still under warranty), around midmorning I got the call that he had the replacement valve and could head over. Before lunch, he had the furnace back up and running and gradually the house reached its normal level of winter chill.

Despite the furnace working as it should, the basement (and particularly the basement bathroom) remain as cold as ever, so I went ahead and ordered an Eheat Envi 220v LE5022D. We went with the 220V hard-wired version both because of the increased efficiency of the 220V power and the cleaner look of not having a plug. It should arrive early next week and hopefully the electrician can run the new wiring shortly after that.

UPDATE

The Eheat Envi unit was installed on February 10 and is working well. It's designed mostly to "take the chill off," not be a primary heat source, and it seems to do that well. It works best when the bathroom door is closed and it's given time to run a little before it's needed, but even if you just turn it on as you step into the shower, it helps warm things up by the time you're toweling off.

Trees

When we bought this house in 2000, one think we liked about it was how shady the lot was. There were three big oak trees (one with a twinned trunk) in our yard and another two in the neighbor's yard near our house, mostly white oaks (Quercus alba), but also one Spanish oak (Quercus falcata). Also in the neighbor's lot (which we ended up buying in 2012; it had originally been connected to our house until around 1983 when the house was sold but the buyer didn't want the side lot) was a large American cherry (Prunus serotina), a white pine (Pinus strobus), American holly (Ilex opaca), and two nice-sized hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis). We had a few smaller hemlocks closer to the house and (in both our main lot and the side lot) a few Japanese maples (Acer palmatum), dogwoods (Cornus florida), a redbud (Cercis canadensis), a non-fruiting mullberry (Morus ?) or two, and a fig tree (Ficus carica cv. Marseilles) that we were told was Thomas Jefferson's favorite variety.

Over the years we've added a few apples (Malus domestica cv. GoldRush, Fuji, and Honeycrisp), pawpaw (Asimina triloba), swamp magnolia (Magnolia virginiana), and crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica), among other trees, including a few volunteers that we're letting stick around.

Not all of these trees have lasted for us though. A small hemlock in front of the house was root-bound and fell over after a long wet period. The GoldRush produced one apple before we lost it in a drought year. Evelin didn't like the white pine so it was cut down after we bought the side lot. The fig suffered a similar fate. A few of the long-lived volunteers (a small American cherry and a mulberry or two) were also taken out at various times. The redbud was dropping limbs and splitting so we had it taken down, but didn't remove the stump — and it has regrown itself as an oddly tall bush that looks pretty funny in the winter.

One of the white oaks (not one next to house fortunately) succumbed to a disease or something that has been hitting trees in the area and the big American cherry was also deemed to be dead or dying, so both were taken out at the same time.

Our Harry Lauder's Walking Stick (Corylus avellana cv. Contorta), a type of hazelnut tree, also succumbed to an infection that's killed a few others of its kind in the neighborhood. It's a shame because it was really interesting looking — there's a reason it's also known as a contorted filbert or corkscrew hazel — and because it was one of their favorite trees when C was little.

This morning, Evelin went to let Lucy out on the deck when she noticed that one of the hemlocks in the side yard had fallen over.

We'd noticed that it was looking poorly this summer. There were some bare branches and areas where the needles looked dry or had fallen off, and Celeste and I had noticed what looked like boring holes and weeping sap at one point. If it had been an ash tree, I would have guessed we had a problem with emerald ash borers (Agrilus planipennis). I had seen scale on the tree before, but not hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae), which is a growing problem in the area. It's possible we had a stressed tree and a hemlock borer (Melanophila fulvoguttata) issue ... but we likely won't know for sure and can only hope the issue was confined to the one tree.

It was a good tree. Quin used to spend a lot of time in her hugglepod, which hung from it, and at one point early on we had a bird feeder in it. I remember one night waking up and looking out our bedroom window to see a big possum staring in at us from that tree. It was also the quickest route for squirrels to reach the roof and infiltrate the attic.

Luckily when it fell it didn't only landed on some bushes and didn't hit anything major, but now we need to clean things up. I'd been trying to grow a bunch of ferns at the bottom of the hemlocks, so we'll see how they adapt to the new environment. I doubt we'll try to plant a new tree in the same spot, but who knows what time will bring.

Even More Lighting

Out in front of the house is a small lamp post. It was wired together with the porch light, so a single switch turned on/off both lights. The problem was that there was no good way to have the lights controlled with a dusk/dawn sensor; the porch light would have to always be on or we had to turn them on/off manually. At one point, I replaced the light switch with a timer switch — and it worked for a while, but it was always a pain to adjust with the seasons or if we were travelling.

At some other point, an electrical problem cropped up and the lamp post stopped working. I did some digging around, but not much actual digging. My guess is the fault was somewhere underground between the house and post and it wasn't worth trying to suss out. We considered trying to just remove the post, but then I found a solar-powered LED replacement that fit the post (this Hampton Bay light looks similar to what we got). It worked well for a while (I don't recall exactly when, but it was prior to when the other exterior lights were installed/replaced in 2014. Over time, though, charging grew slower and the light turned off earlier even after sunny days (it is in partial shade, so charging would sometimes be an issue).

The solar panels were on the flat top of the lamp and after years of exposure to the weather, they were pretty dirty. One day when Celeste was pressure washing the front steps, I had the bright idea to try and clean the solar panels with the pressure washer. That didn't fix the problem, but it did accelerate the need for a replacement. The thing pretty much stopped working.

This afternoon, the replacement arrived — a Lutec London/LED. Installation was pretty easy (despite the large number of spiders and ants that had made a home in the old lamp) and it surprisingly turned on at dusk despite only have a few hours of late=afternoon sun. The solar panels on this one are arrayed around the top at an angle, so hopefully they will be more effective than the older one. If nothing else, they are a lot cleaner, which is sure to help too.

Repositioning the Swing

For her birthday Evelin got some new chairs for the deck. The Adirondack chairs we've had for years or definitely showing their age, and generally feeling unstable. Unfortunately after the chairs arrived, we quickly found out that their cushions were not weather-resistant. The tags actually say to keep them out of the sun, rain, and other weather ... despite being outdoor furniture. 😠

I tried some weatherproofing spray on them, which helped, but we still thought it best to move the new chairs to a more sheltered location — the front porch. However, this meant relocating the swing that's been here since before we bought the house. It's acutally a pretty comfortable swing, despite having needed a few repairs and bracing over the years. At first we figured we'd just stash it somewhere, but looking at the deck the from the ground I realized (once a shrub was moved) it might work under the deck ... and it does. It's not a bad location at all. I found a decent suspension kit that worked for the location (the springs work pretty well) and it hangs at a nice height. It's surprisingly pleasant.

Kind of visible behind it is the small Trunnell resin lean-to shed that I set up last November for the lawnmower. It's only about 4 feet × 2 feet and doesn't fit much of anything besides the mower, but it works. I'd originaly been looking at ways to close some or all of the underdeck area as a shed. That would have given us more storage space (freeing up room in the basement), but it would have made the swing solution unworkable, so I think the little shed/box was (again) the right solution for us.

Warranties

It's been nearly seven years since the kitchen was remodled. Actually, it's six years, seven months, two weeks, and a day since since the appliances were delivered, which is important because the warranty on the magnetron on the Sharp microwave we installed was seven years. About two weeks ago, the microwave started making a big noise when running and it stopped heating things. After some back and forth with Sharp and a visit from their recommended service technician, a fully covered replacement unit was delivered today. It's the same unit, although the model number (R-1214-TY) is slightly different. It's a wall-mounted, under-cabinet model and thankfully the same mounting plate and rig worked so it was just a matter of unplugging, taking out a few screws and then swapping out the unit before putting the screws back in. The kids are glad to be able to quickly make oatmeal for breakfast again ... and (just as they did seven years ago) they're happy to have a big box to play in.

A Christmas Present

For Christmas this year, Celeste brightened the upstairs bathroom with a bit of art. A while ago, Evelin mentioned the idea of painting the inside of the bathroom door with a pattern similar to the one she had painted on her phone case; during Christmas break (and with some parent-supplied materials) she took up the challenge.

We refreshed the bathroom a few years ago (and I just replaced the sink hardware), but it's still defined by the original 1940 mint tiles. Despite this, using dark blue paint (Ralph Lauren Seven Seas) and Marimekko Blue Pieni Unikko shower curtain gives the space a nicer look. Celeste drew upon the Pieni Unikko pattern for her painting, working in a few similar flowers and added in a few shades of purple. Since she used acrylic paints, we figured things needed to be sealed, so two coats of varnish were added giving it a nice gloss.

Next up, I just ordered a cabinet bar pull (Hardware Resources Naples 624PC) that will replace the old towel bar that broke a while ago. The bar pull won't project out as far as a typical towel bar (about 1½ inches instead of 2¾ to 3 inches), letting us open the door fully. Mounting it will be a little difficult — I figure I'll have to sink the screws on the outside of the door, putty over them, and then repaint that side of things — but it should work well.

Today's Weather Forecast ...

Not really a change to the house, but I got an Ambient Weather WS-2902C personal weather station for Christmas. One 10-foot pole later and it's up and running in the backyard keeping track of wind and rain and (this time of year) cold. The house, retaining wall, and tree will have an impact on wind speed and direction measurements, but the temperatures, UV, and rain readings should be pretty accurate ... and most importantly, the signal is received strongly in the house. I might try adding an extension pole to get the sensor array up two or three more feet (it's currently about 7.4 feet above ground), but all in all the data looks good.