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So ... the roof. When we bought this house in 2000, we knew a new roof (and siding and gutters and windows) were going to be needed soon. The windows we put off, but during our first year we went ahead with the roof and probably made some mistakes. We went with conventional asphalt shingles, seamless gutters, and a Dutch-lap vinyl siding. All in all, it held up okay. Moss has taken root on the north side of the house and the 5-inch gutters were always too small. Plus, squirrels.

For the new roof, we're keeping most things the same, but better. We've had an issue in recent years of heavy rain overflowing the gutters and sheeting down the house. It's a hip roof, so the water flows down all four sides to the gutters. There are downspouts at each corner, but only on the north and south sides of the house; water has to turn a corner to come down to the ground (or go over the edge of the gutter). I added an additional downspout on the east side of the house, which helped some, but even when the gutters are freshly cleaned, they're too small to handle all the water from some of the storms we've been getting. Plus with all the overhanging oaks leaves, oak silks, acorns, etc., are a year-round issue.

We flirted with the idea of adding an 8-inch (or so) overhang to the house to help get the water away from the wall, but when we found out that would a few months of having formal plans drawn up and getting permits, we opted for a simpler solution that adds a new band of fascia caping around the edge of the roof and putting a new J-channel for the siding below that. This — along with 6-inch gutters, 3×4 downspouts, and a Shur Flo gutter cap system — should help channel the water flowing off the roof down to the ground.

Shingles have improved over the past two decades, too. We opted for Atlas Pinnacle Pristine architectural shingles in "heatherstone" (basically a grey with some variation in shades) with a Summit 60 synthetic underlayment under most of the roof and WeatherMaster Ice & Water 200 granular underlayment around the eaves. Supposedly the Atlas singles are designed to help reduce moss growth.

One unexpected change was the rain barrel. The RainReserve diverter we installed whenever the barrel was first installed was designed to fit a 2×3 downspout. The roofing guys planned to fit an adaptor in line to reduce the 3×4 downspout to fit the 2×3 join with the diverter, but I thought it would be better to just get a new diverter. At first, I thought we'd need to go with a different type of diverter but it turns out in 2011 the RainReserve diverters were reëngineered to work with 3×4 downspouts ... so a replacement was ordered.

Work is set to begin this week...

Office Update

The front porch is 90% (or so) complete. We're pausing on some of the finishing work because some bits of the repair will be handled when the gutters and shingles are torn off for the reroofing. (Basically, we discovered more extensive damage to the wood at the squirrels' and racoons' entry point, and replacing that makes more sense to handle as part of the reroofing.)

We haven't figured out where we'll put back up the house numbers, and we are waiting for new brackets to see if the iron handrails can be more stable (if not, we'll probably have the carpenter make new wood handrails for the steps up to the porch). Evelin also is thinking about adding a façade-beam across the front to give the look of an arch across the front from the street. It would mimic some of the Craftsman houses on the block as well as the arch inside between the living and dining rooms.

But the posts and some trim have been replaced, along with a few other touchups. Everything's been painted, and since an engineered wood product and pressure treated beams were used, hopefully things will stay looking nicer and stronger for a long, long time. We also got a much nicer, free-standing gate to keep Lucy dog contained.

As for the roofing work, the contract's been signed and we're just waiting to hear with the weather and their schedule align to get the work done. (And, yes, the siding needs to be replaced too or at least cleaned well. The later will probably happen first, but the former is in the cards too. The shutters too.)

The Office Remodel

COVID changed a lot, including Evelin's job going all virtual. Even before the pandemic, Evelin enjoyed working on the front porch on her telecommute days. Now, she's out there more often than not in her open-air office. But not this week.

For years we've had trouble keeping squirrels out of the porch roof, but despite our best (admittedly not effective) efforts, the accumulation of squirrel damage and water damage from where they kept reopening an access point had noticeably rotted some of the wood. Other parts of the porch were also looking rough — both things like needing paint and other areas where wood needed replacing.

Back in 2009, we had work done to replace the decking and railings. As part of that, the posts were also partially replaced, but it turns out that job was more a patch than a longer-lasting repair.

So here's the situation as of Monday. The corner posts were completely removed; well, sort of. There weren't actual posts there, just boxes built from untreated wood. It's no surprise we had continuing problems with rot. Luke (the carpenter) braced everything and demo'd the posts and is replacing them with 8×8 posts that will be clad with weather-resistant material. The one on the right had the added complication of acting as the channel for the porch light's wiring, but he figured it out.

The old railings will be put back in place (those were built new in 2009 and mimic some other porch railings in the neighborhood and still look decent and work well. We don't know yet about the iron handrails flanking the stairs. If there's a way to make them more stable/sturdy, we'll probably keep them, but we may end up having new, wooden ones built for it. Oh, and there's still the issue of the rotten wood at the upper left (partially visible in the image). That's being cut out and replaced.

So what about the squirrels? Luke isn't doing anything about their access point because we're getting the roof replaced. Just waiting on word as to whether or not a permit will be required before we sign the contract.

I'll put more details once things are set, but the plan is to fully reshingle and do something to extend the eaves a bit so that the house has a little overhang. With some of the more torrential rain we've had over the past few years (<sarcasm>thanks, climate change!</sarcasm>), we've had issues with the gutters being overwhelmed, rain sheeting down the house and getting into the basement. Tweaking the roofline (along with higher-capacity gutters and gutter guards) should address the issue. We'll also add in a better way of venting thorough the roof the bathroom exhaust fan among a few other improvements.

More to come.

Sidewalk Games

Back in 2021, when my parents visited after COVID restrictions loosened, my father and Evelin had a conversation about the deck. He's a firm believer in power washing, and we'd been letting the deck weather naturally. I wasn't there for it, but shortly after the 'rents returned to Louisiana, an Amazon driver dropped off a Kärcher K1700 power washer (along with the 11-inch surface cleaner attachment).

So the deck was cleaned, along with the front porch and stairs and more.

Celeste and Evelin quickly had the idea of using the pressure washer to add some fun to the sidewalk in the form of a hopscotch grid.^* It was great seeing kids of all ages stop on their way to/from school to hop through the course, but dirt and grime build up and the 2021 hopscotch grid was pretty faded.

So today, they were back at it. Replacing the hopscotch grid and adding more elements of whimsy: sasquatch footprints, a sea monster, various stars and squiggles.

  

^* I'm not sure if that's the best word. Is it a grid? a course? a field? a board?

The Passage of Time

All in all, a decade shouldn't be too long in the lifetime of an appliance. At least, it seems like it shouldn't be. Back in 2014 when we ordered all the new appliances for the kitchen, I wouldn't have imagined that less than a decade later we'd be on our second microwave, the ice-maker would go kaput on the fridge, and the dishwasher would have to have its door springs replaced.

(Looks like I never blogged about the fridge: Basically the wiring harness goes through a pinch point by the hinge at the bottom of the freezer door. The repair guy said there was no official repair, but he did find a number of people with the same problem in his research. He tried splicing things together and it did work ... for about a week. We use silicone ice cube trays now. The dishwasher fix was pretty easy and handled as a recall; not a big deal at all, but still a pain in the butt. I also had to replace the rinse-aid door cover because the seal on it degraded.)

Now it's the oven's turn. A while back we noticed the top oven's thermostat was getting a bit inconsistent. Under 350°F it wouldn't only warm up to about 275°F. Above 350°F and it would be better, but not really accurate until around 430°F. A pain, but we worked around it mostly by using the bottom oven. This weekend, we ran a self-cleaning cycle on the bottom oven and then when C wanted to bake a cake last night discovered that it no longer was preheating.

We tried a few different modes and I checked to make sure it wasn't in Sabbath mode. I tried cutting power to reset things (that works for computers, right?). Nothing was working. So I called back in the repair guy. We'll see what he things on Thursday.

Update

So, a fairly simple fix. The regulator that determined when to open up the gas line for each oven had gone bad. Once he secured the parts, Shem had things working well pretty quickly (and we now have to unlearn the little adjustments we'd been making to compensate). He also noted that the spark module, which ignites the burners on the cooktop, seemed to be not working consistently for all five burners. Again, we have a workaround (good-ole red-top matches), but it looks like a fairly straightforward repair so I'll probably swap that out at some point.

Smart Home

An interesting article in The New York Times this morning talks about problems some home buyers have had with Internet of Things devices installed by previous owners ("Unwanted Connection: Who Has Control of Your Smart Home?"). While there is some guidance out there, it isn't typically part of the closing process to make sure control of such devices is transferred to a new owner at closing.

Overall, I like the IoT and using wi-fi to control things in the house. They're easier to set up and manage than traditional timers for lights, and you can check-in on things while away. Most of what we have is not hardwired in and will likely leave with us, but there are a few things that will stay. Those are noted here in the interest of not forgetting something ... (this list will be updated as necessary)

• Nest thermostat
• Nest Protect smoke detectors (not hardwired, but still) on each floor
• Kasa wi-fi light switch in the basement (for the light above the back door)

The portable devices include multiple wi-fi enabled plugs (not hardwired), the string lights under the deck, the leak detectors in the basement and kitchen, color-changing LEDs in Q's room, and several Alexa-enabled devices (Dot, Echo, Glow, ...). And then there's the SmartDry device that made our "dumb" dryer smart ... at least until the company decided to end support, effectively bricking it.

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.