House Progress, August 2008
I put together a collection of before and after pictures in August to show (and to remind myself of) progress on the house.
Last spring we had two wells put in the backyard with a line into the basement. One well serves as supply for our ground source heat pump. The other serves a disposal for the water. The heat pump was installed in August, providing much anticipated cool air. For those of you not familiar with ground source heat pumps here's the skinny: During the summer, the heat pump tranfers heat from the air in our house into water which came from the water table and is returned a few degrees wamer. During the winter, the heat pump takes heat from the water (a constant 55 degrees) and tranfers it to the air in our house. The water is returned to the ground slightly colder than it came in. Pretty nifty and very efficient. Install one now and you, too, can qualify for a federal tax credit!
Carpet removal in the living room.
A painted dining room ceiling.
Sam paints "harvester" in the stairwell.
This wall in the basement isn't actually finished, but it's primed. 
Bye bye ZZ Top. Hello workshop clutter.
Last spring we had two wells put in the backyard with a line into the basement. One well serves as supply for our ground source heat pump. The other serves a disposal for the water. The heat pump was installed in August, providing much anticipated cool air. For those of you not familiar with ground source heat pumps here's the skinny: During the summer, the heat pump tranfers heat from the air in our house into water which came from the water table and is returned a few degrees wamer. During the winter, the heat pump takes heat from the water (a constant 55 degrees) and tranfers it to the air in our house. The water is returned to the ground slightly colder than it came in. Pretty nifty and very efficient. Install one now and you, too, can qualify for a federal tax credit!
Carpet removal in the living room.
A painted dining room ceiling.
Sam paints "harvester" in the stairwell.
This wall in the basement isn't actually finished, but it's primed. The windows are cleaned, painted, and working.
Bye bye ZZ Top. Hello workshop clutter. In the "before" photo you can see the holes in the walls where we removed ductwork.
Eliana helps whitewash another ZZ Top tribute.
Sam spent all weekend sawing a hole through one of our chimneys -- a layer of brick and a ceramic liner. This chimney used to service the coal-then-gas furnace. Now that we're using the heat pump we turned this shaft into an air return for the second floor. He accessed the chimney through a small cupboard above the linen closet.
Sam stripping trim from the dining room windows.
Our gutters, straight from the sheet metal fabricator. We ripped off the gutters on the porch level of the house (120 feet) and had these fabricated to match the original look. In order to remove the original gutters we lifted the first layer of shingles. We learned our lesson on this level -- for the second level (180 feet) we designed an insert that would fit inside the existing shell. We were so grateful not to deal with replacing tar paper and shingles, or with painting the gutter. I've never been such a weather hawk as I was during the months of gutter work -- constantly checking to see when rain was expected. This is one project we hope we did right the first time. Our enthusiasm for a repeat performance is low.
Eliana helps whitewash another ZZ Top tribute.
Sam spent all weekend sawing a hole through one of our chimneys -- a layer of brick and a ceramic liner. This chimney used to service the coal-then-gas furnace. Now that we're using the heat pump we turned this shaft into an air return for the second floor. He accessed the chimney through a small cupboard above the linen closet.
Sam stripping trim from the dining room windows.
Our gutters, straight from the sheet metal fabricator. We ripped off the gutters on the porch level of the house (120 feet) and had these fabricated to match the original look. In order to remove the original gutters we lifted the first layer of shingles. We learned our lesson on this level -- for the second level (180 feet) we designed an insert that would fit inside the existing shell. We were so grateful not to deal with replacing tar paper and shingles, or with painting the gutter. I've never been such a weather hawk as I was during the months of gutter work -- constantly checking to see when rain was expected. This is one project we hope we did right the first time. Our enthusiasm for a repeat performance is low.posted by Sackett Family | 10:44 AM
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Thomas Stover-Watts and Mirjam spent a day with us enroute from New Zealand to Germany. It was lovely to meet Mirjam and to catch up on the news from Down Under.
