Out with the "old"

Saying goodbye to our "old"
refrigerator.

 I'm old, but not quite ready to head "out". My age does give me a longer perspective on what else is old, and what is not. Our refrigerator, for example, is not old, but unfortunately, it headed out. Turns out, refrigerators do not last anywhere near as long as they used to. We have a freezer in the basement, that we bought 30 years ago, and it just keeps going. Our original refrigerator, that we bought when we moved back to Binghamton, was running like a champ when we gave it away, 7 years ago. It's replacement, quit a couple weeks ago. This surprised me, an old guy, that expected major appliances to last for decades. Turns out, 7 years is about average for modern refrigerators and freezers, according to a couple repairmen, and 3 appliance salespersons. The explanation, according to them, is that in an effort to make these types of appliances more environmentally friendly, they have become less durable. It seems like you are defeating the purpose, if the machines that are better for the environment last less of a third of the time, than the older machines that they replace. It's expensive too. Have you checked the prices of refrigerators lately? Plus, they can be hard to get now as we still have a supply side covid hangover. 

A window worth saving.

Renovations and repairs continue at the Morford estate. Two major projects currently underway are the renovation of the den, and the bigger project is the re-glazing of every window in the house. There are 24 windows in our home, not counting the basement. I have repaired and glazed 5 so far, and they were easier ones. I am now working on the diamond pattern windows, which are truly the ones were saving, and are the most difficult to glaze. The glaze is the putty like sealant between the glass and the window frame. Each diamond pattern window takes one tube of glazing, 3 Yuenglings, a truckload of patience. It is a good project to have going in the background since I can dive into it when I get a little free time. I'm getting better at the glazing now, so its time to tackle these difficult windows. The repair also includes repair and painting of the sills and frame. I also replace the old ropes that go the the counterweights hidden behind the frame. I will give credit to my late father in law Gene for showing me how to do this. The old cotton ropes rot and eventually break leaving you to prop open the window to get some air in the house.

My glazing is improving.

The den is stuck where all our renovations get stuck, and that's with paint color. We really struggle picking a color, with Cindy being pickier than me. We want something both bold and rich, but not overwhelming. Since I fixed the ceiling, and for now we are going with a simple white, not tiles, it allows us to go a bit more striking on the walls. I'm leaning toward a green, perhaps a spring green, but its hard to find one that's not either too bright, or too dark. the sweet spot is narrow on this.

In other news...Cindy pointed out to me that I never repaired and painted the heating grate in the kitchen. That turned into a bit more than I expected as removing the faceplate allowed the duct work to fall into the basement. That faceplate was the holding the duct in place. Oof. I went with a dark steel paint that matched our old refrigerator (ha ha) and it came out nice. We special ordered our new refrigerator to match it, further delaying the delivery. 

We are researching whole house AC. I'm still a bit undecided on this as the number of hot summer days around here is kind of limited, and I am a "windows open" kind of guy. Still, we must have a window AC in our bedroom for use on several nights each year. I am getting tired of lugging that thing into and out of the window each year. Another issue is the cost. Estimates are coming in at least 50% higher than I expected, but by all accounts we will see a corresponding increase in the value of our house. We'll see.

It's an old house

Before picture of the grate
 from the "bar".  A cream color
 that yellowed to a light
 mustard.

Our house was built in 1915 and it shows it's age. This is both good and bad. It's good in that it's a well built home, heavily constructed. True 2 x 6 rafters, 16 inches on center, with a steep pitch and 1 x 6 sheeting. It would support a tank. There are one foot thick block construction that make up the exterior walls give us a strong and silent home, almost like sitting inside a bank vault. Beautiful hardwood floors throughout, solid plaster on lathe walls. But there is a downside as well, old windows that are beautiful, but now showing their age so a major project looms. Galvanized steel plumbing that has been haphazardly and partially updated with copper and PEX. The galvanized pipe that comes in from the street is no doubt corroded and limiting our flow and pressure. That would be an expensive fix. An old octopus heating system in the basement that has an updated burner, but takes up too much room and runs too much despite my miserly adjustment of the thermostat.  Of course we still love the place, and our work is really starting to make a difference.

Finished product. Photo by Cindy

Our peeling Easter Bunny got a fresh coat too. 

An example of the myriad of jobs are the heating grates throughout the house. They are just plain ugly. I did the bathroom grate when I redid that room, and just finished bar grates, both the heat and cold air return and they came our very nice. The process begins with cleaning, then removing the loose paint, I do this by using a wire brush attachment on my old electric drill. Then we pick a spray paint color and apply multiple coats. The trick with spray paints it not overdoing it, with multiple light coats much better than one heavy, dripping coat. Not a good job for an impatient person. The bathroom grate is a high gloss white, the half bath a gloss black, and we went with a copper color for the bar, which came out very nice.

Then there's the plumbing. Like I mentioned above, it's a mishmash of different types of pipe, which unfortunately included galvanized steel. Last summer I replaced a section that went to the spigot on the  north side of the house. The shut off on the line had been leaking since we moved in. I managed this by cutting off the connection to the copper and rerouting it with PEX pipe, which is a D.I.Y. plumbers best friend. PEX pipe uses solder-less connections to copper and other PEX, and is easy to work with.

The culprit. I added the white
 tape to show the plumber
 the leaky part. 

Then just yesterday there was a more serious problem. After my morning shower I took a load of wash down to the basement and saw water on the floor, then noticed water spurting out of a pipe near the water meter. Luckily it must have just happened. It looked like the galvanized pipe had split. I needed to get into the office so that provided me the perfect excuse to not mess with it. I shut off the water to the house, gave Cindy my regrets and good byes and abandoned the mess. From work, I called the plumber and they showed up before 11 am. Turned out to be a bad gasket in the fitting between the pipe and the water meter, and something I probably could have fixed, but I was happy to let a professional deal with it.

We love our house, our home, and completely understand what we have. It sure has given me fodder for the blog, and will for years ahead. For example, every single window needs to be removed, re-glazed, and repaired. Every single window sash cord needs to be replaced. I hope to begin to tackle that this year, starting in the bar. Don't worry, I'll keep you updated.