It’s been a bad week! I have been working hard to get the upstairs remodeling completed. I finished all repairs and got the guest room, hall, and two closets painted. All I need to complete these areas is to put baseboards in the hall and closets and of course, replace the carpet.
Then on Friday morning I discovered that the paint in the guest bedroom was cracking at the wall and ceiling joints. I painted them again. They cracked again. Not as bad, but cracked. After much guessing and head scratching I made a trip to Lowes and hung around the paint section until I found a “real” painter. He advised me that the caulking had not cured properly before I painted. In addition, I had done extensive mud work on the walls and he explained that in this cold weather it takes several days for the mud to dry and several more for the caulk to dry. He went on to say that in the winter he always puts two to three space heaters in the room and waits a week or more before he paints. So no problem, he says, wait until the weather is 65 degrees for a couple of days and then sand the cracks and repaint. Crap! But what can a guy do.
I bought a space heater before leaving Lowes and put it in the room. I thought I would try to help the heat pump get the job done before next May. Late Saturday afternoon I painted one of the corners and waited. Sunday morning there were still a few cracks. So I will now wait for another few days while I do the baseboards and paint the doors. However I don't think the weather is going to cooperate. For the next week we are expecting no higher temps then the mid 40’s with lows in low 20’s. Therefore, it may be a while before I can get the carpet in and the room completed.
The space heater was a big help. Not for curing the caulking but for keeping us from freezing. Early Sunday morning we noticed that the downstairs heat pump was not running. The furnace was blowing air but the outside compressor was not running. We have had some problems with this unit all year. So after kicking it and scratching my head a bit I took a look at the circuit breaker. Yep, it was off. So I turned it on. Heard the compressor kick on and started to go eat breakfast. Bam, the breaker kicks off. Flip it on, Bam it flips off. Okay, I’m learning. I make sure it is turned off. Don’t want to burn down the house. Looks like the compressor is locked up and is overloading the circuit. So….no heat downstairs. Oh yeah. The space heater is doing a fine job.
I’ll call the heating guys tomorrow. Oops! There goes another $5k.
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4 comments:
I remember you telling me back in June '98 that we were going to freeze our ass of "this winter". Well I guess the winter has arrived. If the space heater doesn't work we can always snuggle.
Could be a weak circuit breaker. How old is it?
Breaker is fine. Compressor fried. Some off brand called Broadmoor or something like that. It was installed in '99. Cheap and under powered. The man is pricing out the cost of a new Trane with gas backup. Of course the works inside must be replaced, upgraded (made larger) to properly distribute the heat/AC. I have had good reports on the man (Junior Collins) from trusted sources. Bente and I both liked the way he went about checking out the system. And to add to my troubles....the breaks went out on my truck this morning! I saw a beautiful Blue Bird this morning. Just outside our living room window. I don't think it was one of the "Happiness" ones. If I see it again I'm going get the shotgun!
,,,breaks....brakes....Where the hell is that Bluebird!
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