Thursday, October 13, 2005
Turn up the heat
So last night we skipped the gas fireplace because Nick ended up with a slugger headache just from the short time we had it on. So he turned on the heat, closed all the vents except downstairs and in the bedroom. Within minutes the House smelled like the basement. Why we keep the catbox next to the heater I do not know. So this weekend will be a change the filter, clean out the vents and move the cat's litter box
The cat must be "missing" the box or something. That never happened before and he's like 12 yrs old or something. Maybe he's just getting old. He does seem to not keep his coat up like before. We have to brush him to keep the tufts at bay.
So now we are still thinking about - how can we best and least expensively convert the propane non-vented fireplace to a wood burning fireplace. My new question is how will it affect the home value.
WE know that home values increase with the addition of a fireplace, but what is the relative difference in value between a gas fireplace and a wood burning one. If I spend $4k on a wood fireplace, when the gas would be more desireable should we decide to sell our home I would not be happy. I'd rather get a hot tub.
Hot Tub is a whole other subject.
All this stuff has to follow paying out college loans anyway. We still have 3 more years of taking them out, with one of the years taking two out. Thats 4 more loans to take in the next 3 years while we pay the 4 years back from kid #1.
The cat must be "missing" the box or something. That never happened before and he's like 12 yrs old or something. Maybe he's just getting old. He does seem to not keep his coat up like before. We have to brush him to keep the tufts at bay.
So now we are still thinking about - how can we best and least expensively convert the propane non-vented fireplace to a wood burning fireplace. My new question is how will it affect the home value.
WE know that home values increase with the addition of a fireplace, but what is the relative difference in value between a gas fireplace and a wood burning one. If I spend $4k on a wood fireplace, when the gas would be more desireable should we decide to sell our home I would not be happy. I'd rather get a hot tub.
Hot Tub is a whole other subject.
All this stuff has to follow paying out college loans anyway. We still have 3 more years of taking them out, with one of the years taking two out. Thats 4 more loans to take in the next 3 years while we pay the 4 years back from kid #1.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Update on Wood and Septic
Ah, I got Nick to light the propane fireplace last night. It was so warm and nice, but smelly and the heat went straight to the ceiling.
Its such a pain because we have to turn on/off the gas valve in the basement. It should be ok to leave on all the time, but if we do, the house smells like propane. So we keep it off until we use it.
We had it on for about an hour and it nicely took the chill out of the whole family room and kitchen area from about the waist up - to the ceiling.
Thinking about putting in a wood stove, I realized we really are fire bugs and like to tend the fire and see it, so a wood stove would just be silly and block out the view. Now we're thinking about converting the whole gas thing over to a true wood burning fireplace. Wonder what that will cost.
Meanwhile, down in the basement the breaker for the septic pump keeps tripping. We don't have high level, so what's up? We did get 9 inches of rain over the weekend and haven't seeen the sun since, with 2 more inches supposedly over last night into this afternoon.
So - call in the septic guy I guess. Cha-Ching again. THis is giving me panicked reminders of the time that the well pump got struck by lightning and it cost us 4 days without water and $4,000 to replace - Happy Father's day that was.
The joys of living in the country.
I'll write more about that another time, because there truly are some balancing joys.
Its such a pain because we have to turn on/off the gas valve in the basement. It should be ok to leave on all the time, but if we do, the house smells like propane. So we keep it off until we use it.
We had it on for about an hour and it nicely took the chill out of the whole family room and kitchen area from about the waist up - to the ceiling.
Thinking about putting in a wood stove, I realized we really are fire bugs and like to tend the fire and see it, so a wood stove would just be silly and block out the view. Now we're thinking about converting the whole gas thing over to a true wood burning fireplace. Wonder what that will cost.
Meanwhile, down in the basement the breaker for the septic pump keeps tripping. We don't have high level, so what's up? We did get 9 inches of rain over the weekend and haven't seeen the sun since, with 2 more inches supposedly over last night into this afternoon.
So - call in the septic guy I guess. Cha-Ching again. THis is giving me panicked reminders of the time that the well pump got struck by lightning and it cost us 4 days without water and $4,000 to replace - Happy Father's day that was.
The joys of living in the country.
I'll write more about that another time, because there truly are some balancing joys.
