Out with the Old

A few days ago, the very last mechanical thing from our old house got replaced. Here is the 20 year old oil furnace leaving the premises.

An interesting fact is that the man removing it, heating specialist Keith Huston, remembered helping to install it when he was a new apprentice in Bear River over 20 years ago.

Larry and I have spent lots of time talking about heating systems with anyone who would listen. That actually means everyone in Bear River, because heating a house is one of the biggest expenses people have and everyone is trying to cut down on costs. As well, lots of people are anticipating the end of ‘affordable’ oil within 10 years and currently the interest in alternative heat sources is high.

Step one: siphon off the oil out of the tank that is going to be moved downstairs.

In the beginning of this project, we were keen on getting a heat pump or using solar energy. Unfortunately, the ‘greener’ methods of home heating are still way more costly for the average homeowner, so we went with a high-efficiency combination oil and wood furnace instead.

These shiny shapes will become new ductwork thanks to the sculptural talent of Keith Huston, our heating specialist.

It was good to deal with Keith because he had practical ideas such as moving the furnace to a more central location in the basement in order to place the heat source below the heart of the house. He also made new shiny ductwork and installed it in a more effective way.

It warmed me seeing Keith's truck.

You may remember that  when we first moved to Bear River our pipes froze at the house we were staying in. We were innocent babes in the woods then and Keith came to our rescue right away. If all this sounds a bit like hero worship, it is! Both Larry and I felt a real sense of relief and a feeling of completion when Keith was finished. Not only was he very professional and skilled, this job marked our house’s last big mechanical change after the electricity, the plumbing, the water pump, the compressor, the septic field, the new chimney, and the wood stoves.

The grey tank is moving to the the basement, the red one to the dump.

There are constantly changing rules about where and how oil tanks are housed and how many years you can use them.  Our tank has 8 more years in her and she was moved to the basement. Keith’s apprentice shoveled a trench into the hard, compacted dirt floor to bury the orange and black hose that will feed the furnace from the oil tank at the other end of the basement.

I opened the wood burning part so that you can see it! The oil goes through the bottom part. (I think?)

Larry and I just stood and stared at the flames like we had never seen fire before. Like I said, it was a very significant moment in the evolution of this house.

The heating guys even repainted the tank!

The basement was looking so spiffy what with shiny ductwork everywhere and freshly painted oil tank with beautifully contrasting orange-red piping. (the extra coil is code – in case the tank falls over so that the oil line won’t sever.) You know how one thing leads to another? Suddenly I noticed all the cobwebs, the plaster bits, the dusty mason jars and other stuff down there and I actually vaccumed the damp, cement floor as well as the ceiling beams. I felt bad for the electrician who had attached wiring to the beams and likely dodged spiders and who-knows-what.

Even the electrician is a pattern maker.

The yard has become somewhat of a junk yard what with lumber and old furnace ductwork and fallen oak tree bits, but it’s small stuff compared with the ordeal of putting in a new heating system.

I'm hoping this will be the END of major garbage!

Now we have an almost-empty entryway without 2 oil tanks. It’s looking to me like it needs a coat of paint and a couple of storm windows cut into the walls. Except, first Larry has to insulate and drywall the garage for a studio.

The newest old space.

We’re almost there.

The Best Laid Plans…

Yesterday Larry and I got serious. We went to the studio and spent the afternoon mapping out the renovation steps we need to take in the next 5 months. It was pretty exciting because I got to use some of the workplan/ project management skills that I picked up in my last job in Ontario. As well, after looking at 4 different kinds of heating systems, and dragging 3 different heating specialists through the house, we had finally narrowed it down to the one that would be most efficient and cheap to run.

It felt so good to finally be making headway and I proudly looked at my charts and our cost projections and time lines. Life felt orderly.

Larry's Hallowe'en costume imitates life.

I should have had my antenna up when I got back from mailing a letter today. There were several trucks and cars parked in our long driveway. The owners were some Bear River male friends who currently happen to be involved with renovating their own homes. When I stepped inside I could hear their muffled voices coming through the floor. They were all in the basement with Larry and it sounded like a wonderful social event. Now I know this will sound sexist and perhaps it is, but there is something about men and their fascination with basements that I will never understand. Most men, upon visiting us here will make a b-line to the basement and most women will skip it entirely. I really believe this behaviour is hardwired genetics from the ancient days when people lived in caves and men had to ensure the group was safe.

Layout for a new kitchen

Anyway, something magical happened down there because when they all came upstairs, Larry’s life and my life had changed. Larry seemed really excited and said

“I’m so glad you’re here Flora because I want you to hear what John has been telling me”.

From his tone, I thought I was going to hear about some government assistance with home heating. I smiled while John described his very thorough research and calculations about the heat pump we were about to order which proved that it would not have the BTU’s necessary to heat an old house like ours, because our house is limited in how insulated it can ever be in comparison to a new build. Then he said that our plan to blow in insulation from the outside would also miss lots of unseen areas and leave cold spots. While all of John’s assessments were well explained and logical and correct, I felt a wave of anxiety in the pit of my stomache. Partly it was due to the thought that we almost squandered our hard-earned money on an expensive, ineffective heat system. Partly it was due to the thought of

“Can we ever actually figure out what the correct thing to do is?” and “How long are we going to be working on this house?”

While I was having an anxiety attack, Larry was feeling euphoric, like a weight was being lifted from him. It’s funny how the identical stimulus can effect 2 people so differently. John’s shock and awe treatment wasn’t over though. Next he told us that we could blow the insulation in from inside the house, we only had to remove one layer of plaster from the lathing first.

This wallpaper took HOURS to remove.

Now this thing about removing plaster from the walls has been a huge source of discussion with every guy who has gone through the house. It’s right up there with going down into the basement. 90% say “remove the old plaster as it will eventually crack and fall down anyway”. We have resisted this so much, that it has become a power struggle. But by the time John mentioned it, we were so mesmerized by his talk, that we found him a knife-cutter and said “show us how that would work.” With hardly any pressure, he cut a rectangle and then tapped it with a hammer and away it crumbled like an oatmeal cookie.

The first plaster cut

After John left, I felt like selling the house and finding an easier project and Larry felt empowered. Why? Because the message that he got out of the experience was:

• the real experts out there are friends who have learned shortcuts and techniques along the way through their own experiences
• it’s possible to do a lot of the work yourself
• when BTU’s and R-values are better understood, it’s way easier to decide on the heating
• it’s possible to have a woodstove without an expensive, brick chimney
• basement friends are there to help you (well, I’m just guessing that one)

So now we are researching cook stoves, wood stoves, direct vented oil furnaces, and dumpsters for old plaster. And I’m trying to look at the bright side. When I revisited the list that Larry and I made yesterday on the blackboard in our studio, there was nothing much on the list that has changed.

The only real difference is that now I have to add a new section to the beginning of the list. Something like:

• remove all plaster from the inside of all exterior walls 
• remove any damaged plaster from all interior walls or ceilings
• rent a humungous dumpster and fill it to the top at least once
• demolish the unusable chimney by tearing down the bricks and throwing them into the chimney as it comes down
• design a cute garden feature to use up the discarded bricks
• permanently lock the door to the basement

Outside is still way more fun

The Bare Uninsulated Truth

Well there are good news day and ‘challenging’ days with our new house. Today we found out the results of our house heating efficiency assessment.  The federal government and the Nova Scotia government have programs called EcoENERGY retrofit  and Nova Scotia Energy Evaluations. They test your house and give recommendations about how to enhance the heating system. You even get some funding to help with improvements.

Out of a possible high rating of 100 points, our dear house rated in at only a measly 4 points.  I think that’s like permanently removing an outer wall to let in winter’s blast. I’m all for open windows year round, but this is ridiculous! The funny part is that the painted shut windows showed no drafts, but the windows that open measured drafts.  

We opened the window which dropped our rating.

The good news is that we can improve that reading quite a lot by insulating the attic and exterior walls.  It’s shocking to think that most of the houses that were built in the Maritimes 100 years ago are uninsulated wooden houses.  The older houses in Ontario also lack insulation, but most are brick. We lived in one of those houses when the kids were little and in the depth of winter our oil furnace was turned up to the max and still it was cold. That was in the 1980’s and our heat was double our rent at the time!

Like many others, we are looking at economical and efficient ways to heat the house and are leaning towards an air to air heat pump called the Acadia that is designed for cold climates. We both feel it’s important to get off of oil dependance fast. Heat pumps pull heat out of the air and require electricity to run their fans. Unfortunately, Nova Scotia’s main electric source still comes from coal-fired plants; but surely that will change and there will be the possibility of a greener source of electricity such as solar or wind.

Stacking some wood for winter

We will supplement the heat pump with a high efficiency wood stove on the main floor. Both of us feel convinced that this will be a first and last chance for us to have such a profound effect on any house and going through this level of renovations is a huge responsibility.

Larry calling in the experts

Larry gets full credit for contacting the specialists. We discuss it all in detail but he is the one who tracks the people down and makes the appointments with them and asks the tough questions.  In spite of lots of warnings from Bear River friends, neither of us really understood the level of project we were taking on.

Waiting for insulation

Right now it feels like we are both auditing a course in house renovations, in accounting systems and in building codes and lots of those kinds of things that I have never really known very much about.

Thank goodness we both enjoy learning and especially when it’s going to result in a place that we can call home sweet home. Even on cold winter days.

Looking to the future

When is a Woodpile like a Needle in a Haystack?

Larry's carefully stacked woodpile

Recently. Larry has been working on a jewelry commission- a beautiful silver and gold ring set with a green stone. While he was out this morning, I decided to photograph it in many different settings; in a flower, on a leaf and in a bowl of water. (Hey, I’m experimenting).

  

Then I glanced over at Larry’s beautifully stacked woodpile and carefully placed the ring on top of his stacked logs. Can you guess where this, or rather the ring, is going?

All the elements were present

Well, let’s just say that it took a tumble and when I carefully removed the top two rows of logs to pick it up, it slid some more and then disappeared. I began to excavate the pile, row by row, which is easier said than done, because stacked wood likes to roll back down onto the ground. At first I flung the pieces to the back of the stacks, but after I had emptied the first row, without success, I began to panic and imagined that the ring had caught in a piece of log that I had hurled.

I was working up a double sweat here….from handling wood and from anticipating the huge disappointment, frustration and annoyance that Larry would be feeling. I had coveted the ring….had I subconsciously ‘lost’ it? Would the ring melt if it landed in the furnace?

We’ll leave me for the time being dismantling the second row of logs as the threatened thunderstorm approaches, both figuratively and metaphorically.

Lately Larry and I are talking to people about heating systems because we want to install an economical and efficient system in our next house. Wood pellets vs. wood vs. geothermal.  We had a little gathering in the studio last week and the two BIG topics were a) heating systems and b) gardening.  

Although Larry and I both grew up with belching coal furnaces and then with converted coal-to-oil furnaces, it is a rare house in rural Nova Scotia that doesn’t have some source of wood heat. The house we are living in has two furnaces; one for oil and one for wood. When the wood furnace drops below the set temperature,  the oil furnace clicks on. It’s a pretty sensible system, but it still depends on electricity to circulate the hot air.

Rob's woodpile

People tell us here that electricity blackouts lasting 3 days are a regular winter occurrence, though we didn’t experience that last winter. That’s why so many people have high efficiency wood stoves in the main room of their houses. Also, wood is currently 1/4 of the cost of oil. I hope you haven’t fallen asleep at all these details, but let’s face it, Shelter is right up there in Mazlow’s heirarchy of human needs.

Don's woodpile

Larry and I have differing views about the perfect heating system and he’s leaning towards a wood pellet stove. According to the literature, you just dump a bag of pellets into the stove every 5 days and it feeds itself and regulates the heat too. To me they look like large rabbit droppings and there’s the noise factor of a continously blowing fan that bothers me.

Larry"s woodpile (yesterday)

Up until this morning, I have thought of wood heat as the ideal system. I think the fragrance of the burning wood, the crackle of the flames, the glowing coals and the colour of the light add up to a true sensual experience. That was before I lost a ring in the stack and spent 1/2 an hour moving wood around. Man, those logs are HEAVY! HARD! …TIRING. After 1/2 an hour, I thought of the many hours Larry has spent stacking wood outside to dry and how many more hours it will require to stack it in the basement to feed the hungry furnace. Why I almost had myself talked back into oil heating, when what did I glimpse on the ground, but a silver flash!

Can you see the silver glint on the ground?

I still had time to take one last photo of Larry’s creation before he got home. And what the heck; I think I’m going to volunteer to help him stack wood in the cellar.

Anniversary Ring, by Larry Knox, Studio Three http://studiothree.wordpress.com