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Posts Tagged House

Sprucing Up the Old Homestead

Jul 30

Posted by Matt Wigdahl in Family | No Comments

We’ve had some changes around here lately.  A big storm came through a couple of weeks ago and took off another chunk of our tree, so we had to give up and have it removed.  It was very sad; that tree was really well-placed and looked great, and the garden looks much poorer for its absence.

Also, it’s time to repaint the house!  We got a recommendation for a good crew of painters and they just started work on the house a day or so ago.  So far they’re doing great work, and although the paint color Robin and I chose is not wildly different than what we had before, it’s different enough that we like it much better.  It’s a warmer beige with more reddish tones than the greenish-leaning one we had before.  We’re also going to a dark brown for the door and accents rather than black, and a nice light trim color.

Here are some photos of the havok going on in our yard:

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Duct Cleaning — A Cautionary Tale

Jun 4

Posted by Matt Wigdahl in Family | 1 Comment

Unless you like trying to get your duct cleaning company to pay for a blown furnace circuit board, make sure you keep your condensate line clear and check it often after you get your ducts cleaned.

We had our ducts cleaned at the end of April, which they do by cutting holes in the ducts near the plenum chamber and running a vacuum to pull everything from the vents back to those access ports.  What they are supposed to do is to put an inflatable pillow behind the access port so dust and debris doesn’t get pulled back into the chamber and settle on the A-coil.

Well, these guys didn’t do that.  We had about a month of cool weather following the cleaning where we didn’t need to run the air conditioner, so it just sat there until the first hot day.  In the morning, the air was blowing nice and cold, but by afternoon it was just blowing warm air through the ducts.  When I got a service technician in, he noticed a thick slurry of dust and debris plugging the condensate line.  The water had overflowed and dripped throughout the furnace, shorting out the control board and leaving a nice big black scorch mark.

It was a $600 repair, and the duct cleaning itself was around $650.  I’m currently working with the duct cleaning company to get reimbursed for the repair — I don’t think they’re going to see much profit out of this particular job.

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