In addition to the exterior changes we're making, we've updated some interior stuff. Like I re-did the cabana for guests (see the cabana posts from July for pictures.)
David, back in May, bought a new gas stove for our kitchen from Sears. So the evening after my rotten experience with the exterior door I told David I would cook dinner. I was frying up the Chinese tofu dish that Susan Duncan taught me to make. I had my back turned to the stove as I was chopping vegetables for stir-fry. Suddenly I hear a beeping alarm coming from the stove. I turned around to see that the plastic keypad on the stove had melted (!) and a flashing F11 sign was telling me to do something.
I turned everything off, but the alarm wouldn't quit sounding. I had to call David to help me get the stove entirely unplugged to make it stop beeping.
When I called Sears they blamed me for this problem; but the "diagnostician" will be here on Monday am to see how much it will cost to fix. In the meantime, David and I are using the Cabana stove top for making coffee and food; but we have no oven. And that's a shame, since today is David's 65th birthday and I wanted to make him a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Changing an Exterior Door
David and I have been slowly updating some stuff around the exterior of our house this year, in an effort to make sure all is secure, no water leaking in, etc. We re-stuccoed and painted the Cabana, which made our out-building (and guest quarters!) safe, sound and comfy!
We have been trying to replace an exterior door on the side of our house for several months now. I decided to not do this ourselves, but hire a professional carpenter to help out. We called in August. Made an appointment for September. Went to see about ordering a new door and the first roadblock was apparent: Our exterior door is not a standard size, so the door had to be manufactured specially for the job.
This last week, some two months after ordering the door, our carpenter called to say it was in. I left work in a rush and came home to meet the carpenter. We excitedly ripped off the south side of the house, in preparation of the new door. The new door was a beauty: a nicely made exterior door with tempered low-e glass in a rectangle down the middle, brass hinges and a sturdy threshold that would help keep the inside warm and the spiders outside.
So we prepared to put in the door, but something was wrong. It was too narrow (by about 3 inches) and too tall (by about 2 inches). This wasn't good. The carpenter looked at the paperwork and we ordered the correct dimensions; the manufacturer, for some unknown reason, manufactured a door to the wrong dimensions.
We can't go and buy a door that fits. So we called another manufacturer, played the lottery to see if another manufacturer could use a tape measure, and it will be another month to get the new door.
The WORST part was putting the old door back up, and tacking up all the rotten old trim again. It looks worse than before; I joked with the carpenter that he may want to pay me to be quiet that he put that old door back on (it looks so awful). He wasn't amused.
It's now raining, cold, and the wind is whipping underneath the door. Let's not talk about the spider traffic.
We have been trying to replace an exterior door on the side of our house for several months now. I decided to not do this ourselves, but hire a professional carpenter to help out. We called in August. Made an appointment for September. Went to see about ordering a new door and the first roadblock was apparent: Our exterior door is not a standard size, so the door had to be manufactured specially for the job.
This last week, some two months after ordering the door, our carpenter called to say it was in. I left work in a rush and came home to meet the carpenter. We excitedly ripped off the south side of the house, in preparation of the new door. The new door was a beauty: a nicely made exterior door with tempered low-e glass in a rectangle down the middle, brass hinges and a sturdy threshold that would help keep the inside warm and the spiders outside.
So we prepared to put in the door, but something was wrong. It was too narrow (by about 3 inches) and too tall (by about 2 inches). This wasn't good. The carpenter looked at the paperwork and we ordered the correct dimensions; the manufacturer, for some unknown reason, manufactured a door to the wrong dimensions.
We can't go and buy a door that fits. So we called another manufacturer, played the lottery to see if another manufacturer could use a tape measure, and it will be another month to get the new door.
The WORST part was putting the old door back up, and tacking up all the rotten old trim again. It looks worse than before; I joked with the carpenter that he may want to pay me to be quiet that he put that old door back on (it looks so awful). He wasn't amused.
It's now raining, cold, and the wind is whipping underneath the door. Let's not talk about the spider traffic.
Lights Out, Updated
Although I seem to think it's a good idea to turn off lights, the City of Portland administration does not. I received this e-mail from an aide to Mayor Tom Potter:
All I can to this response is: You couldn't turn off one light for one hour on one day of your life to make a point? Evidently, the city administration isn't ready to make any points. That's too bad.
This sounds like something that the Energy Trust of Bureau of Sustainable Development (BSD) might consider. That said, BSD is hesitant to talk about darken the west coast. Darken implies the negative side of conservation...using less at the expense of standard of living. Remember Jimmy Carter and his sweater in a cold room! BSD prefers efficiency and that is the recent direction of national and regional programs, for example, the "change a light, change the world" program which encourages use of CFLs.
All I can to this response is: You couldn't turn off one light for one hour on one day of your life to make a point? Evidently, the city administration isn't ready to make any points. That's too bad.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)