First Steps

 

First steps….Mark has been working on the house next door, doing what he can while waiting for contractors to come in, replace parts of the ceiling and wall, tear off the garage, and repair some exterior stucco. The deck has been replaced, lots of volunteer trees have been taken out, and the bathroom sink now drains. It’s all good.

He spent several days last week wandering through the house, collecting all of the ancient paint cans and gathering them in the garage.  It’s a new old house ritual, to clean out the hazardous materials that have gathered in dusky corners for seventy years. This was our third round of the work. When he came in last Sunday, he looked up the next Hazardous Waste drop-off date and it was Saturday! We filled the central floor of the van with dead paints and other rusted cans, tucked in our backyard metal and glass, and did a run through Republic Services drop off center. It took three carts, but it was all gone. Much better than leaving them to rot and spill in the basement and drain out into our city wastewater treatment plant.

We also looked at all of our chimneys on Wednesday. The chimney sweep cleaned out our fireplace and dining room stove, and then went next door. The fireplace in the back room needs a cap and a grate to be safely used. The gas fireplace in the front room just needs to be turned off. It was put in 25 years ago; the residents thought it was a lovely way to gracefully warm their front room. But then someone capped the flue—probably to keep rodents out—and it has not been used in years. We will turn it off permanently. We don’t need the fumes in the house nor do we need the additional greenhouse gas emissions from the warmth. Over time, the entire house will be electric. This is the first step.

When all of the needed for safety repairs are done, we will begin the slow steady process of upgrading insulation and appliances as parts fail and/or rebates appear. There is, always, a balancing act between maintaining and replacing parts of our house’s infrastructure.