A window in the Attic

Working in the attic is hot, and dark. I have a trouble light that I use, but one light bulb is not a lot of help. To help solve both these problems, I installed a window in the gable over the kitchen.

The window is a Model G42 Andersen Gliding Window. $524.06 from Home Depot

 Since it was a "new" install in an open wall, I could frame it in the attic to match the size of the window, which is basically 4 feet wide and 1 foot, 11 inches tall.

 On the outside, I trimmed it with 1x4 rough cedar to match the rest of the house, and on the inside, insulation and radiant barrier.

Granite Counter Top for the Island

While driving around, I saw a place, Stone Masters, that had a "clearance" sale on granite counter tops. It would be a major piece of work to replace all our counter tops, but we could start by just putting a piece down on the kitchen island. That's a fairly small simple rectangle.

So Linda and I picked out a black and white piece of granite, and had them cut it to 27.5 x 33 inches. $308.23 which gave us both the piece for the kitchen and the "left-over" piece.



I used some "liquid nails" to glue it down to the existing formica counter top, since the purpose of this was mainly just to experiment with having granite counter tops. If it works well, we'll probably want to redo all the counter tops in granite.

Trim trees

 The trees are growing.  We contracted with Arbortech to "Raise canopy on all trees" and clear them back from the house and the roof.  $450.

A Ceiling Fan for the Dining Room

In it's original design, the room next to the kitchen is the dining room. As such we had a large dining room table, and over it a chandelier. But the table went away with the divorce, and the room is being used more as a TV room, with couches and all the electronics for the TV -- VCR, DVD, cable box, and so on.

With this new use, we really need a ceiling fan to be comfortable in the summer. So I took down the old chandelier and we bought a new ceiling fan. $746.96 from Texas Ceiling Fans for a new Hunter BN Original, with Walnut blades and a 4-arm BN light kit.

I reinforced the light fixture from the attic, and installed the new ceiling fan.

Roof Ridge Vent

A major problem here in Texas is the heat in the summer. The sun beams down onto the roof of the house, heats up the attic, and that attic heat is passed down into the house. Insulation helps to reduce the transfer from the attic to the house, but lowering the temperature in the attic will also help. 

We have vents in all the gables, but that only allows a small amount of heat to escape the attic. From what I read, the best scheme is to have soffit vents in the bottom of the roof, around the first floor of the house. This lets cooler air into the attic from the outside. This cooler air, as it heats up, will rise and then exit the roof thru a ridge vent that is put along the peaked ridge at the very top of the roof. 

We contracted with Roofcrafters to install both the ridge vent (to let the hot air out), and the soffit vents (to let cooler air in). This costs $1200. Installing the ridge vent means taking off the roof shingles at the very top of the roof (along the ridge) and then using a circular power saw to cut the roof decking to provide an opening about 3 to 5 inches down from the peak of the roof, all along the ridge. Then a plastic ridge vent is put over this opening, and roof shingles reinstalled on top of the ridge vent. This prevents water from leaking thru the roof, but allows air out. 

Then down at the soffits, a similar opening is cut all around the house, and a grill put over it -- to keep out bugs and such critters. Effectively this is just a screen, letting air into the attic.

 Update: 23 June 2001.  Now that we have a roof ridge vent, we don't need the turbine vent that was originally put into the roof.  We had one of the wind driven ones, and then replaced that with a thermostatically controlled powered vent.  We paid Drury Roofing $400 to remove the turbine, plug the hole and then roof over the top of it.

 

A raised garden

Linda wants to plant a garden -- tomatoes and squash and lettuce and such. We really have no soil that is good enough for that. So we will put in a raised bed, using used railroad ties for the sides. A railroad tie is roughly 8 inches by 8 inches by 8 feet long, so if we put 2 ties end-to-end, we can create a bed that is 16 feet by 10 feet external measure, and 14 feet by 8 feet internally. Stacking them two high gives 16 inches of depth, enough for most crops.

Before putting this together, we mark out the space on the ground and dig down. Although at the moment we are expecting only a vegetable garden, it seems to me to be prudent to dig as far down as we can and get the rocks out of the ground under the garden. We rent a jack hammer to break the rocks into manageable size pieces.

Then we put the railroad ties in place to form the garden form and fill it in with some real good compost dirt (Growers Mix) from Austin Landscape Supplies. The total cost comes to $427.59. Later we need more even more dirt for the garden, another $271.71. We used 16 cubic yards of growers mix plus 12 #1 railroad ties.

Replace the Oven

The oven in the kitchen stopped working, so I replaced it.

Linda picked out a 27 inch GE model (JKP15BABB) that is the same size as the previous one, so I can just pull the previous one out and put the new one in.

Unfortunately, the mechanical controls that the old one used are no longer available; now we have electronic controls. The installation instructions say that the circuit boards can overheat if there is not enough outside air flow, so I had to cut an opening under the oven into the drawer below the oven. $660.27 from Bettis Appliances.

Update:  June, 2019.  The top (broil) heating element burned out.  Spectacularly.  We were trying to cook some salmon, and suddenly there was a burst of light, sparks and flames.  The element burned for some time, and eventually a section about an inch long fell off.  Turn the power off (at the circuit breaker).  Let it all cool overnight.  Then remove two screws, unplug the broil element, go get a replacement piece -- WB44K5009 Broil Element $61.11, plug it in, put the two screws back that hold it in place, turn the power back on, and everything (seems) to work again.

Second Mortgage Re-financing

In 1994, we refinanced the mortgage to a 7/23 ARM with an initial interest rate of 5.99%.  The interest rate is to adjust in May 2001, and probably significantly higher than we can get elsewhere.  Plus Linda has moved in and bought half the house, so it makes sense to refinance again, to get a lower rate than we expect. (Note: turns out the adjusted rate would have been 8.75%).  And it turns out that I had started a new job and my employer has an arrangement with Chase Bank to provide low-cost mortgages (as a way to attract new employees).

So we refinanced with Chase Manhattan Mortgage, getting a 15-year fixed rate mortgage for $140,000 at 7.25%.  This paid the balance of the second mortgage of $139,801.05 plus closing costs.  Closing costs included a 1% loan origination fee ($1400), title insurance ($1131.70), and an appraisal fee ($300), among other things.

The appraisal compared our house with 3 close-by that had been sold recently, trying to adjust for the differences in age, size, and so on.

Again the appraisal tried to figure out exactly the size of the house.

Interestingly, the previous appraisal  thought the house was 3048 square feet; this one things it is 3022 square feet.  The garage was 592 but is now 591.

The photos of the house show how the landscaping has changed, in the front

and in the back

Replacing Tile in Guest Bathroom

We replaced the original tile around the guest bathtub with new tile. The selected tile was an 8 inch by 8 inch square of blue.

The tiles were 77 8x8 Spanish Pastel Blue (A2VLEV) plus 45 trim pieces 2 3/4 x 8 SBN of the same color. This came to $220.65 from Brick & Tile Center, 12024 N. Lamar on 15 June 2000 (Check #441).

The tile was installed by Smittys Tile (Everett Smith). He removed the old tile, and the sheet rock behind it, installing 1/2 inch Durarock Board instead of the sheet rock. Then the tile was installed on the Durarock Board and grouted.

Smittys Tile started this work on 26 June 2000, and finished up by 28 June for a total cost of $1500.00 ($500 down and $1000 on completion).

A series of minor improvements

Nov 1997

Install an electrical outlet in the office for a wall clock. I have a large, old clock from the International Time Recorder company, from 1928. The original clock mechanism needed DC current, so a shop converted it to AC. To hang it on the wall, I need an electrical outlet to plug it in.

Also, install a third light over the front door. The front door has two lights, one on the wall to the left and one on the wall to the right. But the door itself is set back 2 feet or so from the exterior wall, so these lights really don't illuminate the front door. I added a third light hanging from the ceiling right in from of the front door, in a style that matches the two wall lights, and powered by the same switch. This lights up the area directly in front of the door much better than before.

March 1998

Add a phone line to the Dining Room. We are using the Dining Room as a TV room, and we have a new device that allows us to access the internet on our TV. It uses a dial-up internet service, so we need a phone line close to the TV, which is to say, close to the cable outlet for cable TV.

January 1999

Plant a couple more trees. One of the two Chinese Pistache trees by the kitchen died. Replace it with a Mexican White Oak. At least that is what it was sold as. I tend to think it is something else, a Burr oak possibly. But trying to identify it on the internet suggests it is a chestnut tree.

The other tree is another Drake Elm. We have two Drake Elms on the West side of the house and they have done quite well. Plant another further south, in a line with, and spaced like the existing two. It's much smaller now, of course, but in 20 years, maybe it will catch up.

More Dirt. 6 yards of growers mix to spread on the lawn to improve drainage. $202.43 from Austin Landscape Supplies.


June 1999

Linda is moving in. She has a small dog, Coco. Previously, we had a fence around the house, but only on the property line, so it closed the yard off from the neighbors, but didn't close it off completely. Now we need to be able to keep the dog in the back, so we need to add the extension of the fence from the property line to the house on both the left and right sides. Just Fences did this for $630. Two sections: 23 feet on one side and 14 feet on the other. Each with a gate.


July 1999

The tiles in the center bathroom are coming lose, and the sheet vinyl in the kitchen is showing its age. Replace both of these with tile from Texas Floors. The kitchen gets a large light colored tile, while the bathroom gets a blue grey tile. $3243.00


January 13, 2000

Install a big sink in the garage. We had a small after thought of a sink in the garage, but it was barely large enough to wash your hands. We need a place to wash Linda's dog. Someplace we can stand up and still use the sink. I stripped everything out of the corner, and remove the old sink. Then a cabinet from Home Depot -- just a pre-fab white formica on press-board unit. $182. A pre-formed formica counter top of just the right size. A really large plastic sink with a combination spray unit for a faucet. 177.00. The plumbing is more complex than I am used to, so get Austin Plumbing Repair to put it all together. $273.16.



January 29, 2000

In the attic, over the center bathroom, rewire the lights. There are two main light fixtures, one over each mirror. These are the main light fixtures. There is another single light over the toilet, but that is seldom used. For some reason, the lights were originally wired, so that one switch worked one of the main light fixtures and the other the single light over the toilet and the other main fixture. This is the opposite of the Master bathroom, where one switch works all the main lights, and a separate one works the light over the toilet. So I re-wired them, so that the one light switch works both main light fixtures. This means that for most use, only the one switch is needed.