Monday, January 28, 2008

Ice rink

Ben and Marie, came to visit on Saturday. We tried to ice skate on the lake, and there were a few good places. Ben and I decided that we should try to build an ice rink. On Saturday night, we drove the snow blower to the lake, and cleared off a section. Then we put a pump on the lake and flooded the cleared section.

It snowed all day Sunday, so this morning I drove the snow blower back down to the lake to clear our rink. It is going to rain on Wednesday so our rink should get a nice smooth surface. The rink may be more trouble than it is worth.

Random Projects wrap-up

I got a bunch of projects cleaned up this weekend. The heating cables have been installed where I was having an ice dam problem. I still need to install a plug and a switch for the cables.
I finished repairing the snow blower. I hope it will leave this week to its new home. I also thing that since I fixed it, it should not snow for the rest of this winter.

I finished installing the vent and filter for the dryer. Now the basement is a little warmer.

Off to more random projects.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Flood in the Sunroom

Back in March, I put two heaters into the sunroom. The plan was to keep the heaters in the basement, so that they could be shut down, when we were not using the sunroom. If the heaters were in the basement they would not freeze. In the picture below, the heater can be seen in the baseboard, and the heater is installed in the basement, with a vent open into the sunroom.

Yesterday at work, I got a call from Linda, There was water running across the sunroom, and pouring into the basement. I directed he to some valves to shut off the water and came home.
I removed the heater, and found the leak.

The heater had burst a pipe in the heating coil. It must have gotten too cold in the sunroom, and the basement wasn't warm enough to keep it from freezing.

I'm not sure what the next step will be, replace the heater, or replace the heater with a normal baseboard heater. I think we will need to have some heat in the sunroom in the winter.


Thursday, January 17, 2008

Random Projects #3 (snowblower repair)

One of the folks at work had an old broken snowblower. He offered to anyone that would take it. I took it, and I am going to give it to another one of my friends at work, after I get it running.

Random Projects #2 (Ice Dams)

In the old part of the house, there is not enough insulation in the ceiling. This year we have had enough snow so the lack of insulation is becoming a problem. We have developed an ice dam. I plan to fix the insulation problem when I have time. When we had a thaw, I installed heating cables to stop the ice dam from forming. Now I can fix the insulation problem when the weather is better.

This is a pre-thaw picture.

Random Projects #1 (dryer vent)

I have a number of odd project going on. I am putting an exhaust for the dryer into the basement. In the old house I had the dryer vented to the basement in the winter. This made the basement warmer, and easier to work in. I have the valve and cutoff installed and all I need is the filter box.


Friday, January 04, 2008

Waiting for Santa.

Here is a picture of the fireplace decorated for Christmas. Do you think that Santa will fit?