The Insulation Project

Home insulation work is messy!  Its sure not like having a plumber come in replace a faucet, LOL!  First, I had to take everything out of the attic and move everything away from most of the basement walls.  That was bad enough.  But then the contractor went to work...

The attic wasn't bad.  They only had to add a duct from a bathroom exhaust fan to the outside, add baffles against the roof edge to direct fresh air in toward the roof ridge vent, spray a foam sealant along all the edges, joists, and around all the pipes that came up through.  Then blow 13" of fiberglass insulation around levelly.  Oh, and they added a removable insulation cover over the attic staircase opening.

The messy work was in the basement, both inside and out.

They used more foam sealant around all the edges.  And to properly fill the wall cavities, they had to drill holes in the paneling.  Mostly, they could do that above the suspended ceiling tiles I installed.  You can see the wooden plug they tapped in afterwards.

But along one wall they had to seal the top edge and then drill access holes below the ceiling tile.  My fault, because of the way I attached the framing studs.  They could have lined up the holes better (see the row of plugs?) but I was watching someone else at the time the holes were drilled.  Well, I can stain them to blend in better, and it IS just a workshop.  Its not like they did that in the living area.

Here's a picture of an unplugged hole showing the pulverized newspaper filling.  Yeah, those newspapers you recycle come back to you sometimes.  Some of that insulation may even be MY old newspapers!

Then they went to work on the outside of the basement.  The front of the house hangs over the foundation 2'.  Which looks rather nice and adds some living space above, but is terrible for insulating.  The only insulation that was there was 1/2" plywood sheathing.  No wonder the initial energy auditor's infra-red camera showed the entire front side of the living area of the house as being  hot!  A better builder would have insulated that.  So these guys did!  They removed the vinyl soffit and sprayed foam insulation into all the edges.

Then they drilled holes in the plywood sheathing, and blew it full of pulverized newspaper and plugged the holes.   Then, of course, replaced all the soffit panels.

It was a bit messy...

They were about to vacuum it all up afterwards, but I told them not to.  Its untreated newspaper, so it is just fine as mulch.  And I KNEW they would thrash that vacuum hose all around through my plants.  So I just swept it gently off the plants with a broom after they left.

I wish I had had this done right after I moved in.  But the electrical company only started advising users of how THEIR usage compared to their neighbors last year.  Until then, I had no reason to think my usage was any different from my neighbors.  Seriously, have you ever visited a neighbor to compare electric bills?  Maybe you should!

Besides, when I started getting notices about my electrical usage from the supplier, I assumed it was because I was retired and home all day.  I was using hot water more often, opening doors to go in and out all day,  cooking more meals at home, watching TV, having lights on, etc.

I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation today based on the expected reduction in my electrical bill.  I'm estimating that the poor-quality job the builder did has cost me about $25,000 (allowing that electricity used to be a lot cheaper) and will save me about $1,000 per year (so the payback is 3-4 years).  And more in the future as energy costs rise...

If your electrical company has a subsidized insulation improvement program, take advantage of it!  My initial subsidized energy audit cost only $100 (and they gave me $100 worth of compact fluorescent bulbs so it was really free).  The company that partnered with the electrical supplier had an A rating on Angieslist, and guaranteed a 20% reduction in outside air leakage (I got 41%).

Give it some thought.

Energy Reduction Quote

I received the company's fixed price quote today.  Interesting reading...  I have some questions about some of their measurements and proposed actions.  They want to meet with me personally to discuss the proposal, but I prefer to do it by email.

I always prefer to take company salespeople out of their comfort zone (talking a lot off the record).  Responding to email questions, they have to answer the questions and I have the email to read and re-read a few times to make sure I see what they are evading (if anything).  And it gives me time to consider more questions.

For example, I've noticed they over-estimated my current annual bill by 20% (and I showed them my last 12 month bills),  they overestimated my "conditioned" (meaning heated and cooled) residential square footage (added in my unheated garage as a "conditioned" area), added an extra exhaust fan to be sealed, etc.

So I will compose a list of questions for them to answer.  They should be pleased.  Their salesperson is 30 minuted away from me and planned a 30 minute visit to explain the quote.  I'm helping them do it in about 10 minutes.  Yes, I'm being a bit sarcastic...  I was a salesman once and know the value of talking face-to-face, sliding around questions, and not have anything in writing except the actual contract (with all the fine print).

Mostly, I know what works for ME.  I bought my last car by email, and it sure saved me a lot of time AND money.  No sitting around while the salesman pretends to "see if I can get the Manager to go for this low deal".  And with everything in writing, there were no "little surprise add-ons" afterwards.  I got the car for $500 above the dealers actually cost (according to the Consumer Reports Car Report I bought for $12).  And the car will be 10 years old In October.  So I like negotiating at a distance.

Back to the energy savings quote...  The total quote is for $5100 (with a $2000 subsidy from my electrical supplier bringing it to $3100).  The estimated savings is about 30% (in line with what I've found at seemingly neutral internet sites about such projects.  My last year energy cost was almost $3000, so that means  $900 per year and a payback of just under 3.5 years.  And that's assuming energy costs don't rise (and they will) so it will be closer to a 3 year payback.

After I get them to make some reductions in their quote, and given their Angieslist "A" rating on both quality of work AND price, I think I will just have them do the work without getting competitive bids.  And there are a few smaller cost-effective things I can do myself...

Gripe, Lather, Repeat

Yes, I've been complaining lately.  And I'm going to do it again.  It's a bit long...

Electrical -  Sometimes I can't even win using AngiesList.

1.  The first visit had a guy over to add a downstair's light and replace an upstair's light.  He did the downstair's light.  I told him to wire it directly to the upstair's light, but he insisted it was better to wire it to the downstair's switch (of a 3-way switch).  Afterwards, he show me it worked.  Later, I found it only worked from the downstairs switch.  From the middle and upper switches, the lights went on and off oppositely.  He said the big lamp I wanted to replace in the upper stairs needed some nuts to "tighten things up".  And he said the heavy replacement light (a tiffany style knockoff) would need 2 people.  He also looked at the front door motion-detectotrlight and said it need to be replaced due to rust.

2.  So I worked on the "tiffany" lamp.  I found a few nuts at Home Depot that tightened it all up fine.  Then I called the electrical folks to come back with 2 people and fix the problems.  Two guys came by.  They said the big tiffany light wiring was not to code and that it needed a "vintage lamp restorer" to redo everything.  They undid the weird opposite on/off problem so that I was back to the original top light only condition.  They begged off wiring the downstair's light directly to the upper one, saying that, since they would by installing the large tiffany light the next visit anyway, it would be better to do both parts then.  OK...  They also replaced the old motion detector with a new one I had bought.  As one guy did that, he asked about the options (when and for how long the floodlights would come on.  I told him "only when the motion detector comes on, and only for about 10 minutes".  It was daylight, but he said he covered the detector and tested it and it was working as requested,

3.  The nearest "vintage lamp restorer" was an hour away.  When I brought the tiffany lamp to him, he admired it, but said "any qualified electrician should have been able to do this work", and "you should fire them for not just doing it".  Well, I wasn't going to get in the middle of an argument that might require me to make several more hour long trips, so I had him just do the work.

4.  I retrieved the rebuilt tiffany lamp and contacted the electrical company to come and install it and also wire the downstair's light to the tiffany one as recommennded by the 2nd guys in #2.  I specifically reminded the electrical company that the previous guys had said it would take 2 people to install the heavy lamp, plus that they recommended it be wired directly to the bottom light.  Plus, that a hallway ceiling light had died and needed repair (the circular fluorescent bulb only came on halfway).

5.  Team #3 arrived.  The service manager at the electrical company had called just before then and told me that he was reducing the hourly rate to $90 per hour from $110 because of all the trouble in the work and he was sending a "best" team.  OK.  I knew there was trouble right from the start.  They would not wire the lower light to the upper one.  They hadn't brought their "28 drill bit" to get through the wall bases (and I'm not sure why that was MY problem).  But they said everything would work if they wired the bottom light to the top switch.  OK. 

Why are electricians determined not to EVER go up into an attic?  They simply refused to do it!  One guy DID go up in the attic because he was simply forced to to attach 2 screws for a support bar over the heavy tiffany lamp.  And he was pissed about doing that.  Really, he said he was.

6.  Team #3 did wire the bottom light to the top switch and it does work properly.  Both the top and bottom lights go on and off together.  But now I have a 3rd cutout of my drywall I have to repair.  If they had simply fished the wire from the bottom light to the top light. I wouldn't have had the drywall cutout to repair in the main living area.

7.  Plus, I asked them to look at the hallway light.  As they did so, there was a snap sound and a piece of plastic fell on the floor.  They said the existing fluorescent light couldn't be repaired and should be replaced.  OK.  I CAN actually do that.  I forgot to ask them to fix the settings on the motion detector to the settings I originally requested.  My fault.

8.  So I looked at the hallway light after they left to measure the size I needed to cover the unpainted part of the ceiling.  I found that the snapped piece of plastic was a part were the lamp needed to be attached.  The guy had tried to tighten the old light too hard and had broken it off.  I can now try to attach the new (very lightweight) light I bought today or I can have some electrician come out and replace the electrical junction box to allow for thew usual 2 attachment bolts to go in.

9.  And then the bill arrived.  It charged me for the same original work of installing the bottom stair's light that the first guy had charged me for, that the 2nd team had undone the bad work of, and tht the 3rd team had finally done correctly (even though not as I desired). I had to argue with them for 10 minutes about the fact that some of the work was previously paid-for .  And then, all I got was "I'll knock off half the labor hours "TO RESOLVE THIS SITUATION".  But not at the reduced hourly cost.  *I* accepted "to resolve the situation".

I MAY contact the original electrical company, try to do it myself, or contact a different electrical company.

And that is just PART of this past month's annoyances...

A.  On October 1st, I damaged my left arm ulner nerve.  That's the one that controls your little finger and half the ring finger.  It happened before.  20 years ago, I was a passenger on a car that hit a deer.  Two days later, my left 2 fingers were numb.  I thought it was carpal tunnel syndrome (I worked on a computer all day at work and sometimes at home at games).  After some awful electrical acupuncturish tests up one arm and down the other and into my neck (until I finally went into cold clammy shock and passed out), it was determined that there was a minor fracture of the 5th or 6th neck vertebrae.  The prescription was resting the neck and taking ibuprophen at double the recommended rate.  The problem went away in 4 to 6 weeks (can't recall exactly).

B.  On October 1st my computer chair fell over when I slid it off the plywood roller base and the wheels caught on the carpet.  On the same night, I had sat at my computer resting my head on my left elbow for 12 hours while engaged in a strategic computer game.  And immediately the next morning, I engaged in some rather violent shovel work (like digging up sod.  So I don't know the cause.  But I treated it the same.  Until that didn't help after 5 weeks now.

C.  I lost a filling in a tooth 7 years ago.  It hasn't bothered me.  But now there is a slight pain in the far back of my jaw in that side.  Coincidence, I hope, as it feels more like there is a chewed off fingernail bit stuck back there.  And there is a slight infrequent ear ache on that side.  But I get those infrequently too, so it could all be coincidence.

D.  But after the 3rd time my computer chair tossed me down this month (and it hasn't happened before) and I had to put the chair top on the wheeled bottom, I got pissed.  I took the parts out onto the deck and pounded them a bit.

E.  I've mentioned that the old monitor on the old PC has been acting up lately.  In randomly turns on and off.  Something wrong with the on/off button.  I took a small C clamp to the on button and it stayed on for weeks.  But lately it got worse and failed completely.  Same night the chair tipped over the 3rd time, I had to keep adjusting the C clamp every few minutes.  Then when it started going wrong  every few seconds, I disconnected it, took it out to the deck and threw it down hard.  Well, now I know what the insides of a monitor look like.

F.  It is satisfying breaking material objects that stop working (I never act out at living things of course).  Now I have a new (better) computer chair and a bigger monitor.  I expect them both to work fine for years.

G.  Now all I need to do is get my Ulner Nerve fixed so that my to left lingers don't feel numb...  And get that that hallway ceiling light replaced.  Oh yeah, my Photoshop Elements 6 disappeared when I downloaded Mac's OS Maverick...  And there is a new groundhog under the old toolshed.

Fun With Lamps

Three years ago, I inherited a knock-off (but good quality vintage) "tiffany" lamp.

I dithered for 3 years about what to do with it (Living Room or Stairwell).  I finally decided on stairwell. 

First, I called an electrical company I found on Angie's List.  I explained about hanging the lamp in the ceiling over the stairwell to replace an existing working light and that it was heavy and awkward (so it might require 2 people).  I also requested them to install a regular ceiling light at the bottom of the stairs wired into the same 3-way switch as the top one, and that I needed the outside motion detector repaired.  They sent 1 person.  He looked at the tiffany lamp and said it was missing some hanging parts.  Well, I hadn't examined it that carefully, and it was a bit loose.  So I had him look at the motion detector.  He said the detector parts had rusted and it needed to be replaced.  So I had him install the small ceiling lamp at the bottom of the stairs.  I thought it should simply be wired directly to the upper lamp (where the tiffany lamp would go later, but he said it would be easier to just wire it into the bottom stair switch.  OK, whatever works… 

The new bottom light seemed to work fine.  Both upper and bottom lights came on and wet off with the switch.  And the electrician said it would take 2 people to hang the tiffany lamp (agreeing with what I had told them to begin with).  But the next day I discovered that using the top switch caused one to come on while the other went off.  I called the electrical company back and explained the situation.  Meanwhile, I had found that the hanging parts on the tiffany lamp seemed merely loose and with an additional nut, tightened it all up nicely.  So they sent out 2 guys a few days later.

I had a new motion detector for them to install as well.  First, they looked at the tiffany lamp and declared it "not to code".  They said it needed a complete new "canopy attachment" and rewiring, and that they didn't do that kind of work, suggesting a vintage lamp restoration company in Annapolis.  I later googled "vintage lamp restoration" and sure enough Annapolis was closest (but not exactly next door).  Meanwhile, they undid the bad wiring job of the first guy, and installed the new motion detector outside.  I suggested that they wire the new bottom light to the top light then, but they said it would mean doing the same wiring work on the top light twice and cost more.  So I agreed to wait until they could install the tiffany lamp at the same time.

So I brought the lamp to Annapolis Lighting for repair.  The repair manager told me that any qualified electrician should have been able to make the attachment and wiring repairs, but he would do it.  Still, that was an hour drive both to and from there, and I had to do it twice (delivery and pickup).  Meanwhile, my hallway light died.  I replaced the circular fluorescent bulb and then the starter, but it still didn't work, so there was new work to be done.

A new pair of guys arrived today.  The original one was fired for incompetency, and the second team had been promoted to commercial work.  The new pair did know what they were doing.  One went to work on getting the bottom stair light wired in properly.  I still think it made more sense to wire the bottom light directly up to the top one, but he chose to wire it to the primary switch (which was at the top of the stairs). 

The other guy tackled the tiffany lamp installation.  He was convinced that it could just be attached to the existing electric box already there, but I told him I wanted a better support (knowing how my builder cut corners).  Sure enough, when he removed the existing ceiling light, there was just a plastic electric box that he pulled out of the attic joist by hand.  He had to get into the attic (they do almost anything to avoid that) to install a support bar and new electric box.   In spite of the idea that both of them were there to cooperate in installing the heavy tiffany lamp, the 1 guy did it himself.  He had to stand on the very top and almost losing his grip on it once, he got it installed properly.  The 2nd guy got the bottom light wired. 

 It all worked, and we 3 tested all the 3 switches in combinations to make sure there was none of that 1 on and 1 off problem from before. 

Then came a bill for $440.  I pointed out that I had already paid for that bottom light being wired properly.  So I had to talk to their service manager.  He pointed out that he was already offerring me a discount on the hourly work.  I pointed out that the initial paid work included "install new light at bottom of stairs and run wire".  He said the first guy did the invoice wrong and the price only included installing the new light.  When I asked who would think anyone would install a light WITHOUT attaching it to a switch, he babbled for a moment, and I added that it was a quoted price and I paid for it at the time (so one of the guys here today was merely correcting the bad work of the original guy and they couldn't charge me for that twice).  When he said I had requested 2 people, I told him that was what HIS people had suggested.

The $440 came down to $275.  The service manager allowed that he was doing it "to resolve the situation"  (as if he was doing me a great favor by not charging me twice for an initially botched wiring job).  I don't really care how he accounts for his charges, just that the final charge was only for the work installing the tiffany lamp and it seemed a fair charge.

I asked the electrician here how HE would interpret "install new light at bottom of stairs and run wire", and he laughed saying he never argues with the service manager.  I understand; to the electrician (a sub-contractor), I'm not the customer, the service manager is.

But everything is fine now and I am thrilled with the tiffany lamp…

I haven't decided how I will review the work on Angie's List yet.  They botched the first wiring, but made up for it immediately.  The tiffany lamp wiring and hanging hardware wasn't their fault.  And while they got confused about the costs involved in the 3 visits, they did make the charges reasonable after a brief discussion.  And the work WAS finally done well.

I can't give them perfect scores, but I won't flame them either.

But I LOVE the new staircase lamp there.

That Darn Ceiling Lamp

Minor rant...

Well, I finally got in touch with a place that repairs old ceiling lamps.  I should have given up calling them every few days for 3 weeks and just emailed them to begin with.  I would have if their website actually OFFERRED an email address.  I had to find it the hard way, indirectly (through their white pages sales office).

But at least I got a rapid response assuring me they could do the work.

So I drove up there yesterday morning.  Only got lost once.  I had to stop at a paint store to ask directions.  They asked "where are you from" and I gave the name of my town, but then they said "No, where is your CAR".  (It's in your parking lot DOOFUS, why do you think I'm in HERE).  But I'm very polite when lost and said it was right by their front door.

Like good little locals they gave me directions according to local landmarks.  You may have sufferred that yourselves ("drive out past Smitty's barn and turn left where the old oak tree used to be").  I finally got "first right, 2nd left and about 2 miles" and went on my not-so-merry way.  I did finally find the street I needed and figured that if I needed more directions someplace else, at least they could only tell me to go left or right.

It took 1.5 hours to get to the lamp place (but only 30 miles). I should have FedExed it!

The front counter folks LOVED the lamp and guided me to the repair specialist.  Do I need to tell you what specialists in moderately arcane specialties are like?  First thing he did was demand to know why I hadn't answered his email question (I checked the email when I got home and it only said "what you need is a canopy kit, which consists of a canopy, a crossbar, a loop, and a threaded nipple or pipe. I have crome, black, white, and brushed brass finishes").

Then, when I didn't know what nipples, ceramics and canopies were, he became insulting.  I finally had to just beg him to "Please just do whatever an electrician requires to mount the damn lamp on the stairway ceiling".  Not satisfied with THAT victory, he further said that "any damn good electrician could get all this stuff from Home Depot".  Well, apparently, electricians these days don't have a price box to check off for "rebuilding old lamp".

He scribbled wavy lines on a list of repair items on a receipt ticket  and wrote $55 at the bottom.  I left with the ticket stub and a promise he would call in "a couple of days".

You know what "staircase wit" is right?  The killer comeback you think of as you leave the room after a dispute?  I didn't even have THAT...  I just drove all the way home pissed.

I didn't ever even WANT the damn lamp.  It was Gramma's lamp and my mother and a sister of hers fought over it for years thinking it was real Tiffany.  It isn't.  But my mother won the fight and she was so proud to hand it down to me, her eldest son...  She's dead, and while its a pretty impressive lamp, it not worth anything, but I still have to show it off for MY generation.  Click white elephant.

But I will have the lamp in a condition an electrician can install and my siblings will be able to visit and go "ooh, ahh" and be grateful they didn't receive it.

The only good parts are that I probably WILL like it once installed AND I get to choose who to inflict it on in my Will.

That's assuming I can FIND the lamp store again to pick it up.  No, I don't have a working GPS device...

Can the Electrical Stuff Get Worse?

The old family fake Tiffany lamp needs support/hanging hardware only a specialist can provide. The new "brightest" kitchen fluorescent bulbs seem dim.  The newly installed "bottom of the stair" light is newly-detached  so that the upper one works properly again and there is no light at the bottom.

Now the hall circular fluorescent light has suddenly failed.  The online guidelines said to "replace the bulb".  Did that, no improvement.  Then it said "replace the starter".  Did that, and after a quarter hour struggling with getting it set into the connections, didn't help.

And seriously, after a quarter hour holding your hands up not even doing anything, see how you feel.   There is an old trick about betting someone they can't hold a feather at arm's length for 10 minutes.  The sucker thinks "feather", but the problem is the weight of the ARM, LOL!  My arms were exhausted just holding them straight up from the stepladder.

I DID finally get the damn starter installed eventually, and it had no effect.  The light lit at about 10% and flickered.

To temporarily replace the misfunctioning hallway light, I took a floorlamp and put a screw-in fluorescent bulb and set the floor lamp on a narrow table.  It's just me here, so I can live with that a week.  But I had to replace a regular bulb in the basement light from where I took the screw-in fluorescent one out.

The base of the bulb broke off.  So I had to turn off the circuit breaker to that circuit so I could use pliers to unscrew the broken base.  I couldn't read the circuit breaker labels without my glasses. So upstairs I went to find them.  Back downstairs I went.

Oh, its the #13 circuit which I now see is printed SIDEWAYS which is why I couldn't make any sense of it without my glasses.  So I go to get my pliers out of my stupid fancy tray tool cabinet.  Which is LOCKED because I had contractors in the house and my friend had to take legal action because HIS contractors stole some of the same fancy tools I have.

So where did I put the keys?  Because I don't have a regular place to put them because I almost never have to lock the stupid tool cabinet.  I stand around upstairs trying to find them and THERE they are on the hook where the pizza paddle lives.  Of course, where else would they be.  Well at least I found them.

So I look in the tool chest for the best thing to spread inside the broken bulb socket (remember that?) and discover that the best tool for the job was sitting on my workbench the whole time.  I slowly spread the tin snips out in the broken socket (after double-checking the power was off) and slowly remove the broken bulb base.

I replace the bulb with a new one.  Hurray, I'm back to where I was an hour earlier!  This is actually progress.  I've already made the several required mistakes, and fixed them!!!

The new bulb is "oh so gently" screwed in.  The circuit breaker is set back "ON", it works!  Hurray...

And I had the damn kitchen fixture to deal with.  The electrician was going to replace the ballast but asked if I had any new 4' fluorescent T-12 bulbs .  I did actually, plant-grow bulbs for my garden-seedling light stand.  They worked.  The kitchen looked HORRIBLE, but they did work.  So after the electricians left, I went to buy better tube bulbs.  I selected "daylight" because I wanted bright light in the kitchen.  I do a lot of food-prep, so I figured "daylight" was good.

They were not good.  "Daylight" bulbs are rather blaringly bluish.  The light is bright but funny inside.  SO, I went out and bought what the store chart said was right for "kitchens".  The lumens output is less, but the color is better.

My addition of a hinge to one end of the 4' light fixture is the smartest thing I've done all year.  I've had to get at the tube bulbs a half dozen times just in this month and trying to be on both sides of a 4' fixture at the same time as one person is a real struggle.  Even the electricians admired the idea.  I tried the new "warm white" bulbs and it was like I remembered the lighting had been!  I could even put the diffuser panel back in and the lighting was still as good when I tilted the fixture cover back up by the hinge and attached it at the other end.

So there are 2 working fixtures of 4 again.  As lame as that is, I feel like I had a major success today.  That's actually pretty pathetic. but sometimes 50% is good.

I'll get the other 50% done next week or the week after, after bringing the fake tiffany lmp to a repair shop 40 miles away, buying a new hallway lamp for the electricians to install, having them install the fake tiffany lamp in the top of the stairs and fishing wires through the walls and across the attic.

I dont EVEN want to imagine the problems they will discover.  But at least the last electrician specified the details of the wire fishing and attic support and wrote that the work WAS ALREADY PAID FOR BY THE QUOTE IN THE FIRST PAID BOTCHED JOB!

I may get out of this yet without the house burning down by bad electrical circuits.

25 years ago, when I moved in, I would have done this myself.  But I'm not crazy-confident-brave 36 years old anymore.  I've zapped myself too many times doing amateur electrical work.   I nearly killed myself twice, surviving only because I wasn't grounded.  I'm not touching electricity anymore.

Now I just hope I don't kill myself gardening somehow.