Shingles Shingles Everywhere!

There was a particularly severe wind storm last week and we found shingles scattered on our driveway and front lawn. We've been noticing some peeling in our roof over the past few months, but I think the Spring thaw has exacerbated the problem. I suspect that we are going to need to have the roof re-shingled this year.

Proposed Basement Re-Work

We are hiring a maid to take care of BabyJ, so we need to make room for her.

Master Bedroom Radiator Valve

After a number of calls and follow up, we were FINALLY able to get the valve back on the master bedroom radiator. We won't have to sleep in the sauna everynight anymore. Upon further investigation in the boiler room, we found out that the heating supply to the rear of the house takes a convoluted path with many expansions and elbows. This is probably the reason why the rear bedrooms are considerably colder than the front of the house. We will likely get this fixed once spring arrives. More work on the house... but hopefully it'll be worth it.

Another possible add on is to make the family room radiant floors an independent zone, so we can control the temperature of the floors without having to make the rest of the house hotter.

Mechanical Update

Since the last update on January 2nd, 2007 where we tried to contact our mechanical contractor to finish up the adjustments to the flow, we still have not heard back from him. It's been 22 days and two follow-ups. We engaged our architect in the hopes that they are working on a project together, but no such luck. At least the architect was able to get ahold of the engineer by phone who committed to getting a service manager involved. We'll see...

MBR Radiator

Since the beginning of winter, we have noticed some severe temperature control problems around the house. When we get the temperature of the family room correct (with a warm and toasty floor), our bedroom is as hot as a sauna. The West Wing is not warm at all, no matter what we do with the valves and thermostat.

Ducks has emailed the mechanical company (Belyea Brothers) this morning for a check-up. Let's see how long it will take for them to respond...

Kitchen Arrived

The kitchen was delivered yesterday and piled up in the family room and the study area. There are lots of pieces to be put together and hopefully the installer will be able to finish everything quickly.

I am concerned that the kitchen parts were just left on the wood floor, without laying down any protection. Need to remember to check the floors for scratches and dents before end of job.

The problem is especially concerning because the kitchen vendor demanded to be paid in full at delivery. So he has nothing to lose if any damage was done. The Architect has personally vouch for the installation but there isn't much financial penalty there either.

Third Time is the Charm, I Hope

We didn't expect to get a nasty little surprise from the mechanical contractor (Belyea Brothers) when they installed the baseboard radiator in our basement. The problem is that the installer decided to place the radiator, which is designed to be mounted at the base of the wall, 8 inches up the wall, above the current baseboard. It looked absolutely ugly and out of place floating in the middle of the wall.

So we demanded to the contract that this be fixed with the radiator flush up against the floor.

They did... or at least they thought they did...

The installer was too lazy to ask to have our wood baseboard cut and decided to mount the radiator in front of the baseboard. So we ended up with the baseboard sticking into the hallway.

I caught this during a site visit and demanded the the installer do the work properly. He refused to re-install the radiator a third time. We had to escalate to the contractor to get him to take it off the wall so that our carpetener can cut the baseboard for him.

The whole time, he kept wining that this was a stupid exercise...

And I agree, if he had done it right the first time, he would not have to redo it twice! Some people as just so lazy...