Lesson #1
Plumbers who work half days, don't find a need for permits, tries to swap out water heaters and make fun of their fathers (who also happens to be their employee) may not be the best... even if recommended. Now the already overloaded Gregg has to squeeze into his jam-packed schedule time to sue a sleazy plumber in small claims court. WARNING: never ever ever ever use Al Pancetta Jr.
Lesson #2
Painting our house is not like painting your house and I was silly to think so. Base molding, chair rails, ceiling molding, drop ceilings, window molding and general decorative details was a main part of why Gregg and I fell in love with our charming house. However, trying to paint around, with and on these elements is a massive undertaking and causes any painting efforts to multiply the time it takes. Not to mention oil paint (see how we had fun stripping here), and plaster cracking issues.
Lesson #3
Everything you do will have dependencies and you will never think of all of them initially. This will cause planning, re-planning, and oh-shit-not-again-planning. For example, we needed a kitchen right away so we re-wired, re-plumbed and installed a new kitchen. We thought we had all the infrastructure elements covered. We forgot duct work! We also forgot about holes from electrical before painting and patching. we also didn't think of carpets getting dusty from construction (should have left them rolled up).
Lesson #4
The home inspectors will never really find everything. Smaller issues like non-level extra dirt leading towards massive basement water issues may be understandable (see how we fixed it here) but key issues such as non-existent modern duct-work should not be missed and yet were quickly discovered in the steamy months of summer. Which leads me to today's post...
So as we grew into the house, the Philadelphia heat also grew with the summer months. When we purchased the house we were shown the two-year-new air conditioning unit. FABULOUS. What we we didn't realize was that no matter how great your air conditioner, without adequate ducts, vents and returns, you will not feel any relief! This has lead us to engage Collin from Campano Heating and Air to implement a massive newly re-engineered duct and return system, boiler heat system, and three-zone a/c and heat with automated air handlers and duct closures. Yes that's not only a mouthful but a houseful of chaos, take a look:
First, some photos of the mess:
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| Office - What Used to Be A Vent |
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| 2nd Floor Bedroom Ceiling |
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| Second Floor Hallway Ceiling |
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| Great Room Wall |
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| Vent Sizes Getting Cut to Half in Size |
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| More Great Room Wall Holes |
And now some progress:
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| An action shot of HVAC guy working in our basement |
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| Your Key to understanding all the new 'stuff' in our basement: Metal = new duct, orange = hot water for boiler, yellow = gas and grey=electric |
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| this little boiler (super high-tech) heats our ENTIRE house... crazy |
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| One of Three Air Handlers |
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