Check Off

Tonight Rob installed a custom door prop for the access panel to the hvac equipment. It even has a little magnetic catch to hold the swinging prop in place while the doors closed and securely holds the door while open. Check!

Then we spent some time vacuuming and cleaning out the enclosure. Check!

Next up was the pendant light. We decided on a height but currently it’s a plug in so we need to install a converter kit to switch it to hardwire. It came with a giant 23 watt cfl, apparently inspired by a California law that is trying to limit energy use in plug in residential lighting. Ok, we’ll take a free bulb… But 23 cfl watt = 100 incandescent watts = lots of light!

Before:

“after”… The light’s from cb2, and the white linen shade is just about the same color as the ceiling/ upper wall color. The converter canopy kit is from west elm, and will be nickel.

Half-check!

Cover It Up!

So tonight it was finally time to close in the 2nd floor air handler. Here the opening is prep’ed for the hinges.

To improve acoustics we attached a thick felt carpet pad, that also had a rubber backing, to the inside of the enclosure door. Felt is great at absorbing sound energy, and the change of densities between the felt, rubber, and wood door also help reduce sound transfer. I knew what kind of door backing we wanted and it turned out a carpet pad was the least expensive way to buy bulk felt.

The door of course will work in concert with the rest of the enclosure which is lined with batt insulation. We want this to be a pleasant bedroom so minimizing HVAC noise is critical.

Here the door is finally hung. It hinges up for service access and will have a support member similar to a car hood to hold it open.

All done, including latches at the corners, and all covered up!

Kelly also got some painting done tonight on the doors while I fussed with the above door installation.

We are slooooowly getting back into renovating and finishing the house. : )

From Radiator to Runtal

During the small bedroom renovation we decided to replace the old cast iron radiator with a thin, wall hung Runtal
radiator to make the most out of the tight space. Here was the old radiator… (and the pre-reno room… we have come a long way!)

After we calculated the BTUs, we had to decide what size unit to order. So of course we drew them on the wall to pick the proportion we liked most.

Now to present day, the bedroom is almost done and it’s time to prep for the radiator.

Brackets mounted & valves installed:

And all done.

Even though it is significantly smaller these radiators put off a lot of heat! Plus our walls have a lot more insulation so this room will be cozy.

Fine Tuning

The first year we moved in we just needed to get things done, especially when it came to things like… heat… hence this crazy installation of pex at our boiler.

We completely redid the heating system when we bought the house. At the boiler we installed individual valves on all radiators on the supply side but on the return only had a valve per zone.

So for this project we installed valves on each return line and reorganized the pex to make the whole installation a little neater.

So you ask why? Well say you are renovating one bedroom… but still want to have heat in the rest of the zone/ floor, you can isolate individual radiators. This also gives the ability to turn off the heat in individual rooms or when you have an issue, such as a leak.

I did take apart the semi-old return manifold to reuse as much as I could. Here I am starting the layout. Mounting the whole thing to plywood allows us to make it that much neater.

Here is the new manifold mounted to the wall and connected to the boiler. Now on to the mess of pipes…

It was a tight space between the boiler and hot water heater to wrestle the pex and make all the connections!

All done and heat is back on!

We can now control both zones and individual radiators. We also labeled everything to make it a little more user friendly.

Now back to the other projects now that this distraction is done.

Rad Times

Before the drywall went up we had to prepare the pex water supply & return pipes and valves for the wall mounted radiator:

Getting the pieces ready:

It’s not elegant but hey it works- strapped on and shimmed to get it within the 7/8″ Inch required by the radiator:

Ta-da, ready for insulation:

Keep It Moving

We’re moving right along to the indoor work, so we temporarily have less floor in the little bedroom. It was… let’s just say… in bad shape. We’re planning to install cork in here eventually, so we’ll be filling in with plywood. Not surprisingly, it’s not level:

I insulated a bit along the exterior with “rotten cotton” to prevent the chance of fire spreading along the outermost floor joists from the kitchen below:

Rob got started on the plumbing changes necessary for the new radiator install that will be piped in the wall instead of connecting at the floor. Unfortunately when he installed the pex at the old radiator he did a really good job so it was a two wrench job un-do it:

By the way he’s our super-bright new alley lights. This picture is taken at night. Don’t blind yourself:

And here’s a glimpse of the bed frame we brought back from the Poconos this weekend. It used to be a rope bed but was modified- so finding a mattress that fits correctly (they’re all made so deep now) will be a challenge… We’re up for it once we have a place to set it up:

Base Base Baby

Back to getting that first floor heat- Rob has the base installed enough to reinstall the living room radiators. The little piece here before:

And after. We have a lot if stuff to do in here still but at least the exterior brick wall isn’t on the verge of possible collapse:

Here’s the three piece base:

The sill is mia, but dang that base is pretty!

… Let’s refresh our memory of that brick fiasco:

Whew.

Tape and Cord

So I doubt I’ll win any awards for my tape installation, but here’s the most exciting use of painters tape currently in our house- holding up some protective plastic around our hvac unit while we continue to run our heat while about to undertake some serious little bedroom demo. The return is in the hall so it can still get (cleanish) air.

Meanwhile Rob updated the linen closet fixture cord. Here’s the after- short & sweet:

Before- long and distracting:

Also did a final round of paint touch-up in the closets before hanging the doors!