On the brighter side

Lest ye think it's all "doom and gloom" at the new house, here are a few developments we're happy with at the new place. (By the way, the new house is also referred to as 5127, the East Farm, Purpalicious, "the other house", and probably a few more things. It is where we plan to actually live — and soon, we hope.)


First, new landscaping. We've been hard at work on this since just about Day 2. While there are many, many more months (nay, years!) of work to do, we're pleased that it's looking cheerier and more like us. (Although with this continued drought and relentless sun, some things are not so happy any longer.)

Second, new windows (Jeld-Wen and Simonton). Big, big panes of glass allow unobstructed views of the outdoors from pretty much every room in the house. We've had big, clear Simonton windows for years in the old house, and very much enjoy looking out of them.

Third, Ed re-purposed the old electric dryer circuit for a whole-house surge protector. Now all of our electronic controls on our microwave, gas range, French-door refrigerator, etc., are protected from power surges coming into the house. Dirty power from Hurricanes Rita and Ike did a number on the last microwave we had.

Fourth, one of the few worthwhile items in the original landscape was this poor, much-neglected fig tree out back behind the garage. We have been faithfully watering it, and it has been faithfully putting on figs. Well, the first figs are finally ripe! We had a few figs over the 4th of July weekend. They are pretty tasty.

Fifth, and this is probably our favorite change of all, Ed hung our Meyda Tiffany pendant light in the breakfast room recently. Roy & I both absolutely love it. It was well worth the hours spent Googling and perusing lighting online, after we had a vague idea of what we wanted (a Tiffany-style up-light pendant in certain colorways). Serendipity? The blue in the pendant goes very nicely with the blue we chose for the kitchen.


There is a sixth major project, however, it is still in progress, so no pictures yet. Hopefully, it will be finished to usability in the next two weeks (there will be additional work later), and we'll post pictures of its time line and talk all about it then.

Breaker 1-9, what's your 10-20?

Ever had something that just didn't make sense and that you couldn't let alone? We have two of those things, both electrical in nature.

Ed, our electrician, has worked his way through most of our electrical panel. He reclaimed the old 30A electric wall oven circuit, the old 30A electric cooktop circuit, and the old 40A A/C circuits and re-purposed them so that we'd have new circuits for the kitchen. He mapped the other circuits to what they controlled, but there was one circuit that he was not able to trace. Circuit 19.

Since the utility room is gutted, Ed tagged the wire for us yesterday after tracing it from the panel, so that we can see where it begins heading north in the attic. We work a lot cheaper than he does, especially on wild goose chases.

We traced that wire this morning into a wall in the kitchen (where we know it services nothing). There was a wire coming back up that wall cavity, so we guessed it was the same wire, continuing its mysterious journey. We found that it led to the formal dining room. We left the attic and headed for that area. Sure enough, 3 lone receptacles in the dining room were without power. That's bizarre, an entire 20A circuit to service 3 seldom-used receptacles...in a seldom-used room!

But, that may mean that we have a circuit available to tap into for exterior receptacles. We need one on the west side of the house (or northwest eave) and that's exactly where that line runs.

Now, to the second puzzle. There is an existing, seemingly original, exterior outlet on the north side of the master bedroom (northeast side of the house). It has wire coming into the receptacle and leaving the receptacle...but no power. Digging around in the attic yielded no clues - no wire seems to be going to it from the attic, which would lead you to believe that it would be connected via the two indoor receptacles on either side of that window, with the wires running through the wall. I've never wanted to cut into a perfectly good wall so much in my life. Not knowing why that receptacle doesn't have power is infuriating!

We have contemplated that maybe it should be wired from the exterior light, so I want to turn off that breaker and pull that lamp off the wall and see whether there is wire leading away from it that is no longer connected. Yes, I'm grasping at straws. The deal is, if we can't find where it should be powered from, we're going to have to install new receptacles someplace else where we can get wire to them without cutting into the interior walls (and keeping it under the window would necessitate cutting into the interior wall).

One mystery down, one yet to go....

Failing score

This week was window week. We were supposed to have all new windows throughout the house today (save for one window that will be replaced when we expand). That was the theory. How'd that work out in reality?

Total windows to be installed this week: 9

Window #1 was mistakenly ordered in tan. TAN. That one didn't even make it into the house.

Window #2 (double-hung aka DH) has its lower lift rail deformed in two places, and had had red coloration (on the white) that the installer had removed before we ever saw it...not sure why he went to the trouble of removing the red, because we sure are not keeping that sash. Also, it has obscured glass in both sashes, only the orientation of the "pebbling" results in the sashes rubbing against the locks when operated, which results in an irritating grinding sound. That ain't right and isn't acceptable. The proposed resolution is to re-make the upper sash in clear glass, which should, in theory, fix the problem.

Window #3 (DH) has no observed defects (yet?).

Windows #4 & #6 are awning windows in the (mostly) gutted utility room and (mostly) remodeled kitchen. Both are nice windows, although the wood sill they installed in the utility room isn't level.

Windows #5 & #7 are big sliders in the breakfast room and a bedroom. They were ordered without the "air latch", a small latch that allows you to open the window for ventilation, but keep it secured against forced entry. We have them in the old house and use them quite often during open-window season (yes, Houston does have a bit of that).

Window #8 (DH) has a similar deformed lift rail issue in the lower sash as #2. The installer conjectured that the damage occurred on a moving truck, being tied to a post, or something. I don't know, but it is not only deformed, but has a roughed up edge, and the lift rail still has some red still on it, as he didn't even notice the damage and attempt to remove the red.

Window #9 (DH) takes the cake, though. It's the hall bath's window and there is a foot-long scratch INSIDE the glass unit (between the two panes of glass). You can see it clear as day as you walk towards it with light shining through it. That window never should have left the factory. Quality control utterly failed there. The scratch is on the inner side of the interior pane. It also has the same "obscured glass rubbing against the hinge" problem as #2.

So, let's see. A total of 16 sashes.
- Two were screw-ups by the order-maker (tan)
- Two more were screw-ups by the order-maker (missing air latches - isn't having a signed contract by both parties wonderful? I'm waiting for him to realize this is HIS problem and not mine - because when I noticed it, I hadn't re-read my contract - yeah, I'm covered, air latches are specified! Woo-hoo!)
- Two are bad manufacturing design, requiring the home-owner to change what they want to get smoothly operable windows
- Two more were damage in transit (from someplace to someplace) most likely
- One had non-existent QC at the factory.

That's 9 problems in 16 sashes. That's not a good score, is it?

But, all of the problems are in the process of getting addressed, and we like our new windows very much.

Oh, and since I was on the phone with them half of the day, I finally remembered to locate our order number for the windows at the old house and get a replacement framed screen ordered. These windows are 13 years old, with a lifetime warranty on certain things, the screens being one of those things. It had gotten broken years ago and we threw it away. Since we're moving out now, we thought we should probably replace that full-size screen finally. And it's completely free, we just have to find a way to go pick it up when it arrives at the distributor. (David, truck, please?)