House Update:
A long day, though not too bad. The new
house is starting to progress again, now that the builder and his
carpenter are pretty much over the
flu. The weather has gone from warm and wet, which turned the building site into a sea of mud to
frigid and frozen. At least I can get the truck up to the porch now. Tomorrow the
appliances come, and my
kitchen will at least look complete. The carpenter has started work on the upstairs close off, and the
propane tank was installed yesterday. The builder is using a portable
propane heater in the basement to keep the house warm while construction goes on. It is quite effective, but I worry about it running unattended.
My ceramic tile project in the bathrooms is coming along. I got the underlayment bedded and screwed down in one bathroom tonight. Tomorrow morning I tackle the other one, which is off the master bedroom. I should have it bedded and screwed down in 2 or 3 hours, and by afternoon, I will be able to start cutting tile for the other. It is a lot of work, but it does give the house some class.
Keeping the old house together has had its problems, and this winter the oil furnace has been causing more than its share of trouble. In very cold weather, the fuel tends to congeal, since the tank is outside. I will see if I can find some heat tape to keep the line warm, but in the meantime, I am trying to keep the problem section of the line warm enough by placing a droplight next to a particularly troublesome area of the line where it comes out of the tank. Oh well, this house will be my problem for only another month or so.