Castle Progress Update

The project is coming along. We were close, so close, to having the house ready for them to move into by my overly ambitious target date of the first week of November. And then. (Life seems to have an endless supply of 'and thens'.)

In this case, it's the boiler. We'd had the furnace guy (who is also the electrician) look at the system earlier this year. At that time, he thought it could be helped to limp along until next year, at which point Joe and Rita planned to replace it. 

Time went on, we finished cleaning out the basement, took out a few walls. As I was cleaning up the debris, I found some tree roots from the zombie tree we cut down in the spring coming up through a crack in the basement floor (it REALLY doesn't want to die). The roots ran along the base of the concrete stair, then wound their way into the belly of the boiler. As I pulled them out, I felt some resistance; they'd wound their way around something on the inside.

At the time, I joked that we needed to make sure Albert took a good look at the unit before we turned it on, to make sure the roots weren't integral to the operation of the unit. Turns out I wasn't joking.

When he came back, just before the cold snap hit, to make sure all was OK, he got a better look at the unit than he'd been able to get with the wall blocking a good view of the burners and the inside of the box. The expression on his face was priceless as he tried to come up with a tactful way to tell us he'd rethought his conclusion from the spring, and really, really didn't want to even attempt to fire it up. The roots had wound their way into the rust of the burners - he no longer wanted to even attempt a repair.

So, we started looking at the tag, to dig into the details of when it was installed, how old it was. Turns out it was made before manufacturers started putting serial numbers on boilers - ?sometime in the sixties? I was already convinced we needed a replacement; that clinched the deal.

So, Albert is out looking for the best deal he can find on a new unit, and our local weather decided to turn unseasonably cold. With no way to heat the house, we've been closely watching a couple of thermometers we brought over, to make sure the plants, plumbing and paint supplies are safe. So far, so good; the house has stabilized around 40 degrees and tonight should see the last of the below freezing temps for the next few weeks.

But plaster and paint work can't be done when it's below 50, and so my work there has come to a screeching halt. I'm not complaining - I've been over there almost every day for the last three months; it feels good to just stay home for a bit. This latest wrinkle will push the move date out by a couple of weeks, but if that's the worst thing to happen to me this month, I'll be a happy camper.

The work will still be there when the temps go back up later this week. In the meantime, I have time to stop for a few days; to walk in the snow, to snuggle down in a blanket with a good book. I'd be a fool to complain.

One step at a time, more often forward than back - eventually, we'll get there.