We took possession of the farm on Monday. MP has done some cleaning, but is mostly just still watching the little ones and making sure I get fed. I stayed overnight yesterday (and tonight) - mainly to make sure the heat situation was under control. I'm glad I stayed . . . I noticed that the downstairs (heated by the brand new hot water boiler) couldn't climb above 60 degrees all day, and dropped to 50 slowly over night. I watched the boiler cycle a few times and found that the temp was to heat the water to 145 when it dropped in temp to 115. Way too cold. It's now set to heat the water to 200 when it drops to 180 - first floor still isn't warm, and I need more blankets. Brrrr! We're going to have some more radiators added to the system. I spent the evening fixing 2 basement doors that the previous occupants had broken while moving stuff out, and insulating the wall of plywood in the basement that used to be a drive in garage - seems to have helped the basement a lot.
We've been lucky not to have had any significant water damage on the main floors, but we did have some pipes break - we now have no water running to the 2nd story. Boiler guy noticed the water pouring into the basement when he was in to put the boiler in before we had taken possession. He found a shut off valve quickly so no damage to speak of (that we've found) apart from the pipes. If I get lucky, the damage will be to the portion of the pipes I have easy access to and I can cut them off and run new line to them from the basement without too much trouble - this may be the case as that is the most likely place for the pipe to have frozen - I can see where the insulation should have gone, not sure where it went : ).
Tomorrow I buy some propane or kerosene space heaters to use in case of emergency, and (hopefully) start tearing out the first floor bathroom.
Other stuff . . . internet is ok with wildblue satellite, but VPN is slow. Telecommuting will be rough.
MP's laptop will be traded with a comparable but less marketable version of her current laptop rather than spend the 300 - 400 to repair. It's a good trade on both ends, but MP is a litle sad - she was attatched to that thing.
Temperature check!
Outside - 22 degrees
Main floor shows 60 degrees on both thermostats - we often set our thermostats this low at our old house, but we can make it hotter if we want - this is as hot as the 1st floor can get at the moment. shiver but it could be worse so no complaints.
Basement was super cold under the addition (no plumbing there), but much warmer under the main part of the house. I turned on two of the space heaters down there just in case, but I think it would have been fine without them. I need to get some thermometers down there - running the space heaters will get expensive soon.
It's lonely out here - I'm eager to get the new bathroom and the hot water installed to MP and the kids can start staying here with me.
Congrats on getting in and making forward progress. Sounds like the house isn't making things easy, but just imagine those not-too-distant summer nights when you can sit in your front yard and see stars by the millions. If you need a warm up, or just a friendly ear come on up, we're generally home (with the coffee pot on) this time of year.
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