Posts Tagged ‘condo’

Last summer I ventured into the attic and tackled a project aimed at more efficiently cooling my condo. I installed air ducts to pull the hottest air down from the ceiling and into the air conditioner unit in the basement. I used vent covers that could be opened in the summer and closed in the winter. It worked pretty well.

Now I’m aiming to do the same thing for the winter. For about $25 in parts, I’m installing a return air vent in the basement to suck in the coldest air and heat it. I did most of the work today – cutting the drywall and assembling the duct piping – and need only to obtain a six inch circular hole saw to complete the project. Hopefully I can do that over the next week or two.

What I really don’t understand is why most homes aren’t built with more efficient return air ducts in the first place. Is it because builders know most home owners won’t open and close the vents twice a year with the changing of the seasons? It blows my mind…

Just a quick update before bed: on Saturday I rented an Attic Cat insulation blower from Lowes and picked up a few more bags of insulation. I ended up blowing two bags into the garage attic and the remaining three bags into the condo attic. It was actually pretty fun and I’m satisfied knowing that will pay dividends not only for the garage but for the condo as well.

On Sunday I found a leak in the basement. The piping behind the shower sprung a small leak sometime recently and the laundry room floor and under the shower were covered in water. I was able to find the leak without too much difficulty after ruling out the dehumidifier and the shower drain. I cut open the drywall and hired out a plumber to weld/solder in a new section of pipe. Here’s the new pipe.

Here’s the piece that was removed… notice the water deposits.. making me think this has been a slow leak for a while that widened after the shower was used on Saturday.

That’s all patched up now and I had the contractor who is mudding our garage today and tomorrow patch up a few spots in the house too. After the mudding is done in the garage, I’ll:
-mount up all the accessories that need studs (to create the holes)
-remove accessories and prime and paint
-cut floor, install drains?, apply floor covering
-reinstall accessories

It’s hard to believe the garage project is getting close to completion!

A little over a week ago I posted a picture of some duct piping I creatively put together to attack a problem with hot air in the condo. That solution was obviously temporary – and given that I had today off from work and the weather was supposed to be mild (in the upper 60s), I took the opportunity to start putting the permanent solution in place. Up into the attic I went…

As you can see, it was pretty warm in the attic despite only being 67ish outside. The sun beating on the shingles for several hours this morning is the culprit.

I started with the vent into the A frame of the cathedral ceiling. Used a 14×6 opening for this one. I had to pull back a lot of insulation to get at the drywall.

This is a shot of the transition out of the wall cavity I’m using as a pipe. This is directly above the return air duct vent below the thermostat. You can see the top side of the can light in the hallway by my left foot. The transition piece is a 14 or 12 by 3.5 that’s made for this purpose. This was the hardest part of the whole day: I had to cut through 3 2x4s laid on top of each other to get into the cavity from the top… finally borrowing a reciprocating saw to make it easier.. otherwise I’d probably still be up there drilling holes. After about three hours, I’d gotten it trimmed and perfectly sized.

I used six inch piping throughout.. a y-pipe here allows me to put one vent in the A frame of the living room and another into the master bedroom (which gets really warm on summer afternoons as it’s on the west side of the condo).

I did quite a bit of eyeballing on this project… not typical for me but it worked out well. Here you can see the two pieces that will eventually connect.

By this point, I’m sweating like there is no tomorrow. It’s climbed to 70 outside and about 105 inside.. enough to max out the thermostat.

Here’s the cut and placement of the pipe for the master bedroom. Used a 12×6 here.

Here’s a shot from above the master bedroom showing the entire system. I had to break from the project to head to a 4th of July party so I left the duct taping and clamping for tomorrow. I also need to insulate the pipes to prevent the hot attic air from warming the air in the pipes on the way to the air handler.

After returning from the festivities earlier than expected, I finished the drywall and vent work on the visible side. Here is the A frame vent. Almost looks like it has always been there.

Here is the master bedroom vent. A little close to the door for my liking but there is a few inches of clearance between the edge of the vent and the wall. Both vents have levers for opening and closing so this should allow a lot of flexibility for efficient cooling.

Tomorrow I’ll finish up and in addition to a little work in the attic, I need to open up the bottom of the wall cavity and seal off the existing vent (below the thermostat) so that the suction is from the two new vents in the ceiling. After tomorrow, bring on the hot weather!

I’m not done with the garage project… I’m not even any further than I was last weekend. This past week and a half has been busy with wrapping up my summer MBA class and hosting colleagues from North Carolina, Texas, and Canada (in addition to work full time, etc.). But leave it to me to get frustrated with something and tackle it head on. I did that tonight with the HVAC system in our condo.

The problem is that the air conditioner runs for hours and hours. It has ever since we moved here over two years ago. The sun beats on the back of the condo all afternoon and the back inside walls are warm to the touch (having dark brown exterior walls that absorb all that heat doesn’t help). In conjunction with this, the return air ducts are on the floor of the main floor. Anyone with any amount of science background knows that heat rises so having the return ducts on the floor doesn’t do us any favors in the summer when trying to get rid of the heat. I actually measured the difference last night before bed and a thermostat at the floor close to the return duct measured a full 10 degrees cooler than the wall thermostat four feat up the wall. That explains why my feet are cold and the rest of me is warm when on the main floor. Its hard to sleep at 80 degrees and seeing that the floor was that much cooler pushed me over the edge.

I went to Lowes and picked up some ducting supplies. This is what I built: pretty cool if you ask me. You can see the two return ducts on the floor in the lower left and lower right.. and the thermostat on the wall. Within a matter of 10 minutes of setting this up, the wall thermostat dropped two degrees (it had taken 4 hours to drop it one degree prior to this).

Eventually I plan to run a return line up into the attic to connect to the peak of our vaulted ceiling and also another one to the ceiling in the bedroom. I’m also going to put one in downstairs near the floor to help keep the basement warm in the winter (another issue).. I’ll delete one of the existing main floor vents and use levers built into the vents to control settings for winter and summer. Man, I love efficiency!

I’m finishing up a great weekend as I type this. Friday night we held a cookout at our condo and had about 16 people show up for hamburgers and snacks. We had great weather for it and the only thing that could have made the evening better would have been a win in game 7 by the Wings. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

Saturday morning was the Brian Diemer 5k race in Cutlerville. Having went sub 20 on this course last year, I didn’t have any specific goal in mind. Instead, I decided to see if a friend of mine would be interested in a pacer on her way to going sub 25. She agreed and we came in at 24:51! Congrats again Jen! Phil also had a great run and came in a few minutes after us.

Saturday evening was the Local First Street party downtown. Featuring Founder’s beer and food from several local Grand Rapids eateries, the street party was hopping with the addition of live music on a stage set up at one end. Ran into a lot of people from work and had a great time chatting with some friends.

Sunday morning Kellie and I had breakfast with my parents at a new (for us) restaurant in East Town called Brandywine. The food was good and there’s something neat about trying out new places – and enjoying good company and conversation at the same time.

I spent the afternoon on condo projects and made some headway on the garage. I’ve got 8 batts in the ceiling, half the garage door covered, and some of the top edges of the garage done too.

I’m hoping to do the other half of the garage door myself but will need Kellie’s help to finish the ceiling… so it’ll have to be a time we both have available.

I also finished the electrical today with the installation of a switched outlet on the front of the garage. I bought a jigsaw from Lowes and love it! It made easy work of cutting the whole for the box. I hung a wreath and plugged it in for testing purposes tonight (I know – a wreath out in June is crazy!).

Lastly, I dug out the dirt and mulch covering the siding on the side of the garage and am planning to put in a walkway with the ground level below the siding. I have no idea why dirt was ever allowed to cover the siding but it’s now fixed. There’s a lot of damage done to the siding from this (as is evidenced in the picture) – but it shouldn’t get any worse.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

I’ve really been enjoying the home gym setup we installed in the laundry room of the condo a few months back. It’s so nice having it all at home and not having to drive to the gym and work around that in scheduling the day. It’s amazing how quickly we adapt to upgrades in life and how quickly we start looking for ways to improve upon those improvements. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing lately with the home gym. I can’t imagine having to go back to going to a gym but I’m already looking for ways to enjoy a home gym even more – I can’t just be happy with with I have.. I always look for the next better thing. Here’s what I’m looking at getting next:

This is the Half Cage Ensemble from Hoist Fitness (maker of the adjustable bench we currently own). This is (as far as I’m concerned) the holy grail of a compact home gym. In fact, this contraption has been awarded best home gym by several leading fitness magazines and groups for several years now. It has just about everything you need.

The only problem (other than cost) is space, or lack thereof. To fit this in the laundry room, I need to do some remodeling. We’re talking about moving a few walls and such. That’s how much of an itch I get to upgrade things… ridiculous, isn’t it? Yet those who know me well know that they can bet on a year from now seeing a picture on this blog of that machine in my basement. Count on it. :)

I’ve been meaning to share my spring/summer project on this blog for a while now but hadn’t downloaded the progress photos from the camera until now. I’m renovating our 24′ x 24′ (oversized) two stall garage… adding electrical, insulation, drywall, and storage. I’m doing this because the garage isn’t as usable as it could be.. and I like to improve things. Storage space has consisted of “throwing it up into the rafters” and winters are not kind to the garage. From time to time, condensation drips off of the nails in the ceiling and during cold spells, water and ice build on on our vehicles and on the garage floor. Drainage problems abound and I find myself each spring wishing I didn’t have so much clean up after four or five months of winter. Here are the steps I am taking/have taken:

1. Chalk baseboards and drafty building seams

2. Add another exterior light to enhance visibility in front of the garage and on street corner (on a light sensor circuit)

3. Insulate walls with R-13

4. Add electrical outlets above future workbench

5. Add thermostat-controlled heater

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6. Add electrical outlet for Christmas wreath (on a light sensor circuit)

7. Insulate ceiling with R-19

8. Groove cement floor to manage water drainage

9. Epoxy/coat garage floor (hired service?)

10. Drywall walls, ceiling (hired service/lots of friends)

11. Add organization components (Gladiator 6′ workbench, modular tool drawer, gear locker, 2x 30″ cabinets.. also looking for some soft of metal handing shelf for sides of garage.. any ideas?)

When all is said and done, I’m going to be maintaining 40 degrees or so in the garage during the winter.. allowing all ice to melt and all liquids and tools to stay in the garage during the winter (instead of being moved to the basement of the condo).

Trip to Lowes for new exterior light

After first or second day of chalking/insulation work

Exterior light, installed on a light sensing switched power line

More work done today.  Last night Kellie and I tore off all the drywall on the back wall so I could insulate and chalk it.  Workbench is also gone…

My electrical work.  Wired in an in-wall heater I picked up at Lowes and added two additional outlets.

All nice and insulated (except for the corners – see far right).  Wiring came next.

Now all the wall insulation AND wiring are done.  Tested everything and it all works.  Check out how dirty the cars and bikes are from all this work (really just from the drywall teardown).

I’ve taken two Fridays off now to do all this work and will probably need another two or three to finish everything. Then I’ll have to figure out what my next project is!

A lot has been going on lately and today feels like the first day I’ve been able to breath over the past week. Kellie and I have been making progress on the kitchen remodel as we had the new countertop installed last Thursday. We chose Crystalline Dune from the WilsonArt HD line and it turned out beautifully.. a marked improvement over the leather-textured Formica we had from the late 80s. The new American Standard sink is in too. On Saturday morning, we had part one of the tile backsplash installed and this morning that was finished as well. Our drywall repairman was in this morning too and will be doing some touch up work later this week or next. The new appliances have been ordered (Whirlpool range and refrigerator) and will be delivered next Thursday (since we are gone this Thursday). Kellie’s also working on a date to get the floors balanced and laid with new Faus laminate tile flooring.

I’ve also started another project, a home gym in the extra space in our laundry room. After some research, I ordered a 5-50lbs dumbbell weight set and rack by VTX and picked up a Hoist adjustable bench and 3, 8, and 12lb VTX dumbbells for Kellie. We picked up a stability ball and some foam flooring too.. and now I’m working on getting some mirrors for the walls. This should allow us to drop our gym memberships and save seven or eight hundred dollars a year. Over the course of our lifetime, that will add up. The real reason for doing this is to make working out a more integrated part of our lives. We mean well when we set the alarm for 6 AM to get up to the gym in the morning but our bodies don’t always obey when it’s really cold outside. My hope is having the gym downstairs (with a bar for mixing shakes 10 feet away) will leave us no excuse.

Kellie and I are also heading to Tampa, Florida in a few days for a long weekend with some good friends, the Semeyns. Ben is running the Tampa Bay marathon on Sunday and I’ve signed up for the half marathon. We also hope to see Ryan Hall on Saturday as he’s racing the 15k. We’ll be gone Thursday thru Monday… hitting the Tampa Aquarium and Busch Gardens at some point during the weekend too.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/TampaMarathonTrip

Kellie and I are one step closer to the kitchen remodel now. We’ve picked out the countertop, flooring, new appliances, and tonight we made our first purchase: an American Standard sink, faucet, and soap dispenser. The new sink features one large bay and one smaller bay which will make washing dishes much easier since our current sink is not very deep and can’t fit many of our Calphalon dishes completely in the sink. Combine that with the new faucet which is a pull out with multiple spray types and it should be nice. The soap dispenser will be nice too because we won’t constantly have to get the bottle of dish soap out from below the sink each time we do dishes.

This is the sink, faucet, and soap dispenser.

Today must be home improvement day: shortly after finishing the last project of installing an outdoor outlet, I headed to Lowes and picked up a clear piece of Plexiglas and a hook. My goal? To create a dishrag holder on the inside of the cabinet door below the sink. I’m a tidy freak and like clutter tucked away in its place: out of sight. This hook also serves the purpose of keeping the rag from continually getting wet while straddling the ridge between the two bowls of the sink. I reason that this will help keep the bacteria in the rag at bay as that bacteria needs moisture to survive. So, for $7.14 at Lowes, this is the end product.