An Annoyance...Scheduling...Caulking and Scrapiing

Today was more like I thought yesterday might be.  Not exactly leisurely. There were no contractors working at 3283 today. But I did have one "annoyance."

It rained until about 9:30 this morning...not heavily, but steadily.  I was meeting with a potential HVAC contractor at 10:00. So I arrived just as the rain was stopping. I pulled in front of the garage, turned the car off, and stepped out the door into a puddle. I had time, so I thought I'd move the car so I could avoid the water later. I got back in, turned the key and.....nothing. Well not exactly nothing....more like that click,click,click,click that is autolanguage for "your battery is dead."

I went inside and called AAA. Of course while I was on the phone the contractor showed up. But AAA was efficient and I was only on the phone for 5 or 10 minutes.

I took the contractor on a tour of the house: showed him the basement and the location for the furnace; walked him around the main floor -- showing where the old heat registers are located; showed him the new rooms in the addition; and then, took him upstairs. The challenge in providing heating and cooling at 3283 is finding a way, or ways, to get  duct-work to the second floor.  Each of the proposed contractors will have their own approach. We will likely make the choice of contractor largely based on how the ducts will reach the upstairs bedrooms.

The HVAC guy was still looking around when the AAA service man showed up, very easily jumped my car...and suggested that the battery was likely "toast."  I was told that I would be getting an updated quote from the contractor shortly. I hadn't turned the car off, and was now free to drive into town and deal with my "annoyance."

Auto Zone was the closest "chain" auto-parts store to 3283. "Junior" eventually figured out what the right series of batteries fit my car. I skipped 'good' and 'best', settled for 'better' and he proceeded to install it for me. Well he installed it with only 2-3 'suggestions' from me --- like how to fit it into the brackets that hold it in place.  I've written a lot, so far today, with no pictures. So I thought you might like to see my new battery.

Think this one will get me another 74,000 miles?

Besides the auto annoyance and the visit from an HVAC contractor some progress was made on the 3283 project today.

Some of it consisted of scheduling:

• Mitch, from Consumers Power, will be at 3283 tomorrow about 2:00 to detrermine route for underground electric service, and [hopefully] schedule the connection,
• Five Pella windows will be delivered on Monday between 7:30 and 8:30 AM,
• The retaining wall will begin being constructed on Monday or Tuesday.

And some consisted of scraping and caulking:

• The band boards around the front porch that were installed yesterday needed a bead of caulk along there upper edge. I used the sunny afternoon to complete that task.
• But I also noticed that previous caulk above the new boards [at the base of the bead board siding] was in disrepair. So, I scraped the old caulk and will allow the wood to dry overnight and re-caulk that area as I wait for Mitch tomorrow.

Can there be anything more boring than pictures of scraped or caulked walls? Check these out and let me know.  I will be headed to Livonia tomorrow once Mitch and I coordinate on getting                     electricity to 3283.  Unless there are surprises tomorrow, the next post will likely be Monday.