Updates
In April, I did a post about having the HVAC for the third floor of the Cross House totally redone. Bad was transformed into good. And this work…ta-da!…completes all the heating/cooling on the big house. It has been a long and terrifyingly $$$$ odyssey.
Then, last year, I documented the huge amount of work to redo the HVAC for the basement and first-floor of the carriage house:
The HVAC had no trunk line (a main duct that has smaller ducts running off it). Instead, all ducts came directly from the fan coil unit, snaking out like pythons all over the basement. The stuff of nightmares.
The new custom-built trunk line, an utter genius idea of mine: just 4-inch in height, and 34-across at its widest point. This means that tall Justin can walk around the attic and not smack his head into the trunk line. The smaller ducts now fit up between the ceiling joists and connect to the trunk line.
And now…drum roll, please…the HVAC has also been totally redone for the second floor of the carriage house. This is the mess which remains in the East Sunporch.
The second-floor ductwork was also in the attic. It, too, had no trunk line, so more pythons snaked from the fan-coil unit laying down inside the attic. This, combined with so much cellulose insulation that the attic looked like sand dunes in the Sahara, made accessing the attic incredibly difficult.
Now, the fan-coil unit is vertically installed (as God intended) in the former main bathroom. It can now be easily accessed for repair and changing the filter (as God intended). A new trunk line in the attic creates so much more room to move about.
The former pythons proved…to all our horror…mostly eaten away by small animals so turning on the heating/cooling meant that, for years, the attic was heated/cooled rather than the second-floor.
As the work commenced, Richard (from Modern Air), while laying on his stomach tight inside the south dormer. He heard an odd noise, glanced to his left, and recoiled from bared teeth.
An opossum was sooooooo not happy.
When Richard told me the story a few hours later I replied: “That’s odd. Opossums are normally passive. Oh…fuck…she’s protecting babies!”
And so this proved true. Richard and Ryan (both from Modern Air), Justin and Scott, and myself, spent the next 48-hours working to trap mamma and her EIGHT (incredible adorable) babies and releasing them adjacent to a river many miles away.
But how had the opossum gotten into the attic? Small creatures IN the house has been a problem since I purchased the property in 2014, but earlier this year I thought I had at least discovered the access hole, adjacent to the turret. I blocked this up with metal flashing and assumed all was well.
Mama opossum proved my assumption wrong.
So, Justin and I began the Great Search for another access hole.
A hole, invisible from ground level, and sandwiched between the two south-facing dormers. Mama and her many babies were just inside this hole.
Via great effort (involving scary tall ladders, me lying on my back on the roof while trying not to slip off the roof), the hole was closed up and at last, at last, the long-running saga of small creatures in the carriage house is…knock on wood…finally at an end.
For the next 10 days I left a live trap in the attic with food…but there were no takers.
Knock on wood.
Knock on wood.
This, thus, also completes the heating/cooling for the carriage house, another significant milestone.
Oh, and please knock on wood.
With all this work now completed, I spent the last few days going through the carriage house and cleaning and vacuuming. Cellulose insulation was everywhere. But now, save the mess in the East Sunporch (which will get tossed out the adjacent door to a now-removed fire-escape stair), the floors throughout the house are clean, toilets again sparkle, mirrors are polished, and today I finally hung a Candice Olson hipster chandelier in the dining room, which I purchased for the room in 2014. And tonight? I ordered hipster drapes for the room.
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You must be tremendously over the hump and finally seeing a pin prick of light at the end of the tunnel that means you’re nearly done. Yes, a lot still to do but a tremendous lot you’ve done.
Congrats on finding the Momma ‘possum, figuring out there was a litter and relocating them all. She likely wasn’t happy about it but maybe in the end she will come to accept it was the better alternative.
So you didn’t end up hanging that 1955 Hollywood Regency chandelier? Pity. I really liked it with those green crystals in that room. But I’m sure whatever you chose will work.
I’m afraid I’m a bit sheltered and old fashioned, not that I was ever fashioned.
What is Hipster? Are you talking bell bottoms and garish colors?
Not sure what my house is. Early to late 20th century eclectic?
I have decided on Edwardian for Edward Tulane’s rooms of which there will now be three. He will be an era before my house. I’m shopping for his library right now. His living room is going to look very similar to the Carriage House dining room, with that fireplace and two small windows on each side. His living room will have build in book cases flanking the fireplace. The half walls with columns? He’s going to have those too. Construction will be a bit faster than yours as he is a doll and his three rooms will only be 1:9 scale with no kitchen or bathrooms. I need to go back and look at some more of your photos for reference and proportion. Good photo of that fireplace. I am going to have to build one for Edward as there is nothing to scale available pre-made.
Hurrah! A gargantuan work, accomplished! You faced your fear of heights too! Group hug!!!
Wow. I would NOT want to look an angry opossum in the face from any distance. You all are brave. Very, very brave.
Wow! You must feel awesome! Thanks for rescuing the opossums. Day off Monday? 🙂
I am just glad to see your post!!! 😊
As usual I was worried about you.
Thought you had “the Covid” as people in my neck of the woods sometimes refer to it.
I love when important, major renovation work is done….and done correctly.
Good job outta you!
Take care and be careful!!!! (darned animals)
Good to hear from you again, Ross! I just had a similar encounter with a mama raccoon and her 3 kids… they climbed a small tree (now gone) next to a single story ell, pulled out a louvered vent, and set up house in a small attic over our pantry and kitchen. Cute family, but very noisy…especially between 10PM and 4AM. I caught a youngster in a cage trap, then set him outside under the small tree; when mama and his siblings visited him in jail, I showed up and cut down the little tree, eliminating their access. I put junior into a pet taxi (NOT an easy task) and planned to catch the rest of the family and relocate them all together, but mama and her 2 remaining kids refugeed from the area… Junior was old enough to fend for himself so I took him to some wooded property we own and released him. I grew up in the country but have lived in town now for 21 years, and I swear, I see more animals (rabbits, raccoons, possums, skunks, etc) in town than I ever did on the farm.