Killer House, the Sequel

As I'm writing in the office, I hear a familiar scratching/scraping noise. Can it be? I go outside, shake the downspout, and yes, hear frantic scratching from a little furry critter.

We have gutter guards over our gutters to keep leaves (and squirrels?) out, but there is a small squirrel-sized gap near the top opening of the downspout. I suppose that's how they are getting in. The why is, unfortunately, unknown. What is luring squirrels into our downspout? Are they trying to build a nest? Did they store a bunch of nuts in it? Do they think it is a slide?

Whatever their reasoning, I didn't want to leave it inside. It'd probably stink a lot to have a rotting squirrel in your downspout come warm weather. I carefully disconnected the downspout from the system and this time a grey blur emerged and scampered away to the nearest tree. Oi.

Killer House

A couple of days ago, our house did something bad.

As I was getting ready for work I heard a strangely loud scraping noise from our office. I thought it was the oil company filling up our heating oil tank, but there was no truck out front. The noise kept coming back every few minutes, so as I left, I walked around the outside to try and figure out what the noise was. 

The scraping/scratching noise got increasingly frantic as I approached the corner of the house. Something was stuck inside the downspout of our gutter system. Either a squirrel or a big rat. It had fallen down all the way to the bottom and was trying to climb out. There, fortunately, was an easy solution to the problem - just unhook the bottom of the downspout and shake out the critter. Unfortunately, the freezing weather and fall leaves had resulted in the bottom foot of the downspout being filled with a solid block of ice and leaves. I couldn't knock it out and I didn't have the time to bring out rounds of boiling water to melt it. 

The high for the day was to be over 50, so I figured I would come home and the ice would be soft enough to knock out. The furry creature could last the day.

Wrong.

I kicked out the ice and then out came a squirrel popsicle. I guess hypothermia set in. 

Bad house! No killing!

RIP, stupid squirrel.

Initial Thoughts on Windows

In the last two weeks, we've had four in-home estimates and one online estimate. I think we've almost made a decision, but I can blog about that later. For now, for the benefit of anyone else reading this that might buy windows (which is a small crowd, since--as I hope--most of these readers are far more knowledgeable and experienced homeowners than me), here are my thoughts on the estimate process.

1. Subscribe to Angie's List. Or at least pretend to.
Most of the companies ask where you heard of them. If you say anything but Angie's List, you'll get a pretty neutral response. But mention Angie's List and suddenly they sound impressed and excited. I'm convinced that your ability to rate them for others to see actually means something to them. So don't subscribe for the reviews (they have not been particular helpful) but just for the power to review. Or just tell them you have Angie's List, because they'll never know.

2. Ask for print versions of the warranties for both the contracting company and the manufacturer.
I have been amazed at how much we have been lied to on our warranty coverage. The problem is that EVERYONE is lying, so you can't eliminate a company just for that. "How much does it cost to replace a broken window?" "Free." "What about labor?" "Free." Except they don't tell you that after a year or two, either or both of the supplies and labor will probably be pro-rated until eventually you're paying full price. I don't mind taking responsibility for my windows, but I mind that these people are not telling me the truth. (Finally by the end we asked very pointed questions so that there was no way out, and then we got honest answers: "Do you pro-rate your labor costs?" "Well...we follow the industry standard of pro-rating after 2 years..." Gotcha!)

3. Most people will bring a sample window but some don't. If you're a visual or tactile person, ask for one to be sure.
First, I thought it was weird, but then when one guy didn't bring the window sample I found myself immediately not wanting to hire his company. They all look pretty much the same, but somehow having something to touch can really help. I bet asking for them when you make the appointment would guarantee that everyone brings a model.

4. Learn your figures.
The minimum energy efficiency on the window to qualify for the tax credit is strict and could change. There are u-factors and solar heat gain coefficients and air transfers. Everyone will tell you about them whether you want to hear about it or not ("I know, I know, the last 3 guys before you all told me about them!") but you should probably read about it from a neutral source before you start.

5. If you're like us and only do minimal research beforehand, you will not get enough information from the first person to give you an estimate.
We ended up getting much better at asking questions with each visit so that now I realize that I did not get even half the necessary information from the first guy.  In fact, our first salesman (probably sensing I didn't know much) tried to sell me on things like virgin (non-recycled) vinyl (which apparently is an industry standard, not a special feature), metal locks (again, all of them come with that), and not using day laborers for the installation (no one has admitted to using them; they all claim to use in-house reputable staff). We could probably call back for more info on the things we now realize are important (like the warranty, see point 2), but that company isn't making our final cut either way.

6. Get the REAL price.
Make sure that the final estimate includes everything and not just the standard price/window. Some companies include capping (putting aluminum or some other substance on the remaining exterior wood to protect it), material disposal, and grids but in the price/window but others apparently don't. Make sure there are no hidden costs. We had to ask specifically "does the price include X?" to be certain.

There are probably more but I wanted to jot these down while I was thinking about them. I'm sure I'll have plenty more to say when we decide on a company and start the actual replacement.

I'm hunting wabbits!

Not these:

But these:

As I put away our Christmas decorations and straighten up the house, I thought it would be a good time to ask how different people clean their wood floors and rugs. It was so much simpler (though a lot uglier) with our beige wall-to-wall carpets in our last apartment. Now, we have varied floor coverings and bare (polyurethaned) wood, which makes clean-up a lot harder.

Doing next-to-no research, I was prepared to use a vacuum weekly plus a wax or oil like Murphy's Oil occasionally. D, doing much more research, discovered that oils are unnecessary and even harmful for floors. Vacuums can be bad, especially if you set the bristles spinning, which can wear off the polyurethane. Our hard-core Dyson animal, so great for our old carpets, isn't even very good at hardwood. D is a proponent of microfiber dustmops, but I apparently am not very skilled at maneuvering them and tend not to pick up very much as I go.

After a long debate, D also finally agreed that a tiny amount of moisture very very occasionally will also not kill the floors, giving me license to use a Swiffer once in a blue moon. The dry mop just never made the floors feel very clean.

He dust-mops while I vacuum our rugs, which is actually difficult, since they are small and the Dyson is large. Plus I have to pick up the beast and carry it around to each area rug, which is no fun (though nice exercise). Then I use the hose to suck up the pile of dust bunnies that D gathered. I also use the hose to try to get into crevices and corners (like under our love seat) where the bunnies seem to gather and where the dust mop can't reach. Together, this seems like a lot of work, especially since we aren't even cleaning the upstairs yet. And even right after cleaning, I start to see the bunnies emerge from hiding to taunt us. Last week, after D started waking up very sniffly every morning, I moved our night tables and was appalled to find a whole litter of bunnies that must have though we would never find them. I sucked them up right away, but it got me wondering where else they are hiding. Is there no end to them? I think maybe I preferred our carpets, where the dust lived far more invisibly in non-bunny state (it was still there, but I couldn't get under our furniture to see it).

So what do you do?

A Post About Windows

I had a plan for my first post of the new year. I was going to talk about how now that the holiday season is almost over (and it was an amazingly beautiful and relaxing one in our new place), it's time to get back into the season of home improvement. I was going to talk about how we have a contractor coming to give us an estimate on windows for our upstairs, and talk about all different configurations we are considering. I was. Until this morning.

That post will have to wait because this morning the home ownership gods decided to remind us that we are not always in control of our own repair decisions. At 10:00am on what the weather channel is calling a "blustery" day, this:

Made contact with this:

 Here's a closer look:

We're very glad that it did not shatter the window pane, though it certainly woke us up (it's the side window in the downstairs bedroom where we sleep). For now, we taped it up on both sides:

But we're not sure what to do next. As I mentioned above, a window contractor is coming to give us some upstairs estimates on Monday, so we can have him check this out too. However, we don't want these windows replaced, we just want a new pane. Would this be a better job for a glass specialist? D thinks that it would be worth calling a few places and asking if they are familiar with repairing older windows, to make sure that the window frame isn't damaged during the repair. I have no concept of how much something like this usually costs ($10? $100? $1000?) but obviously it has to get done.

Well, at least this post still turned out to be about windows. More home improvements on the horizon!