Awake: 6:15am Temp 55 Cloudy…late evening rain Overnight @ Nicktown.
Arrive @ the Footes @ 9:12am for day one of installing the Space Pak air
conditioning system. 1st we establish the location of the air handler….3rd
floor. My 1st assignment: move an electrical outlet that would interfere
with our choice setting. Having accepted this responsibility, I quickly
realize that it entails the installation of (2) new junction boxes inside
the knee wall attic area. It’s dirty & already hot & I have to move very
old insulation, prop it up so as to nail down the box & run new wiring.
The knee wall area is also quite short & requires either hands & knee
movement or crawling about on one’s stomach, because some of those roofing
nails protrude thru the roofing boards & pose a sneak attack on senior
balding targets. I learned this early, maybe?
Meanwhile Kevin’s job is no cleaner but at least he is able to stand
erect: he’s removing the baseboard trim along the wall. Trim removed, we
both return downstairs & using (2) two-x-fours, slide the 160 lb air
handler up 4 flights of stairs and 4 landings to our intended location.
Kevin did 95 % of the grunt work as I steered the monster around the sharp
corners. After sliding the air handler in its resting position,
measurements & markings are taken, then Kevin begins cutting the required
holes & squares thru the sheet rock & lath strip wall to accommodate the
output air to the tee plenum that will be located in the knee wall attic.
Now both of us are wearing breathing masks & getting dirty.
Mid afternoon, Kevin is finished with matching the air handler unit thru
his wall openings to the attic & I am finished with the moving & re-wiring
of the electrical outlet.
Now I casually try & convince Kevin that a hanging air handler would
produce less vibrations & noise than that of a unit sitting on a floor
with rubber insulators. The master bedroom is on the 2nd floor beneath
this unit. The floating unit would be hung by 4 steel rods from the roof
joists. With meaningful dialog, Kevin is skeptical & would like a 2nd
opinion. I offer to call my cousin Florentz….not home. Next I call Gary
J. in eastern PA. He has gobs of high tech knowledge & experience with
construction matters of all sorts & asks questions like: how long are the
roof joists that the unit will be hanging from? How many joists will you
use? What does the air handler weight? What length of eye bolts will you
use? The Gary J. call was what we needed; Kevin approves the idea & will
begin making the platform later this evening. I work 7 hrs without a lunch
break today. Back to our home on wheels @ 4:30.
During our 16 days away in Seattle & Anchorage, our near neighbor Chuck
drained his in-ground pool, collapsed the walls, filled the hole with dirt
& had (5) huge loads of topsoil brought in to cover the area. The other
day, I asked him if I could buy a few wheelbarrow loads to fill in the
ruts I made in Nick’s (another neighbor) yard when we got stuck in the
snow while pulling our motorhome onto St. Paul Street toward our parking
spot December 16th. He said “OK” but NO charge & he would provide the
wheelbarrow. So @ 4:40 I start & move (7) wheelbarrow loads into those BIG
tire ruts. A cold front was moving in & that felt good, but strong winds
were also whipping up with dark clouds following. I finished @ 6:15.
During my shower, heavy rain begins. I finished the ruts in Nick’s yard
just in the “nick” of time!
8:00 dinner: Crab cakes (Kathy’s homemade) with asparagus, brown rice &
toast.
Evening movie from Satellite: “Theory of Flight.” Definitely different…&
difficult to predict what happens next.
High temp=72 Lights out: 9:57pm
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