Project done for now...

Finished spackling, sanded and put on a coat of primer.  Will wait until all renovations are done before finishing.  Once the new wall configuration is complete in the west bedroom, we will put in a new engineered wood floor, new trim throughout, then paint.

Let there be more light!

Today I switched the bed and love-seat around and then put recessed lighting in the west room.  Now I finally have enough light in the rooms to see what I am doing, and can finish up with a final coat of mud.

Let there be light...

Today I removed the fan and its one insipid light from the east room.  In its place, I installed 9 recessed lights.  You can only see six in the picture as three are hidden by the wall.

Wall board is up...
and first application of joint compound is complete.

Progress...
Our friends Don and Denise left today about 10AM so I was able to get back to working on the bedroom.  I framed in the opening and tidied up all the low voltage wiring.  It now all lives in a nice blue conduit.  I started putting on drywall, but ran out.  Next pictures will be with the opening with the drywall.

Some Decisions are Pending!

Just received first sketches from the architect.  Any thoughts on the two proposals?

I just couldn't help myself

The deed is done!  The house did not fall over.  Now for the trim work.

Getting Started

Boredom finally overcame me.  The books on Geothermal had not yet arrived.  So I determined to get going with something I could do, remove the non-bearing wall between the two guest bedrooms that we intend to make into one room as part of the remodel.

I cleaned out the office area on Monday, and put up my office furniture for sale on KSL. On Tuesday I began to tear down the drywall on the office side of the wall.  We are having guests on Friday and Saturday night, so thought I would defer tearing down the wall in the guest bedroom until after they leave (we will see if I can resist the temptation.)

Two issues.  Although the wall separating the two rooms is non-bearing, it does have a shear strap embedded in it.

Neither Josh nor I can understand why the shear strap is needed, so I am planning on removing it.  If the house topples, we will understand the need.

The other issue is that the electricity for the bedroom ran through this wall. I cut the wire prior to understanding that it was the sole source of power to the sockets in the guest bedroom.  Today I will alleviate the situation by installing a wire through the attic to re-power the room.

The books arrived yesterday afternoon, and I am trying to see if they contain the information I need to determine if I can go geothermal at a reasonable cost.

Updates to the Addition Plans.


The plans for the mother-in-law apartment are evolving.

I had intended to put a full basement under the apartment.  Because the apartment will butt up against portions of the  the existing foundation that are not full basement height, this has become a practical impossibility.  With the full basement off the table, my architect had two proposals.  One, to build the addition over a crawl space; or two, to pour an above grade concrete slab.  The concrete slab would forever embed any below floor mechanical stuff (drains, duct work) within it.  I have opted for the crawl space.

I have been thinking about an alternate use for the ground which will be below the addition; and am exploring the possibility of using that ground as a heat source / sink for a geothermal heating / cooling system for the addition.

A geothermal heating / cooling system is exactly like a regular heat pump system except that it uses the ground, instead of the atmosphere, and the source or sink for heat.  The ground, at a depth of 4 - 6 feet is a fairly constant temperature year round, around 55 degrees.  It is sort of obvious that using the ground, at 55 degrees, to dissipate the heat from your house would be a lot more efficient than trying to dump the heat into an atmosphere which is 80 - 90 - 100 degrees.  Not so obvious is the heating side of the equation until you realize that the dense ground at 55 degrees holds a lot more heat than winter air at 20 - 30 - 40 degrees.

The cooling side of a geothermal system is exactly like a regular air conditioning system except that the heat generated by compression of the coolant is dissipated into the ground instead of into the atmosphere.  Since the ground is already quite cool, the dissipation is much more efficient.  The ground will become warmer in the area of the dispersing coils, but that warmth will be dispersed.

When you switch to heating, the processes are reversed.  It is as if you are trying to cool down the ground by dissipating the heat in the ground into the house.  So you compress the coolant,  then cool it using the air in the house (in the process, the air in the house warms);  then you use the heat in the ground to re-expand the coolant.  The ground grows cooler for a while in the area of the expansion coils, but that soon dissipates into the vastness of the earth.

In a sense, during the summer, you are storing warmth in the ground which will be recaptured during the winter to heat the house; and in the winter you are storing coolness to be recovered in the summer.

It is really an electrical heating / cooling system.  Electricity is used to run the compressors, to circulate the coolant into the ground, and to circulate the air within the structure.