Change

Plenty has been happening around here, both in everyday life and around the household. The kitchen renovation is moving along. We got our new countertops last week...putting the old sink back in was more fun than you can shake a stick at (if that's your idea of a good time). But I could put another one in a lot easier and quicker now that I know how it all works. The countertops look really good, especially with the painting that we've done. The kitchen is much lighter looking, even looks bigger. There's plenty more to get done and there's some things we're deciding not to do...like replacing the cabinet doors. I'm working on recycling a number of the hinges by removing old paint from them and we'll just repaint and rehang the doors.

Other things are happening, too. Yesterday the support posts on the back patio were replaced and that changed the look out there. Instead of the decorative supports, which were rusting out, we have these lean round poles instead. A little plain looking but I've grown attached to them very quickly.

Today, we're replacing the heating and cooling systems completely. This decision was reached on Monday when we had the system inspected in preparation for the coming cold weather and to see what shape it was in for when we sell or rent the house eventually. The previous system had been installed in November of 1993 so it was already reaching the end of its life cycle. A guy named Tom came by early Monday morning to do the inspection and it wasn't long before he came down from the attic to show me some damage done to a piece of tubing by mice in the past. I had gotten rid of the mice almost a year ago so I knew that was old damage. Tom fixed that pretty quickly but a half hour later he came back with bad news. The heater coil had a crack in it. This meant that CO2 was being released at 2100 parts per million (normal is 100 parts per million). He tested it three times before he told me and let me watch the fourth test to see for myself. Here's the odd thing: the holes the mice chewed into that tubing kept much of the CO2 from entering the house. In a word, that make-shift chew-toy probably saved our lives last winter! The gas dispersed into the attic and out the vents, hardly entering the living spaces below. It might not have killed us but it sure would have made us sick otherwise.

Tom disabled the heating unit, as the law requires. He also said the A/C unit probably had 1-5 years left in it. We had to replace the heating unit and we got a guy to quote us for replacing everything or just the heater. Jonnene and I decided to do it all. It would make the house easier to sell if there's new heat and A/C. We can include the cost to the price of the house to get our money back later.

So for the last three days, I've had people at the house for various things. Today it's two guys removing the old units and putting in new ones. It's kinda neat to see all the shiny stuff that's way more efficient than the 1993-era stuff. For instance, the old heater burned natural gas at 60% efficiency which was standard and met EPA requirements of that time (that meant 40% of the gas escaped into the air). This new unit operates at 80% efficiency! That means more heat from the same amount of gas and should reduce our gas bills by almost 30% over the winter. I can live with that.

The old house is a-changing, that's for sure.

I started riding my bike again on November 1st. I already have 150 miles in to prepare for a bike tour in West Monroe this Saturday. I'll try to push through for 66 miles...it was easier to do that a couple of months ago but it should be a little harder this time after taking all of October from the bike. My K2 is going to be my permanent time trial bike so I'm currently on my steel beast, the Bradley. After the tour, I'll be going to the ULM football game against Grambling, which should be quite interesting and historical. It's the first game ever between the two schools, one predominantly white and the other a famous black college. ULM, however, was the first white college in Louisiana to have blacks on its football team in 1968. Yeah, there's a lot of history here and I'm not missing it. Malone Stadium should be nearly full, maybe a sellout...I've never seen 30,000 people for one event in northeast Louisiana before and this may be it.