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For my vacation, I'm sanding and finishing the window frame, which has been bare wood for three years (oops).
I spent about half an hour sanding, then discovered that the mended-over crack under the left end of the window is deeper and less stable than I thought it was, the drywall is crumbling away, and there are signs of (hopefully past) moisture damage. I'm not too worried -- the old aluminum frame single-paned window had a LOT of condensation, and chances are very good that none of the damage is recent -- but it means the crack is something I actually have to deal with if I want to paint the room. I won't be able to just sand it flat, like I would if it was a crack in paint.
I haven't chipped away all of the unsound material yet, so I don't know if it's something I can mud over or if I'll have to cut out that piece of sheetrock all the way to the stud and put in a new one. Either way, it probably means removing the base-board heater.
...which reminded me that I never use that baseboard heater, and it's ugly and in the way.
Suddenly Project "Sand and finish window frame" became Project "Decide whether the living room needs electric heat at all, and if so what it should look like."
I'm going to try to turn my focus back to the original goal, since the other one is doubtless more frustrating. In the meantime, would any of you be weirded out to have a house with a gas fireplace in the living room but no secondary electric heat (in that room)? The only real downside I can think of is that the fireplace is an on/off switch, not a thermostat, so if you wanted to make sure the house was always heated to some minimum you'd need the electric heater (or to replace the gas fireplace w/ a thermostat model).
The gas fireplace coupled with the ceiling fan easily heats both the living room and dining room. I've never turned on either living or dining room baseboard heater. The only issue with the gas fireplace is that you have to manually turn it on and off to control heat, so it's not the most even of temperatures (I love it, but I like it warm).
Technically my baseboard heaters are all single pole, so I can't turn them entirely off and they *should* all start working if the interior temp reaches 50 degrees F. I've never noticed that actually happening, though -- the thermostats are as old as the house (50 years) and mechanical thermostats don't age well.
I spent about half an hour sanding, then discovered that the mended-over crack under the left end of the window is deeper and less stable than I thought it was, the drywall is crumbling away, and there are signs of (hopefully past) moisture damage. I'm not too worried -- the old aluminum frame single-paned window had a LOT of condensation, and chances are very good that none of the damage is recent -- but it means the crack is something I actually have to deal with if I want to paint the room. I won't be able to just sand it flat, like I would if it was a crack in paint.
I haven't chipped away all of the unsound material yet, so I don't know if it's something I can mud over or if I'll have to cut out that piece of sheetrock all the way to the stud and put in a new one. Either way, it probably means removing the base-board heater.
...which reminded me that I never use that baseboard heater, and it's ugly and in the way.
Suddenly Project "Sand and finish window frame" became Project "Decide whether the living room needs electric heat at all, and if so what it should look like."
I'm going to try to turn my focus back to the original goal, since the other one is doubtless more frustrating. In the meantime, would any of you be weirded out to have a house with a gas fireplace in the living room but no secondary electric heat (in that room)? The only real downside I can think of is that the fireplace is an on/off switch, not a thermostat, so if you wanted to make sure the house was always heated to some minimum you'd need the electric heater (or to replace the gas fireplace w/ a thermostat model).
The gas fireplace coupled with the ceiling fan easily heats both the living room and dining room. I've never turned on either living or dining room baseboard heater. The only issue with the gas fireplace is that you have to manually turn it on and off to control heat, so it's not the most even of temperatures (I love it, but I like it warm).
Technically my baseboard heaters are all single pole, so I can't turn them entirely off and they *should* all start working if the interior temp reaches 50 degrees F. I've never noticed that actually happening, though -- the thermostats are as old as the house (50 years) and mechanical thermostats don't age well.
