Re: Home and garden projects
 

Mail box looks good. How old is it?

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Brilliant…fabulous.

Where did you get it from?

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Not sure was refurbished as there are a couple of chips which have been painted over.

A British guy in South Carolina gets them. https://www.gonewiththegrainshop.com...-mail-post-box.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Vinyl and metal trim is all finished. Ran wiring underground from garage to power a ceiling fan/ light and one receptacle and have passed state inspection. Minimal lake view for new structure.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...8cf7bc4b3.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...fbf01ff80.jpeg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...5efdc97cf.jpeg
Decided to stain brick. These will be the three colors. The dark brown will be the poured post caps and perimeter seating area caps.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

I have found an excellent product for staining brick and concrete from a company in Canada called Permatint. They make stains that chemically combine with brick and cement for a permanent color change that won’t peel off. Many older American houses from 50’s and 60’s have red brick that now looks dated. It would be easy to turn them into a modern looking house for a few hundred dollars and a little work. The stain easily brushes on. This photo is a recently poured post cap stained with their product.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...2777bfd6a.jpeg

Re: Home and garden projects
 

I'm not averse to changing the color of the bricks, but I don't like the look of bricks painted the same color as the cement, so that idea doesn't appeal to me.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...b1d8723d3e.jpg

We're switching our heating system to a split system, with furnace in the crawl space. The old pad for the package unit, was low to the ground, and railroad ties that had formed a kerb between the bed and gravel parking area were in the way of the space the new condenser unit needs, so this raised area will solve all the problems, including stopping anyone driving into it. It's also an experiment in "hardscaping", and I've already learned a lot. By raising the condenser unit at this stage it will also allow us in future to concrete the parking area without leaving the condenser unit below the level of the concrete.

A bricklayer is coming on Friday to brick up the hole (behind the board) where the old system connected to the ductwork in the crawlspace, including the concrete blocks that form part of the foundation.

Once the hole is bricked up I can finish filling the wall with fill dirt, install the capstones on the wall and top the plinth with gravel. .... I'll leave it a couple of inches low until the pad for the coils is in place, then I'll top off the gravel around the pad.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

That will be a better pad for unit. I see so many units sitting on poorly built non level structures. Were you lucky enough to have some extra bricks to fill the space? I did the very same conversion at my previous house which was brick but I framed in space and finished with vinyl that matched soffit.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

The difference I just noted is my opening was into basement and not crawl space.

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The difference in this case might not be as great as you'd think. The "crawlspace" (dirt floor covered with sheet plastic) behind that wall is about 9ft high, yes nine feet high! :blink: But in any case my goal is to, as far as reasonably practical, "restore" the structure to how it would have been built, not leave it obviously modified. ... Which is why when we had the chimney removed (see above, approx 12 months ago), we had the work done immediately before the siding was replaced, to give an "originally built this way" look with the new siding, rather than having the chimney scar just patched over. :)

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That’s pretty amazing for a non-basement house. You will like the split unit. The furnace will be 95% efficient or better and will use a PVC chimney. I put a split unit heat pump in new house which works great but gas has a warmer feel. I added a wood furnace in previous house as backup to propane split unit. I designed and built all the duckwork to just blow thru garage wall into living room. It worked so well that many times we had to open doors and windows as the house was at 100 degrees. Wood floors warm to the touch. We only used it on the coldest of days and the garage where it was located was always shorts and tee shirt temps.
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I am a big fan of high-efficiency, 95%+ gas appliances that vent through plastic piping. It gives great flexibility in where the pipe can be vented i.e. the vent pipe can be horizontal, which I like because I am not a fan of holes through my roof. Even with the most careful installation of boot and roofing materials, I consider all holes through the roof as just being leaks waiting to happen. :nod:

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I agree and ran my radon exhaust out thru gable and not roof. If you have access to installation instructions study pipe requirements before installers get there. Mine specified needing elbows and not just a straight shot plus the combustion air intake was supposed to be very near the exhaust. Installers don’t always know what they are doing.

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I'm not going to argue with that. .... The vent for our new-in-2021 water heater meets the requirements, but only just barely, as (for the benefit of anyone else reading this) bends in a vent pipe add "effective length", so a short vent pipe with bends would have to be replaced with a much longer pipe if it was straight.

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I'm confused by this - what 'worked so well' - the split unit heat pump or the wood furnace (backup)? If the split unit heat pump is over-heating the house, that's not 'working well'! But I guess you mean the backup wood furnace was raising the house to over 100F?

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I had five acres of woods at that house and as a project decided to install the wood furnace. Didn’t need it as the propane split unit was nearly new and working fine. After I installed the wood furnace I discovered by accident that a tax credit was available and it nearly paid for itself. It didn’t make a dent in my wood supply but learned to appreciate how warm and cozy wood heat could be. The two systems were totally separate and independent with no shared ductwork. As I was selling the house I took wood furnace out and sold it.