Live from the Katnip Lounge, The Kat Pack!

Starring: The Baby *Tiny Johnson * Felix * Rupert * Scouty * CC * Sweet Pea * Maui * May Ling * Salem

and...*Angels Grayce, KonaKitty, and Sylvester* always loved, never forgotten




Showing posts with label construction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label construction. Show all posts

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Solar Sunday



Friends and Kitties!

It's been quite the week at Casa Cerecke, what with the drywall repairs, cat shaving, and solar panel installation.

We had 36 solar panels installed, which should completely wipe out our electrical bill, and hopefully provide us with some small dividends in the future...we bought our system outright.  It's nice to know we can keep the A/C as cool as we want (and run anything else) and not be using up non-renewable resources.  With the government rebate our recoup time for the cost of the initial build will be about eight years, which we thought was doable--so we did!  
Our neighbor Gisela had the same company do her solar installation last year and she's been very satisfied--with the workmanship and her non-existent power bills.

The poor kitties were pretty freaked out by all the banging on the roof, especially whenever the guys dropped a tool and it rolled down onto the Catio!

The back of our house faces West and South so we have great exposure.  We'll get at least 8 hours of direct sunlight daily, even in the Winter months.

The panel sit a few inches up off the roof on a frame, and I think the attic's heat load will benefit from all that shade, it really cooks up there on those 110+ degree days.  As soon as we have our final inspection, Nevada Power will hook us up and we'll be generating our own juice...

Come on, Summer!


Happy SUNday!

Happy Easter!

XX  Sheebie  XX

Sunday, June 30, 2013

The HVAC Saga

Friends and Kitties!


Sheebie here.
Please excuse my perspiration--it's 115 F in the back yard--actually it's too dry to sweat.  What is with the weather this year?  The HOTS shouldn't be here for another month!  We got our new A/C installed just in time...or did we?  Because next Tuesday we're getting a brand-new replacement replacement unit.

Let me bring you up to speed.
1.  This spring Scott and I noticed a few water spots on the ceiling.  We thought it might have been the driving rain combined with 60 mph winds letting water in by the furnace flashing.

2.  A few weeks later I looked up and the ceiling in the hall was flooded and coming down.  Turns out the pan under the condensing unit had rusted out.

3.  Later that week we got a whole new HVAC system.  Complete with a plastic pan that wouldn't corrode.

Are you following so far?  Now for the latest...

The new system is high-efficiency, and the blower is slower to move air across the A/C coils to extract more cool air (or warm, with the furnace) per a given volume.  Translated this means it wasn't cooling our house effectively.  We called, and a service guy came out and adjusted the coolant in the system.  The next day, Monday, it still wasn't right.  The service guy, Nick, (we're on a first-name basis at this point) came out again  and conducted a thorough inspection, and concluded that the way the duct work was routed most of the cold air was going to the back of the house, leaving the great room and kitchen hot.  They installed--at their expense--valving in the duct work to direct the air evenly, and it worked great.  The front of the house was cool and the bedrooms were too no longer available to hang meat.  Seriously, it got down to 62 in Scott's bedroom!

An ignorantly blissful week goes by...and last Wednesday morning the ceiling was pouring down water, again.  I may have been a little terse on the phone at 5:30 in the morning...Nick was there by 8:00 with the owner of the business...turns out the new unit had a cracked condenser pan!  They were mortified.  Nick says once or twice a year there's the job from hell and we are the lucky ones this time.  *sigh*  Thankfully  Scott works from home and we are familiar with all kinds of reno problems so we know how things go sometimes.

So...next Tuesday we'll try this again.  We're getting a whole new unit, plus the furnace will be higher efficiency, at no extra charge, about a $500 upgrade.  The company is going to stand the expense of fixing the ceiling--all of it--and replace the insulation that's been tramped down in the attic.  They appear very committed to making us happy customers, which is very reassuring that this will turn out well, if not as expeditiously as we'd originally imagined.

Wish us luck.

In other news, physio on my knee is going well!  My whole left leg aches, but that's more muscle soreness from working it than joint pain in my knee.  Progress is definitely being made.  And you know what?  It's the small things in life that really count.  I never thought something as trivial as being able to bend both my knees while I read in bed was actually so important.  But it is.  Which kinda puts the whole A/C debacle in perspective.


Happy Sunday, and have a COMFORTABLE Week!

XX  Sheebie  XX

Monday, February 18, 2013

Mayhem Monday


Kitties!

It's been a madhouse here at the Lounge.
More than usual, anyway.

There's been noisy destruction construction going on!

Mommy and Daddy decided to take out the leaky window on the South wall of the dining room.  It was pretty useless; it looked out onto the alley between the houses and there was NEVER anything good to see out there.  The Bird TV reception was non-existent!  Plus the shade was always down.

That's Daddy's friend (and Salem's love interest) Tee working. 

Showing off his best side, ha ha ha ha ha!

Mommy got home from work just in time to inspect and run the vacuum cleaner.  She thought that was pretty coincidental--NOT.

The Baby was first on the scene afterwards to check out the improvements... 

...and then THIS showed up the next day!

To Be Continued...


COMMENTATHON NEWS!

Kitties, we had 92 commenters--you guys are top notch experts at picking Mommy's pockets--you should have heard her bitc... groan, heh heh.  She's gonna round up her donation (at our oh-so-clever suggestion) to the Nevada SPCA to Fifty Dollars, and there's even better news!  Our fabulous blogging pal Savannah left us this comment:

SQUEEEEE!!! You are back!! AND just in time to help ME make Mom and Dad PAY...so I am gonna add $.25 cents USD to your $.50 for every comment!! Just send Mom an email with your grand total and she will make a deposit in your Pay Pal, 'Kay?? APAWS to the KL Mob! 
Your furriend, Savannah

So that means almost another Twenty-Five Buckeroonies for a grand total of Seventy Five Dollars!!!  Thank you Savvy, for you generous donation.   You are a gem.

There's just one more piece of business left to address--the drawing for the door prize! Mommy went through the comments, crossed out any duplicates, and asked Daddy to think of a number...and the winner is *drum roll* Cathy Kiesha, or CK to those in the know!  ConCATulations, CK--you've won a $20 gift certificate to Baby Patches' Nip and Bones store...please email us at katniplounge AT gmail DOT com whether you want a paper certificate or an electronic one.


Whew!
All this typing has tired us all out.  Time for a nap, and don't forget to come back tomorrow, to see what's up with the Thing in the Dining Room.

Happy Monday!

XX  The Lounge Kats  XX

pee ess:  we just got the confirmation for our donation to the NSPCA--thank you for helping!