I'm Having A Few Little Radiator Problems.......

Okay, if I haven't mentioned it before, I live in the Philadelphia area and the weather now is starting to get much chillier.


I noticed that as the temperatures were going down that my radiators were coming on so I decided that now was the time to start "bleeding" the radiators.

Well it seems as though there is a special kind of key for bleeding the radiators but some of the radiators I can use a screw driver on.

However as I was bleeding one radiator, the screw that holds the air in came out and blew across the floor somewhere where I can't find it.


So since I didn't have a replacement for it I had to use a nail instead. It doesn't fit perfectly but it is keeping the water from coming out and spilling all over the (wood) floor! So now I will have to go to Home Depot to get a replacement for it. This leaves the problem of figuring out why the radiators upstairs are not coming on. But I have to leave this until I get the replacement screw for the downstairs radiator.

I want to bleed the upstairs radiators but first I have to find the radiator key. And I don't want to turn the heat up (to test the water flow) until I replace the radiator screw on the downstairs radiator.

As of right now things are good. The radiators downstairs are working and I have to make my trip to Home Depot before I undertake working on the radiators upstairs.



Oh well, counting my blessing though!

Another Repair! Wooden Steps!

I was stepping down the steps (I only have 2) on my back porch when part of the wood gave way! Of course I attribute this to all the rain that we have been getting in the Philadelphia area - in fact we have gotten quite a bit of rain in the last few months!

I would guess that the back porch is at least 10 years old and the whole back porch is made of wood and I'm really thinking how grateful I am that it was just the steps and not another part of the porch that gave way! (I just thought about this as I was typing this blog post!)

So now I have another repair that has to be done! I wonder how much it is going to cost me? No matter though because it is a repair that has to be done!

Mentally I'm going to have to remind myself to step carefully when I use those steps!

Winter Weather / Drafty Windows!

I'm upstairs now where the computer is and the room is quite cold because the winds are making the room drafty!

I live in Philadelphia and we have had a major snowstorm in the last 24 hours. What makes it even worse is that there are gusty winds outside and the windchill is going to go down to zero!

The window in this room is quite old - in fact I think it is the original window and to make it worse there is a crack in the window and I think that is where most of the cool air is coming from. Also too, the top of the window sill is slightly lowered and everytime I try to raise it up, it goes back down again!

I really do hate change and there are a couple of things that I could do to make this situation a little bit better. Number 1 - I have heard that using heavier curtains would help. Right now I still have the "summer" curtains which are made of very light material.

I tried sealing up the window crack with some duct tape - it doesn't look too pleasing but it does seal out some of the air.

If I got the window fixed that would help a lot but oh I don't want anyone to see the room because it is basically my computer room where I have all of my stuff and that stuff is a LOT of stuff - LOL! - but I'm thinking I'm going to have to get this window repaired at least by NEXT winter!

It wouldn't be so bad if the temperature outside was warmer but like I said the wind chills are expected to be zero!

In the meantime, I'm at work at the computer and its cold!

Actually mu ultimate would be to have a fireplace in this room and that is definitely on my wishlist. Not so much to save on the heating bills, I just like the look and feel of fireplaces and I would love to have one in EVERY room!

Heating Emergency!

Yesterday I noticed that it was a bit cold in the house! Not unusual because the kitchen is always cold (I have to have the whole kitchen insultated). But then I noticed that it was cold throughout the entire house. The upstairs is usually warmer than the downstairs but not yesterday!

It felt like there was a window or door open somewhere (the temps are in the 30's to low 40's range) so I'm checking doors and windows - even the ones in the basement. They were all closed and secure. Okay so the next thing was to check the thermostat - which is set to 69 degrees. The temperature of the house was 65 degrees. So I'm thinking to myself that maybe it just hadn't "kicked" in yet to warm up to 69 degrees. So I go upstairs for the night.

I notice that it is getting colder. The air feels cold and everything - like the furniture is cold to the touch. (Do you know how it feels to have to sit on a cold toilet seat - LOL!) I thought maybe the problem could be with the radiators so I decided to "bleed" one - a lot of air did come out but after that nothing because it remained cold to the touch.

I look at the thermostate (actually its a thermoter-like thing that's shaped like a clock) and it says 60 degrees!

So now I go down into the basement to check the boiler. It looks alright to me. I thought that it could be a simple case of the pilot light being out - but the pilot light wasn't out.

Since by then it was around 9:30 at night I couldn't call the people that installed the boiler (which I was able to get with a grant and didn't have to pay a thing for them to come out and look at it) so I had to wait for the next day. (Note here: I am so grateful that this occured on a weekday instead of the weekend!)

I called the people up and they sent a guy out that looked at it.

Guess what the problem was?

It seemed that the guys that installed the heater put a mismatched connector to one of the lines! The new guy replaced the connecter and now the house is slowly but surely warming up!

Thank Goodness!

It's Cold!

Not only is it cold outside its cold INSIDE!

That's because the house that I live in is about 100 years old and it still has its original windows! So when its windy the house definetly FEELS it!

One of the problems lies with the window in one of the upstairs room - actually its the room where my computer is. It seems that the outer window has slipped some and while I can pull it back up it will slip down again! Another contributing factor is that there is a crack in the window. "Handyman" person that I am not I admit to you that I have duct tape on that crack!

Now I have been told that replacing the window pane is an easy enough job but since I have no experience with doing it before I'm going to have to find out how to replace the window pane!

All the windows need to be worked on but I like the thought that the windows are still the original ones and I'm going to have to figure out how to get them repaired but that they remain the original windows. However I do know that if they are beyond window repair I can always have the new windows look like the original windows.

I bet you a contractor would love to get at doing this work!

There's always something that needs to be repaired.....

I mentioned before in some previous posts about how I was having trouble with my heating system now that the weather is turning colder.

It was working perfectly fine last year around this time and I thought that as the weather got colder the heat would automatically "click" on. When it didn't the first thing I thought was wrong was that I didn't "bleed" the radiators - so that's what I did. Still no heat!

So the next thing I did was call the people that installed it. They said that it was probably something simple like the pilot light being out. So I checked that! The pilot light was on.

Since they charge $69 for a service call I decided that since I got the heating system with a grant maybe they wouldn't charge me anything for looking at it to see why the heating system wasn't working.

I had to wait a few weeks in order to get in touch with them since their program didn't start again for the year yet but then it was relatively warm outside and my need wasn't immediate.

Well the weather got colder and so did the house and subsequently so did I! I finally got in touch with them and explained the situation and they sent someone out to look at it. He came to the conclusion that the problem with the heating system was the thermostat - because the heater itself was only two years old. So he noted the problem and told me that a contractor would be doing the work.

Well the contractor came out and guess what the problem was?

It seems the chimney is collapsing and it was collapsing into the chute resulting in a lot of dust gathering thus clogging up the chute meaning that the heater was working overtime and it just overworked itself!

How about that!????? I mean I know that I have a chimney but you know it never occurred to me that the chimney would collapse. I mean the house is over 50 years old and I don't remember any repairs being done to the chimney for at least 20 years so I'm sure that its not in the best of conditions!

But it never occurred to me once that the problem had to do with the chimney!

Part Handyman

I just got finished reading another blog and the guy was talking about how he had a air conditioning emergency and how he had to call around to find someone to service the air conditioner. Now of course this is during the summer and it was getting close to the weekend to boot!

Well he said he called around and found that no service technician would come out for less than $60! Add to that they also couldn't come out until the next few days. So the author of the blog decided to take matters into his own hands and find out if he could fix the air conditioning himself. He said he took the air conditioner apart, looked around and found that the problem had something to do with the wiring. He made a quick trip to Lowes and he was able to fix the problem.

That got me to thinking about my own air conditioning system. I don't have central air I have air conditioner wall units. The oldest air conditioner is at least 20 years old and you can imagine how big and clunky it is. But guess what - It stills works just fine!. I still clean the filter on a regular basis but other than that that big old trusty air conditioner still works. It cools the whole downstairs!

But getting back to the guys post it reminded me of how us homeowners have had to be our own "handyman" at times! I can think of more than a few home-related repairs that I have done that I never thought I would have to do. One thing I can say is "Thank God for duct tape!" Its a miracle tool!

There was an incident where the thermostat-thingie wasn't working on the heating system and water was spewing everywhere! So I go to home depot and get a part (that I wasn't familiar with) thinking that I could replace the old part. Well the old part seemed to be rusted to the heater so that was one of the times that I had to call a repairman. I guess I shouldn't dwell on it but you know I actually went to work the next day all the while thinking about the water gushing in the basement!

Home Inspector Nightmares!

Here's an interesting article that I found about "Home Inspector Nightmares". I know that people try to get away with a lot when they are trying to sell their homes but it made me think about all the things that we homeowners do to "temporarily" fix some problems. Goodness knows that there are some "shortcut" repairs that I have in my house that I wouldn't want anybody to see - LOL!

Replacing A Broken Window

As I got online I saw this link to a site with a guy showing how to replace a broken window. Here is the link:

Replacing A Broken Window

There's a video on the site as well.

I don't have a broken window but I do have an upstairs window that has a crack in it. From what I have been told I can just replace the pane but I haven't done it yet and I haven't decided if I'm going to do it or have someone else do it.

The windows that I are pretty old and I kind of like them the way they are plus I have this weird thing of "if it ain't broke don't fix it".