Modern boiler, stone-age brain

I awoke this morning to realize that the heat was offline and the temperature on the main floor was about 55 ° F. Oy, I thought, and checked the boiler and the circuits. All the breakers seemed to be fine but the voltage converter (the Viessmann high efficiency unit that is the core of our system runs on 230V AC) wasn’t lit up. Fortunately there was enough hot water in the tank for a few showers. We called the HVAC guys.

Three hours later there was egg on our face and a new factoid in our brains: the supposedly dead cut-out switch at the top of the basement stairs that used to power off the oil furnace but was supposed to be inactive is still alive and now cuts power to the Viessmann. Someone inadvertently did just that last night. Nurr two masters degrees in this house nurr. We’ll have a little conversation with the electrician about that. But the house is warm now.

Not too much otherwise going on with the house right now. We have baseboard molding to replace, one more phone jack to install and wire, two more new plaster walls to paint, a basement to redo… but we’re a little hung over with home improvement projects right now and are enjoying the respite.

New Hooblogger: John “JP” Park

I should have added fellow Virginia Glee Club alum John “JP” Park to the Hoobloggers list a while ago, but fortunately in some recent correspondence he was good enough to remind me gently that, yes, he did have a blog and I should really check it out. The blog, Park Haus Addition, is an account of designing and (eventually) building a large modern addition onto the 1939 bungalow that JP and his family call home, and it’s enriched by JP’s computer renderings of the design ideas and plans (he is a computer animator in his non-blogging life). Like JP, the blog is creative and visually interesting, and is highly recommended to general readers and housebloggers alike.