Mission Creep (or ADD?)

I'm thinking of replacing the carpet in the bedrooms upstairs. I really like FLOR's Power Nap carpet tile in Truffle. It seems fated. I love naps and truffles (fungi and confections).

Maybe I'll do it in late-summer.

But if I do that, I should do the hardwood in the hallway first. And the stairs. You know: because of the dust.

And one of the bedrooms hasn't yet been repainted. Gotta do that before I get new carpet.

Paint should come first.

So I buy a can of paint. Behr's Wheat Bread, again. Why change now? There's a real appeal to having the entire house painted the same color. You never have to wonder what color went where. Plus, I think it helps rooms flow together in a small house.

I've got my painting clothes on and I'm listening to Justice with Michael Sandel and I'm painting. My eyes follow the 12 inch strip of taupey-grey, which follows the roller, up the wall, and stop at the ceiling.

There's a little brown smudge up there.

And some spackle around the HVAC vent.

I have to paint the ceiling.

It's a popcorn ceiling and this requires research. I learn that painting a popcorn ceiling is both tricky and messy. Tricky because as soon as you wet that popcorn it wants to come off. Messy, because it's a ceiling and you need to use a very thick, segmented roller.

Anticipating splatter, I abandon the walls until the ceiling is finished. I'll tape sheets of plastic to the already painted walls to protect them.

I'll also have to take down the ceiling fan for this. Might as well replace it then.

It's late Sunday now, and I don't have ceiling paint and Home Depot is closed. But I can change some outlets. Only on the walls that have already been painted of course. The two outlets I can work on have way too many wires coming in. I need to pigtail them, and I have enough spare wire to do only one outlet. Oh well. Monday.

Temperature Control

The Trane Weathertron thermostat that I inherited with the house was original to the structure (i.e. 24 years old) and, let's face it, ugly. It was also a chronic liar, always trying to tell me that the inside temperature was 15-20 degrees warmer than it was. (This might have been due to the number of times I accidentally knocked it off the wall -- like how a kid you drop on its head is never quite the right afterward.) And finally, it wasn't programmable. I had been told that heat-pump systems did not work efficiently with programmable thermostats. However, there are several new digital programmable thermostats that claim to work with just such heating and cooling systems. We'll see. [Incidentally, I appear to have NO CONTROL over the font here... Blogger is screwing with me.)

U-G-L-Y. You ain't got no alibi. You ugly.

So, on Holy Saturday, Mom, Dad and I took a trip to Home Depot. (Hey, we all worship in different ways...) While mom wandered off to the gardening section (later blog post on that project), Dad and I bee-lined for plumbing and a new thermostat. The salesperson advised us that while some Honeywell thermostats deal with heat-pump systems, they have found the RiteTemp thermostats to be very good for my kind of system. He also mentioned that RiteTemp's customer support was very good.

I picked the RiteTemp 6036 flushmount 7-day programmable thermostat because it was everything that the Weathertron was not: pretty, impossible to knock off the wall, and programmable. Oh, and it was only $39.00.

I feel pretty.... oh so pretty...

The next day, Easter Sunday, we decided to set about installing this fancy, space-age thermostat.

Step 1: Remove Weathertron and cut hole for larger, but thinner, RiteTemp.

Step 2: Stuff cavity with insulation to prevent temperature mis-readings due to draft.

Step 3: Draw wires through case.

So far so good.

But (there's always a but, isn't there?) the terminals on my old thermostat did not correspond with all of the terminals on the new 'stat. The instruction manual was no help either. The wiring instructions reminded me of an LSAT logic puzzle.

(An amusement park roller coaster includes five cars, numbered 1 through 5 from front to back. Each car accommodates up to two riders, seated side by side. Six people - Tom, Gwen, Laurie, Mark, Paul and Jack - are riding the coaster at the same time. Laurie is sharing a car. Mark is not sharing a car and is seated immediately behind an empty car. Tom is not sharing a car with either Gwen or Paul. Gwen is riding in either the third of fourth car. Which of the following groups of riders could occupy the second car? (A) Laurie only; (B) Tom and Gwen; (C) Laurie and Mark; (D) Jack and Tom; (E) Jack, Gwen, and Paul. -- Answer below.)

For real. Weathertron had an R, an X2, a T wire. But RiteTemp had none of those connections.

Anyhow, it being Easter, I had to wait until Monday to test the helpfulness of the RiteTemp customer support line.

When I did connect with the RiteTemp support person the following day, he said, "Listen. The Weathertron to RiteTemp conversion is the most complicated we deal with. I get at least a hundred calls a week about this. Get a pen and paper. First, kill the power supply to your HVAC unit, because if you touch the B to the R you'll blow out your system. Now take the T wire and the X2 and tape them off. Connect O to O, G to G, and Y to Y. R is going to RH; W (the auxiliary heat) is going to W2; B will go to C. Got it?"

Just a dab of paint and...

... perfect.

Answer to puzzle: (D) Jack and Tom