What home improvement work did you do today?

Not much meat on those little red squirrels. Nothing like the grays back east.

 

Then probably take them kind of far away and release them. I grew up eating squirrel and rabbit, still eat as many squirrels as I can. Greys, there's also fox and black around here, but few and far between. The foxes are fat suckers, but only became legal to hunt about 15 years ago.
My wife didn't understand eating tree rats when we first dated, but she's learned to make a mean squirrel pot pie since.

 

I’ve eaten squirrel once. I grew up raising rabbits for food. People around here look at you funny when you tell them, but I’ve also tried a lot of other foods that you don’t normally find in a restaurant or grocery store. I’d eat squirrel again, and especially when prepared by someone that knows how to cook it.

 

I knew a girl in high school who was model quality beautiful, her family also raised rabbits for food. To see the reactions of people when she talked about slaughtering rabbits for dinner was hilarious.
My dad was into small game. And dogs. My first hunting experiences were with beagles hunting rabbits. He then got into tree dogs, first coon. Pelts were going for a premium and good dogs were a side business also. My mother baked a coon once and it was awful. Since I've figured out that you need to par boil it and then roast or otherwise cook. Then squirrels. We had some really good squirrel dogs. I kept that going as long as I can.

 

Getting closer. Northside finished and back of the house almost done.

 

I did the laundry That stack of dirty clothes was getting pretty big.

 

Sorry. Meant that the foundation walls aren’t insulated. This addition was well after the house was built. All the foundation looks good on the outside but they all slope inside the crawl space for some reason. Also I’m about this close to tearing a hole into the addition wall cause I really don’t know if they are insulated or not.

 

My guess is they were too lazy to use form ties and give it a proper form-up, so they wedged the form ply at the bottom of the excavation for the footings and just tied it at the tops to maintain the correct width at the top of the wall. Wastes a lot of concrete material, but saves a guy from having to actually bother with making sure the back of his form won't blow out.

As for insulating the foundation walls - not sure I'd lose much sleep on it as long as the house envelope is well sealed. It hasn't been that far back in history that they started adding insulation against the face of the foundation wall. Having good insulation and vapor barrier in the walls, floor, and attic are going to do a lot more for your energy savings than an inch of foam in unconditioned space against concrete.

 

I put together my new Rep Fitness incline/decline bench. My old was an Amazon cheapy.

 

Finished the mantel today, been sick for a week and it was bugging the snot out of me.
It all looked like the corbels, rough saw and an ugly stain. Turns out it was some beautiful old cypress, I always assumed it was pine.

 

Anyone have any expertise in HVAC?
Furnace is on the way out as well as our AC unit. Any brands to steer clear of? I've got 7 quotes from one company with different efficiencies/SEER rating ranging from 6200 upwards of 11k.

I have 0 knowledge other than the 15 minutes of googling to find out what all these ratings mean.

 

I just went thru replacing my AC system in December. I got quotes from 3 companies and multiple unit options from each. I had quotes from $6700 up to $12k. The lower end price was for code minimum single stage 14seer unit. I ended up going with a single stage 16seer unit for $7800 to qualify for utility company and federal tax rebates totaling almost $700. That made the cost difference only $400 to go from 14 seer to 16seer.

 

What brand did you end up going with?

The company recommended Ameristar as the best bang for your buck model. It's a 14 Seer and a 95% efficient furnace for about $6600 before taxes. Didn't think that was too bad of a price, just not sure on brands.

 

I went with a Goodman. The other brands I got quotes were Trane and American Standard. My previous unit was a goodman and was 19 years old when I replaced it. In the 9 years I have lived here, the AC required little matinance. I had to replace the outdoor fan motor, capacitor, and starter relay one year summer. I did it all myself for under $200.
Make sure the company verifies your return grille size, I had to have another return cut in to get the required cfm back to the unit.
We can really feel the airflow of the new unit at all the vents now because it has double the return grille area.

 

No but they make an awesome gravy !

 

We just had the kitchen measured for new cabinets. Since my house is nearly 65 years old, I’ve decided to gut the kitchen, install more outlets, insulation, re-drywall, then install new flooring and new cabinets.

Oh boy, it’s going to be a busy summer....

 

The splinters aren’t so great lol

 

Changes out a couple patio ceiling fans that got damaged from the hurricane. Only about 1.5 hours to do both. Better than I thought since I'm not very good with electricity lol.

 

Looking good. Did you happen to use a chipping hammer to remove your old tile? That alway saves a bunch of time.

 

Very nice! Are you replacing the shower valve while you have it all open?

 

No Brunswick stew?

 

Damn looks like my house

 

I’d laugh but it’s true

 

Good news the just replaced all the drywall in our baths with rock board so the wall tile can finally get started next week.

 

We got most of the orchard expansion finished. Added 8 fruit trees to the 21 hazelnut trees we planted 2 years ago.
Really cool trees, called “fruit salad” trees because they have multiple grafts.
Of 7 of the trees, cherry, apple, plum, and pear, there’s 20 different varieties. Plus, we added a quince. There’s one more to go, but it is not in stock yet, a persimmon.
the bed in the foreground is a new flower bed for daffodils