Why I Oughta...

Woke up this morning to the first hard frost of year.  Winter is nigh .

Since the day we bought the house, the basement stairs have always been one of the worst-built features of our house.  They're short, uneven, and difficult to walk down.  When we re-built the house, we moved the opening of the basement from the south side to the north side (out of the kitchen and into a hallway), but that's about it.  Until the basement project started.  Then, I figured if we were spending a boatload of dough to finish the space, we needed to get serious about the stairs. The problem?  When they built these, they did just about the best they could - there isn't a lot of headroom and that's why they cut down the runs and the rises. So, what was the solution?  Rebuild them and split that platform into 2 'wedge-shaped' stairs. Here's a shot of what I saw yesterday after the the stairs had been torn out and the new stringers had been installed. The stairs have made a big change on the feel of the basement - adding a lot of ease to gett

The framing is done*.  The soffits are built.  All the various ducts are hidden behind these wooden structures so we can get the drywall hung. All that's left is the plumbing and some insulation before the drywall crew shows up. *by saying 'done', I mean MOSTLY done.  There's a few little things that I have to finish up.  But the bulk of the work is done.

The Direct Vent firebox is framed in.  We left the 2X4's in the center laying behind it so we can do the connections of gas/electric and also the duct work.  I decided against the raised hearth because of the safety issues and will just figure out what the extra pipe might look like.

Two weeks ago, I posted this image of the one Lemax building that I thought I'd want the most - Frosty's Christmas Tree Lot .  When I found the CaroleTown buildings at Lowes this weekend, the first thing I noticed was the copycat Tree Lot - with a different name:  Sowders. So, which one to buy?  Whichever is on sale after Christmas?  It's a deal.

(that title is - as they say - tongue in cheek.) Nat and I stopped by a Lowe's this weekend to look for a new fridge for the basement and we came across a HUGE Christmas section.  They had more inflatables than Menards by a large measure.  And look at what I found?  A pretty good selection of what looks like Lemax Christmas Village buildings.  But they're not Lemax?  They're something called "Carole Towne Collection".  But turning the box over unveils some details.  They are indeed Lemax Village buildings.  Just sold by Lowes. What does this mean for Mantleburg?  Not sure just yet.

With all the construction going on in the basement, I just couldn't help myself.  Our old furnace was working just fine, but for the past 2 years, I've sunk more than $1500 into fixing it.  I'd been eyeing a new high-efficiency furnace for a while and with all the duct work that I had going on last week, I finally took the plunge.  I went with a Bryant 95% efficiency - replacing what the installer said was a 45% efficiency furnace.  I'm hoping we'll notice the difference in our utility bills this winter and start to recoup the big upfront costs of this beautiful box. With all the walls going up and the investment being made to make the basement liveable, I figured I should just buck up and make the move right now - before space got too small and moving this was going to get harder. It is MUCH quieter and is a 3-speed variable fan, so it just runs a bit more wisely than the old one.  Time will tell if we'll be able to operate the unit at a lower temperature

No, it's not as sexy as the ipod-inspired one .  But it is a really badass thermostat.  Or....as badass as one could be, I suppose. The guy who installed it (along with the new furnace) was really geeked up about the Evolution control.  He called it the "Cadillac" of thermostats.  Guess he hasn't seen all the drooling that's been going on all over the internet over the above-mentioned new Nest thermostat. I'll stick with my Bryant Evolution for now, thank you.

Arriving in the mail recently is the November edition of This Old House magazine.  On the cover was this very pretty fireplace.  It is a good inspiration for what we're going to do in the basement.  Aside from a different color tile and a raised hearth, I like the white trim and mirror detail above the mantel.

Last night's Trick-or-Treat totals are in and we had the biggest night ever.  269 total.   38 kids that we 'know' from the neighborhood, 215 kids that we 'don't know' - either from farther away than a few blocks or driven in from other parts of town/out of town, 10 adults with no kids, but had costumes, and six adults with no kids and no costumes.  We would have more of the latter category (either adults/no kids/costumes or adults/no costumes if we kept our lights on after 7:30, but Nat puts her foot down and calls shenanigans on them. Kids we 'know' totals over the years:   37, 39, 38 Kids we 'don't know' totals over the years:  147, 181, 215 Last year, we had 226 total and in 2009, we were at 184.     Here's the tally sheet from 2010 .