Friday, September 9, 2011

Busy times

Alex and Beverley are gone now, back home in Markham, Ontario. We had an awesome time with them, taking in the sights, sounds and vistas around Kamloops. It was great to have you guys, and we hope you'll come again when the house is in a more finished state.
With fall and the accompanying cooler weather quickly approaching, we have lots going on. While rushing to get the insulation in all the wall and ceiling cavities, we are having to find time to finish the fireplace hearth and pad before the Dustin's gang from the Fireplace Centre comes out on Tuesday to install the chimney. BTW, for any of you considering a wood burning stove, be advised that the stovepipe and chimney installation will set you back as much as the best stoves on the market, and several times the cost of less expensive stoves. We were stunned to get estimates in the $2.5k-$3k range for our very straightforward install!
The folks at Superior Propane are coming out sometime in the next few days to view our site and help us choose the best location for the 500 gallon tank that will have to be installed. All our gas appliances will have to be in place before they do the actual installation. Finances have dictated that we will have to forgo the tankless combi water heater for the time being and will instead be renting a high efficiency tank-type from Superior.
Carol ordered the kitchen cabinets and counters last weekend, taking advantage of a 25% discount offered at Home Depot. They will arrive around the middle of October.
Yesterday, we ordered our diesel generator - a 10kW "silent" unit from Aurora Generators in Ontario. These run the same Chinese-made, 3 cylinder engine that is in our little tractor. Although these generators have had some reliability issues in the past, most if not all of those problems seem to be long gone and the more recent word is that they are an excellent choice for our application. I guess we'll find out, one way or another! Delivery time is estimated at around 10 days.
We have also ordered our TED 5000. No, it's not some reincarnation of the computer in "2001 A Space Odyssey" (the HAL 9000 IIRC), but is an acronym for The Energy Detective. TED monitors power generated and consumed, maintaining a detailed log and helping eliminate electrical power hogs. The 5000 model also allows online, remote monitoring via the Internet. Hmmm, we'll have to see how feasible that is in our situation, but stay tuned for the URL if and when that happens.

No comments:

Post a Comment