19 December 2009

How To Care For Your Mid-Century Modern (12-19-2009 edition)

So, at the end of November we bought a cozy mid-century modern home in Tanglewilde, and moved on 4 December (during the snowstorm--HUH!?).

We really like a lot of what the previous owners did with the place, but as with any old house, there's just lots of stuff that could use a little care. And that's what is occupying a lot of our time right now, and will be occupying a lot of time in the near future. My to-do list is full of small projects and some bigger projects we'll probably call in some help for.

One bigger project that's probably going to require some help is the A/C air return plenum. It's just a mess, which is probably why the AC guys who put in the fairly new AC and furnace units decided it would be easier just to filter the air at the blower unit and not rebuild the air-supply plenum. That's fine, except the filter coverage in the unit really isn't adequate for the size of the home. So the plenum needs a rebuild at some point, which will include a build-out of filtered air-return grilles on two different walls. But for now, the short-term workaround is a filter for inside the furnace that I fabricated earlier that should work a little better than what was in their before. But I really want to rebuild that plenum in the coming weeks. It annoys me that the AC guys who installed the new equipment for the last owners didn't do it then, when it would have been much easier.

Today's other project involved replacing a tired, leaky Delta kitchen faucet with a nice Moen pull-out sprayer model. When we initially bought the house, we thought we'd probably replace the sink and faucet at the same time, but I think this may be the original 50s sink. And it is one hell of a deep, heavy-duty, retro sink. I kind of like that, so we decided it should stay. Of course, nothing in an old place goes according to plan -- the water supply fittings under the sink didn't mate to the new faucet properly, so Callie was dispatched to the neighborhood Ace Hardware, which had the flare fittings we needed. I love that store, and have spent enough time there so far that one manager knows me by name. It's nice to have a really good hardware store you can walk to. :)

Tomorrow's project involves Ace rekeying some locks for me, but no more tonight. Time to do some more unpacking and decluttering.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/19/09 20:22 | Home Improvement | Technorati |


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