This is something that I meant to get done last year.  This year, it is my goal to finish the basement work.  It is, for the most part, dirty unglamorous work that no one but me will see.  I would love to put a deck or covered porch on the front of the house, perhaps next year.  I’d love to get at that siding too.  The fact is, I can’t, in good conscious, do that work without completing all of the basic structural work first.  The basement is key to the whole house, it needs to be done.  That project includes:

1. Finish repairing the walls.  I started fixing all of the cracks in the walls last spring.  Things are looking pretty good and I am almost done.  I have a few small cracks to fill in with .
2. Paint the walls.  Basically to cover up all the repairs and make it look better.  This will also allow me to monitor the basement and see if any new cracks develope.
3. Replace the rotted rim joist under the front door.  This requires that I finish removing the front deck, which will be done this weekend, weather permitting.
4. Seal up air leaks around sill plate.  This is important in the two additions as I know that they were jacked up and whatever seal was in place was destroyed.  I will use expanding foam to make a good seal around the entire house.
5. Insulate the ceiling between the main house and the basement.  I know that we are loosing a lot of heat to the basement every winter.  Now that oil prices are $4.40 per gallon I want to minimize that loss as much as possible.  I am looking to install unfaced R-19 insulation bats in all of the open bays.  This work should pay for itself in the first year.
6. Finish repairing the termite damage on the main support beam.  Termites are interesting creatures.  They seemed to consume just one part of one of the 2 x 6’s in the main support beam.  It does not seem to have changed the structural integrity, nor can I find any evidence of termite activity in the other two 2 x 6’s.  I have looked and drilled several inspection holes, which I will fill with epoxy. The beam work may take place over the winter months
7. Replace all of the lolly columns.  They are all looking a little rusty.  I am sure that they will last for several more years, but if I am doing the beam, I might as well replace all of the support columns as well.  I may pour concrete pads under the columns.
8. Build storage shelves and better organize things.  Since our basement work last spring, things are sort of piled up in the middle of the floor.  It would be nice to set up several large storage shelves.

The most important of all of that work right now is the insulation.  I am going to try and get our oil usage down to one tank full (275 gallons) this year.  It may be a bit of a stretch, last year we used 450 gallons, but I have some strategies.

First off, the insulation and air leak sealing.  Every year I do some work on this and every year it gets better. I think if I can get the basement sealed up, a lot of heat loss through the floor will be avoided.  It will also make thinks like the furnace and hot water heater more efficient because they won’t be sitting in a cold drafty basement.

Secondly, I am working on a solar furnace.  Right now, I think I have a unique design and I am researching existing patents.  If no one else has come up with my design, I will patent it.  I am building a few prototypes to try out.  I am working on something that will take advantage of snow cover and can be mounted on south facing vertical walls.

Thirdly, I am going to have more wood available this year to better utilize the wood stove.  It can be a pain sometimes, but it does save money and the wood supply is still free.  Free heat is good heat.  More on the woodstove and wood supply later.

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