I don't know about anyone else, but right now I am wondering if we will be able to see tango's final work in photo's someday.
Tango, once you think you have all the drafts fixed in an are get a smoke pen. You can use it to test and following the smoke will tell you where any drafts are.
Useless blasted Fedex and their useless web site. Yet again they've told me via their web site and by email that my package is "scheduled for delivery today". After several hours of it showing no updates since it was seen leaving Memphis TN I contacted their "live chat" option. And that was almost as useless as their telephone "support" - it took nearly 10 minutes to get through to an agent and the best part of another ten to get any response from them at all. Then all I got was "it cleared customs this morning, it will be with you tomorrow". Except the web site still says today. So I get to spend another day waiting in, playing "guess when Fedex will actually do what they are paid to do". At least now I know I can get on with stuff for the rest of the afternoon. A(nother) major gripe with Fedex is that their drivers appear incapable of operating the doorbell. If they ring the bell I can hear them, and have a sporting chance of answering the door. When they tap gently on the door (as they sometimes do) unless you're practically standing by the door it's barely audible. So if I'm upstairs trying to get on with something there's a significant chance I won't know they are there at all. Then to add insult to injury the standard response to any communication to them includes "Thankyou for choosing Fedex". So now I tell them not to bother thanking me for choosing them because I didn't, I haven't, and I never will.
Good thought, I've gone around hunting drafts by licking the back of my finger and holding it close to suspect areas. I didn't think to use a smoke pen. Thanks for the tip
I should have taken a load of "before" pictures. Especially of the hideous brickwork. I was quite proud of my efforts at cutting broken concrete blocks flush with the others using an angle grinder.
I have This Old House and will probably use it quite a lot. I couldn't find a pen as such but bought a lighter and a length of fibrous rope. Letting the end of the rope smolder does the job until I can find something that doesn't make the place smell like it's on fire.
Progress! Insulation panels fitted to the back of the closet. There are two sections between wall studs that go behind interior stud walls, and they are stuffed with fiberglass. There is still a persistent draft coming from somewhere in the very corner of the study but I can't find it for the life of me. It's not helped by the fact it's nigh on impossible to get into the space to have a good look. What I may well end up doing is moving my laptop into the guest bedroom where it's warmer, moving my desk out of the corner and having a really good look in there. Whatever it is, it's a small gap. I think it's behind one of the wall studs, which just makes life more interesting. I think once this one is nailed it's going to make quite a difference - as far as I can tell it's the last of the nasty drafts that I can actually address. As well as getting the insulation panels across the back of the closet, I've put the shelves back in place and moved all the stuff I'd pulled out of the closet back in there. Now I just need to put the hanging rail back and the big pile of clothes in the guest room can be hung up again, and I can forget about the closet for a time. It's always hard to know what difference things have had, but the next time we have an oil delivery we'll get a good handle on it all. It's just hard to know what difference is caused by the work I've been doing and what is caused by having one heating loop drained and several rooms left at about 50 degrees rather than more like 65. When it's all done I'll have to watch the oil tanks more closely, because by then the oil company will have figured our usage is way down and I don't want the tanks to run dry.
My piece of smoldering rope helped isolate another couple of drafts. Nothing major, just small gaps in bricks that were letting in a very gentle cold draft. For now I've just stuffed fiberglass into the space, I'll fix them more thoroughly later. In the time I was draft-hunting the unheated room rose from 48 to 51 degrees. I was only in there for maybe 10-15 minutes. Hopefully that means I've got the worst of it nailed. I'm certainly down to things small enough that they are all but impossible to spot with my thermal camera.
Cardio: Cutting thick slabs of (somewhat green) Douglas Fir to 16"" then splitting for firewood. Stack for drying.
Intractable problem. Come nigh to passing out while physically working. Little scary, but sick of the medical roller-coaster. Drs contradicting each other. I'm done. If i konk out, do so at a very happy juncture. Till next report (if).
In many ways, yes. But I should have looked a little deeper into this one. It's not the end of the world financially speaking, but it's pretty annoying. Will have a chat with my credit card company to see if there is anything they can do.