New House Blog: Episode VIII - Tenting For Termites

First off, we would like to apologize for the large time gap between Episodes VII and VIII.  It turns out that spending more time actually working on the house leaves less time for writing about working on the house.  That being said, let's move on to the latest (as far as you know) updates.  From this Episode's title you might have surmised that we would be talking about a tent, or tents, of some kind.  And from the previous Episode's closing comments you might have been expecting some sort of dissertation on broom buying in 2012, but you will be disappointed (overjoyed) to learn that said dissertation, due mainly to time constraints, has been whittled down to this: there are a whole lot of brooms to choose from when shopping for a broom.

Also whittled down in this episode are the updates.  In this Episode we will be giving short updates about several projects instead of going on and on about a few projects.  To the updates!

New Teammates

Before we get into actual project updates let's meet the latest additions to our tool teams.  Joining us are Sweepy Junior, a smaller outdoor and garage broom; Gulp, a garage and outdoor dust pan; Pipey, a bright red-orange pipe wrench; Moony, a crescent wrench; Snips, a plant clipper; and Fang, a general-use wood saw.

L to R - Gulp and Sweepy Junior

T to B, L to R - Sweepy Junior, Pipey, Moony, Snips, Fang

Pipey, in particular, was quite useful in the plumbing updates discussed in this Episode.






































Tenting

Are you aware that the Silicon Valley is rich in termites?  Our house was tented for termites recently.  That is to say, our house was covered in a big stripey tent and filled with a poison gas for the purpose of killing the termites already living in the house.  The poison gas used is called Vicane.  We don't know if that's a brand name or a generic name (perhaps someone can look it up for us and let us know via the comments).  It kills all kinds of other things in addition to killing termites (the paperwork we had to sign specifically mentions household cats), but at the concentration used for termite-killing it will not kill spiders (including black widows).  Spider-killing would require a higher concentration of Vicane.  Here is our house under the tent.

Tent view #1

Tent view #2

There is no picture of the house after the tent was removed because it looks pretty much the same as before, and you have already seen the house without the tent.

The house is now safe to enter

Water Heater Repairs

For the record, it's not a hot water heater - it's a water heater.  Ours is fairly new, but two of the pipes were connected poorly and were leaking, and the flue was connected poorly and needed correcting.

The flue - before

 Notice the unneccessary angles and the unstrappedness of the flue.

The flue - after

Now notice the straightness and strappedness of the flue.

One of the old pipe segments

The same pipe segment seen head-on

New piping, sealed and non-drippy

More new piping, also sealed and non-drippy

The white stuff you see on the threads is called plumber's tape, or thread tape, and it is wonderful stuff.

The tools involved in the water heater plumbing repair

Breaker Box

Our breaker box is in the garage, and it is labelled.  The labels aren't very descriptive or complete, but they are mostly there and they are slightly helpful.

Hose Caddie

And finally we finish this Episode with a picture of our new back yard hose caddie.

And that's it for Episode VIII.  Join us again soon for an electrifying discussion about grounded outlets and upgrading to GFCI.

One more thing before we let you go.  Does anyone know where we can get a good, new wood-handled ax?  The Home Depots and OSH's around here only seem to have the plastic/fiberblass-handled axes, and we prefer wood handles on our axes.

Okay, two more things before we let you go.  Thank you, Mike, for your sage advice and suggestions regarding the flue realignment.

Sic semper termites!
    bIsh