New House Blog: Episode CCXV - Cool It!

Here in central Texas, air conditioning is a necessity, not a luxury, so when the indoor temperatures started rising we called in the experts to diagnose and repair the issue (fortunately, we had not yet reached the hottest season of the year).

Cool It 1 - Diagnosing

We called a local A/C repair shop, and the technician arrived and started his work.  He diagnosed a coolant leak, and after much, much, much testing he determined that the leak was, in fact, in the coil, as he initially suspected, and he recommended a complete new system - coil and condenser.  The coil is the indoor portion of the system, and in our house it lives in the attic space.  The condenser is the outdoor portion that looks like a large radiator.

A day or two after the final diagnosis, the shop's salesman came by (we'll call him Tim) and provided us two expensive options.  He explained that because we have an 8-zone system (that's a lot of zones!) we would have to replace our expensive Bryant A/C system with another expensive Bryant A/C system (including a new furnace).  As both options were rather expensive we decided to do our due diligence and get a second opinion before committing to anything.

The coil is housed in the left-hand enclosure in this photo.  The right half is the furnace.  Look at all those air ducts!

This is the only photo I have of the old condenser in its original installed location.  

Cool It 2 - Second Opinion

"No, sir, no.  Don't do that, sir.  No, sir, don't do that."  These were the first words from the mouth of the owner (who we will call Johnny) of the second A/C repair shop we called.  He uttered these words right after I had described our leaking coil issue.  "You don't need to do that, sir.  We can just replace the coil.  Don't replace the whole system, sir.  That condenser is a workhorse.  It should go for another ten years"  He was quite sure that we could just have the coil replaced, and his shop could do it for under $1000, installed.  Then we started talking, and he asked for more details about the system, and I even sent him some photos of the model and serial numbers.

"You need a new system, sir.  Because of that zone system your condenser is working twice as hard, and it's just worn out.  We can get you a whole new system.  And you don't need expensive Bryant equipment.  Other brands will plug right into your zone system and work just fine."  Well, Johnny's quote was about half of the Tim's, so we scheduled the install.

Cool Cat Interlude 1

Here we see Daisy relaxing in the music room.  Can you read the titles of the music you see?  And how many of those mutes can you name?

Cool It 3 - First Install Attempt

The crew showed up on time (if I recall correctly), and started in to work.  Before they had actually removed any of the old equipment they ran into an issue - the zone system.  Our house is divided into eight different A/C zones, and apparently our zone controller is not actually compatible with just any brand of A/C system.  

After conferring with Johnny on the phone, and Johnny doing more research, it seems that Bryant changed something in the past year or so, which means that their systems are all proprietary now, and Bryant must be replaced with Bryant.  D'oh!  Johnny provided a new quote, which was about 1/3 less than Tim's least expensive option, so we scheduled the work.

Before you get too critical, remember that my dealing with Johnny's shop was 100% over the phone - no one from his shop actually came out and looked at our system - Johnny just assumed it would all be compatible.

Cool Cat Interlude 2

Here you see Satchmo staring at the camera.  

What Is That Stuff On Our Elm Tree?

We noticed some things that appeared to be growing out of the trunk of one of our elm trees.  We initially thought it was just normal fungus, and harmless, but after some research we discovered that normal tree fungus could be an indication of poor tree health, so we called our friends at Rosebrock Tree Services (you recall from this Episode that they are the ones who removed an old elm and replaced it with a new) to come out and have a look-see.

The diagnosis from the tree expert is that these are sap accretions, not fungus.  It seems that the bark has some cracks, and some sap has flowed out and formed these fungus-looking things.  The tree is healthy and sound.

Cool It 4 - Second Attempt

The install crew showed up with a different set of brand new A/C equipment and started in to work.

Get rid of that old, used junk!

The old condenser (foreground), surrounded by the new equipment.

The new coil and furnace look a lot like the old, but they should be more efficient.

The new condenser is roughly the same colour as the old.

The install went smoothly, and all the work was done in less than a day.  So far it all works as expected.

And to those who think Johnny was pulling the old bait-and-switch, I say that either way his proposal cost A LOT less than Tim's proposals.

Cool Cat Interlude 3

Can you spot the Miles?














Roadrunner!!

No coyote is after this little guy.

We spotted this handsome fellow a few weeks ago, as he was wandering around our property.  I took these photos as I was mowing the lawn one day.  He appeared to be carrying twigs up into an elm tree.

I gave him a wide berth, as Ihad no desire to have an anvil dropped on my head (as useful as an anvil may be).

This is not the clearest picture, but you should be able to make out the roadrunner somewhere's near the center of this photo.

Yes indeed, he was building a nest, and if you look closely you can make out his (or her) long tail feathers sticking out of her nest.  It was nice to see our roadrunner carrying out her various errands around our property, but alas, we fear she is no more.  While mowing the lawn a few weeks after these photos were taken I came upon a long tail feather on the ground, and four broken egg shells, and we have not seen the roadrunner since.

The coyote may not have caught up to our roadrunner, but one of the neighborhood cats may have.



Hope You Like Scorpions

Yes, we have live scorpions in our area, and yes, we have seen a few.

For example, this little fellow was found already dead on our front porch.  He is/was a striped bark scorpion, one of two varieties living nearby.

This little fellow, also a striped bark, was discovered in our master bedroom (inside the house) quite alive.  Edgar brought him to our attention, and we removed him and set him free outside.

This little fellow was found wandering on our back porch, also alive, and the brick should give you some sense of scale - the local scorpions are rather small, as scorpions go.  We released him over the side of the porch into the back yard.

To date we have found three scorpions inside the house alive, one outside alive, and one outside dead.  four of the five were striped bark scorpions, and the fifth was a cave scorpion, the other local variety, and about the same size as the striped barks.  They are not poisonous to humans, but I hear that the sting is rather painful.

Other Local Wildlife

Along with scorpions, we have quite a few deer running around (so far none inside our house), and we are in fawn season right now.

I spotted this family whilst working in the back yard.

And at least one of them spotted me.  I did not chase them off.

We spotted this fellow on someone else's lawn during a walk around the neighborhood.  His mother is just outside of the frame, to the right.

We also have some lizards around.  And what is in those pots?  Haven't seen them yet....


















More Gardening!!!

You know we loves our gardens, so how could we not add another one?

Our pottery garden so far.  We initially set it up on this flattish slab of rock just off the front porch, and we installed a deer guard (as seen in the lizard photo above), but we have since moved the pots to better take advantage of sun and shade patterns.

And have I yet mentioned that we loves our firesticks?  You will recall that we only had one surviving firesticks at our California House.  So far we have four, yes four, surviving firesticks at our Texas House, and we will now talk about the planting of the fourth.

The first step was to get rid of this big, ugly, dead mass of tall grass.  I mean, what were they thinking when they planted this monstrosity?

The space looks better already!  The whitish plant on the left may be a variety of dusty miller, but so far I have not positively identified it.

The new firesticks is thriving in its new home.













Cool Cat Project

As you may recall from several past Episodes, we have to keep Daisy mostly isolated from Edgar.  There are rare times when they can tolerate each other, but for the most part, Daisy cannot successfully be around Edgar.  For many months Daisy has spent most of her time in the game room, with the door closed, but recently we began an experiment.

Behold the cat gate!  It is at the top of the stairs, and this is roughly a cat's-eye view.  We put this here to theoretically allow Daisy to freely roam upstairs, whilst keeping the other cats away, except when we opened the gate.

The three boys figured out pretty quickly how to squeeze under the cat gate, so we had to add a piece at the bottom to prevent that.  So far the results are mixed.  It does keep Daisy from wandering downstairs, but Satchmo and Edgar have found a way over the gate.  Edgar does not come upstairs on his own that much, so it mostly works out, for now.

Even The Beaver...

We close with this picture of Buc-ee, doing his part for public safety.


















Remember to wear your
    bIsh