Up Early and a Surprise

I’m up early today — Saturday, even for me. I awoke at 5 to sounds of running water and a terrible groaning sound. Immediately I thought “the boiler!” The running water sound I was hearing seemed behind my head, which could easily be the manifold for the 2nd floor radiant heat, which is located in the closet behind our bed. The groaning sounded like the boiler did when the contractors were filling the system for the first time and bleeding the air out. So, I jumped out of bed, expecting the worst.

A short story even shorter: it was raining outside, and the steel mill a few blocks away was loading some train cars. This is typical. The radiant floor and boiler are working perfectly.

I blame this apprehension, of course, on the fact that I slept alone last night. Trissa drove her friend to Portland and wont be back until later today.

After Trissa left last night, I made a short list of the things I wanted to get done this weekend. I got started right away with a trip to McLendons Hardware - to buy the materials I’d need to hang this on the wall above the range:

We’ve had this range-hood since we bought the appliances 2nd hand at the local salvage yard. The old kitchen didn’t have a spot for it (why retrofit a kitchen you’re going to demolish?) and until now the new kitchen hasn’t been ready to receive it. Anyhow, I’m hoping to surprise Trissa with it when she get’s home today. One thing I’ll miss is Trissa setting of the fire alarm every time she fries something on the stove top - I wont get to yell “Trissa’s Cook’in” anymore, which is my typical response as I race to reset the alarm.

I got the hood hung on the wall last night. It needs to be lowered a couple of inches, I think. Today I’ll do that, and then run the vent pipe out the sidewall and hook up the power. Then, lots of other projects - my goal is to use up some of the building materials that are currently stacked in our dining room (and have been there for quite some time now…)