Saving One Penny at a Time: Yet Another Surprise!

Well, I was supposed to get a refrigerator today. And I ended up getting...two! Lowe's showed up with my fridge around 9:00 A.M., and I walked outside to greet them and show them a path to walk it through the garage. Well, the loading dock came down, and the big door went up, and I looked in the truck. "That's not a dent, is it"? From about 30 feet away, I could see a large crinkle on the bottom right of the fridge. I walked over to the truck to inspect with the installer, and he just started cussing up a storm, so I figured it was indeed a dent. He apologized, saying that was the second that day already, but I said I would pass seeing as how much money I paid for it. He understood.

But agh!!! I need a fridge! I literally went to pour milk on my cereal this morning and couldn't! The milk was frozen solid from being stored in the garage all night! I've enjoyed my "garage fridge" for the last couple of weeks, but now it's getting TOO cold, and I can't regulate it! And I mean, it's cold. Single-digit cold outside. And freezing inside, too. I woke up to my house being 50 degrees. That's too much. I need to kick on my back-up heat, something I've avoided doing thus far. But walking around in 50 degrees is just too much.

I went to pour my milk in my cereal, but it was solid! So I ended up pouring my cereal back into the box!

My make-shift fridge outside. Unfortunately, it's now TOO cold.

What I woke up to this morning. Absolutely frigid!

Mom asked if she could come over to clean cabinets this morning, and, boy, oh, boy!, do I never refuse help! I had planned on taking the day off, but with her working, I figured I might as well, too.

So while she scrubbed the cabinets (I would hear occasional comments of "This is just gross" or "This is disgusting" or "This is taking way longer that I expected" throughout the day!), I decided to do a quick patch job of the dryer vent hole that went into the garage. It has been taped up since the day I purchased the home, but I figured I might as well wrap this project up!

The film of dust, dirt, and grease that Mom had to fight on and inside cabinets all day long. Gross!

Oh, why do I think ANYTHING will go "quick" in this house? I bent down to work on the hole, and I just couldn't believe my eyes. "You have got to be kidding me." In absolute terrible luck, the previous owners had drilled right through a duct that went from the crawlspace up to the second floor. I knew all about this duct as I had to work around it for the dryer vent hole to the crawlspace. But I quickly realized that my 20-minute patch job was going to take much, much longer. There was literally a 4-inch hole on two sides of the ductwork! Not good.

A massive 4-inch hole went straight through a duct!

The plan was to install a new piece of flat duct over the holes, seal it up nice and tight with foil tape, and then patch. But, of course, even that was going to be difficult. I cut out a square in the drywall to work on the hole, and that's when I realized that the previous owner just drilled a hole into the duct, then cut pie-like all the way around the duct and pushed the pieces in. I had to be VERY careful not to cut myself when I bent them forward.

I bent the pieces back forward and tried to prevent slicing my fingers!

Well, on this side I took a pair of tin snips and cut myself out a square. It wasn't too bad. But on the garage side, I just couldn't get the snips in there to cut. On the house side, only a piece of drywall separated me from the vent, so it was easy to reach in and cut. On the garage side, I had drywall, then Celotex, then insulation, then the vent. So I couldn't cut it.

I tried over and over again with various tools. The snips, a saw, a roto-tool. But I just didn't have the blades or angle I needed. So I finally broke down and headed to Lowe's to pick up a bit that would allow me to cut sideways with my roto-tool. Once back, I had the piece cut within 10 minutes. It's all about having the right tools for the job! It went so quick after that!

I cut out ductwork to cover the holes, then screwed them into place. As a sidenote, I was creative with the ductwork. A 3'x2' sheet of flat duct cost about 10 bucks. I found that too expensive. So I bought myself a $3 4-inch duct that was 2-feet long and unrolled it. Then I cut out the pieces I needed. Perfect!

I installed a new piece of ductwork over the old duct.

A view looking in from the garage. I caulked the new duct piece for a tight seal. I then did the same on this side.

After I installed the piece with screws, I taped it tight with foil tape. It's amazing how much air was actually coming out of the side of the vents. And it's amazing just how much air was coming through the garage before I got the house-side in place! Air moves quickly through large openings! I'm not sure where this vent goes upstairs, but it should help out significantly. I'm guessing it goes to my very cold walk-in closet! It's always been freezing in that closet even though it has a vent.

All taped up!

Now ready for drywall!

After the pieces were in, I FINALLY cut out some drywall and installed it. I mudded it and called it a day. This project took about five hours longer than expected!

A new piece of drywall.

All mudded!

New piece of drywall in the garage.

And while I had the mud out, I did a spot where drywall paper had ripped off left of the stove.

Mom had worked non-stop on the cabinets from 9:30 this morning to about 3:30 this afternoon. I'm glad she did it because I'm sure I wouldn't have cleaned them with the same vigor! But it's nice to have clean cabinets to put clean dishes in. We had done three loads of dishes in the dishwasher throughout the day, and I started putting the dishes back on clean shelves. That's a good feeling. Up until this point, I've been rinsing every plate or bowl I've taken out of the cabinets!

The cabinets as clean as only a mom can do!

So it's not a huge list of items to check off, but both were necessary. I now have a sealed-up duct which should provide more airflow upstairs, and I have a sealed-up wall which should provide less airflow from outside to inside. And I have exceptionally clean cabinets! Thanks, Ma!

And some more good news...Lowe's called back and said they had a brand-new fridge with NO dents! I'm very thankful for the gentleman coming back by. He was embarrassed this morning, and his professionalism in bringing me a new one today and patiently coaching a trainee was pretty impressive! Both Mom and I commented on how patient and kind he was! So neat to see.

My new fridge!

The fridge looks good! The rest of the kitchen? Not so much!

After Mom left, I spent about an hour cleaning out the inside of my stove. I had sprayed it with oven cleaner this morning knowing she was coming over, but we had totally forgotten about it! So I figured I might as well get it done! It always amazes me just how well ovens clean up, but it was still work! I had to scrub, scrub, scrub! But it's nice to have the ability to cook in a clean oven!