Feathers
I’ve spent much of the last few weeks trying to feather my new nest, in ways that perhaps only I can understand.
Not counting my initial foray into the innards of the fancy sound system, which deserves a posting of its own, the first thing I worked on was the rather impressive collection of multi-gang light switches adorning nearly every wall of the house. As obvious as the correct installation of a single light switch should be (it is clearly marked “on” and “off”), there was one in the bathroom that was installed upside down. Drove me crazy, until I got it turned over.
Three-way switches and the like are not so obvious (no “on” and “off”), but I decided my own standard a while ago – when all the relevant switches are down, the light (or fan) should be off. So if you walk through the house and flip all the switches into the down position, everything should be off. I’m still working on getting them right, since one circuit may be controlled by switches in three different rooms on two different floors.
Next I replaced a couple of vent-fan switches with timers. It’s hardly fair to ask a bathroom user to remember to come back and turn off the vent fan, but those fans can be real power suckers. Not only does the fan itself consume significant electricity, but it pulls conditioned air out of the house, adding to your heating/cooling load. The timer is a simple fix. Plus, in the dark, it’s real easy to tell which switch is the light, ’cause the timer has a knob instead of a toggle.
Speaking of telling switches apart, I then spent about half-an-hour labeling switches on the main floor. It started with the situation previously described in The Case of the Inoperative Ceiling Fan. I realized that I often had to try two or three switches, sometimes on opposite sides of the room, before I got the results I wanted. Lots of flexibility leaves plenty of room for confusion, and the labels are a simple fix. Plus we expect to entertain guests frequently, and it just seems impolite to laugh at them as they try to find the right combination of switches. The labels are real purty, but the jury is still out, however, on whether the Management will ultimately approve of them.
The shower was my next focus. The previous residents had a small child, so they had wisely lowered the temperature of the hot water tank. My spouse requested I raise it a bit, but before I did that, I felt obligated to fix the HC orientation in the master bathroom shower. Yep, against decades of proud plumbing tradition, turning the knob to the left made the water colder instead of hotter.
Fortunately, the shower valve was a Delta, and years of back-to-back hotel shower installations taught Delta to design a cartridge that can be easily flipped, although the model we have does require you to turn off the main water supply to do so. The kind that you pull out to turn on can be flipped with the water still on – you simply remove the knob, rotate the cartridge insert 180 degrees, and re-install the knob. Ours is a Monitor model – clockwise turns it off, counter-clockwise makes it increasingly warmer (unless it’s in backwards!) That model requires you to remove the cartridge to flip it. Done.
I also learned how the “monitor” function works to prevent scalding. Turns out it is purely manual. You turn the shower on in full hot position and measure the water temperature. If it is over 120 degrees F, you remove and re-insert the adjustable stop point so the water can’t get as hot, repeating as necessary. You are supposed to check it any time the max water temperature changes. I doubt that happens very often, but, as solutions go, it is still way better then nothing.
The last thing I did this weekend was move my DSL router to a more central, and more concealed, location. While I was at it, I also ran a phone line and an Ethernet connection down to my cavern in the basement. The presence of this posting is an indication of my modest success in this venture.
Hay
My Dad tells the story of a farmer who made his way through thick snow to the local church building one Sunday morning. Turns out he was the only member who showed up, so the preacher asked whether they should have the service. The farmer replied by saying, “If I went out to feed my cattle and only one showed up, I would still feed him.”
So the preacher commenced to preachin’, and didn’t quit until he had preached considerably more than an hour. At the end, he looked at the farmer and said, “Well?”
The farmer replied, “Preacher, I would feed that cow for sure, but I don’t believe I would give him the whole bale of hay!”
Once again, I’ve probably given you the whole bale of hay.
I guess now you have something to ruminate on. Sorry, I cudn’t help myself.