Moving On

After 7 years, 3 months, and 28 days of owning our Sienna, the sale of it closed on August 20th. We initially had planned to wait a few more years but circumstances came together earlier in the year where we were able to build again. This time however we went with a different, smaller builder.

From the 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, and 1800 square feet in our Sienna we now have 5 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, and 2604 square feet in our new house. We also have another 325 square feet of unfinished storage space on the second floor that we can finish off later. Our lot is bigger too, we went from .25 acres to .81 acres with thick woods behind us and a stream running through the back of the property. Among other things, the house includes a first floor guest room with a full bath, something that was really important to us as family gets older. We also have a front porch with space for rocking chairs, a feature we've always wanted but never had on our previous two houses.

From the comments I've gotten over the years this blog has been really useful to a lot of folks building with Ryan Homes so it'll stay up indefinitely. I may eventually post a few updates here and there from our new house as well. 

Quarantine Updates

It's been almost two years since I last posted and it's time for an update.

Like a lot of people we spent part of our time in quarantine last year doing home improvement projects.

The first thing we tackled in a weekend was staining our deck and fence. We had last done both back in 2015-2016 and it was time for an update. With the deck we thoroughly power washed it beforehand before using Behr Premium Advanced Deckover. The one we used was textured to be make the deck more slip resistant. A gallon and a half was enough to do our entire 12x16 foot deck.

For the fence we used Behr semi-transparent Waterproofing Stain & Sealer. It's supposed to be good for eight years on fences but I don't imagine I'd wait that long to paint it again. 

The rest of the updates involved our front door. I had been promising my wife a storm door since we moved in back in 2014 and finally got around to buying and installing one. For that we bought an Anderson Easy Install Aluminum Storm Door. The 45 minute "Easy Install" was more like two hours of sweating and a bit of swearing but it was fairly straightforward. The frame of the storm door fits into the existing frame of the door and is secured with screws. With the exception of having my wife hold the door in place while I put the first few screws in it was also something I was able to do by myself. The only downside we found was that with our house facing east and getting direct sunlight the storm door handle gets exceptionally hot to the touch. We solved that by sliding the finger of an old glove over it.

With the storm door in place my wife painted the front door with Behr Hidden Sea Glass.

The last update to the front door was something else I'd had on my list for a while. I replaced the existing keyed lock with a Nest X Yale lock. I had looked at others but since we already have a Nest Hello doorbell and a Nest Cam it made more sense to keep everything under one app. Installation was very simple and made for a worthy upgrade. Especially with not having a covered front porch, it's very convenient when it's raining to unlock the door prior to getting out of the car and not having to fumble with keys. Everybody has their own door code too (up to eight numbers) and when we went away on vacation for a week later in the summer I was able to set up a temporary code for our neighbors that picked up our mail and fed our cats.

Taking Complaints to the Next Level

I will preface this post by saying I'm not a lawyer or work in any real estate related profession so this is based on my own experience and what I learned from it. What I am however is an angry Ryan Homes homeowner that discovered I would potentially have to spend money that I would otherwise not have had to spend on repairs had Ryan Homes done what they were supposed to do and told us they would do. I was further angered because instead of them simply agreeing to the resolution I asked for to fix their mistake, I had to waste time and energy going through a drawn out process to ultimately get what I asked for from the beginning.

As I wrote in the previous two posts, we discovered late last year that despite being told by Ryan Homes that they would handle the warranty registration of our HVAC system (extending the warranty from five to ten years) it was never done. When we asked for them for an assurance that they would cover any repairs in the future we were simply told by their service manager it would be done, "on a case-by-case basis." Not willing to take their word for it and on the suggestion of our HVAC contractor I filed complaints with two Virginia agencies, the Virginia Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection and the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation. We ultimately got a satisfactory resolution in doing so, but had I not known about these resources the outcome would have been much different. For reference to our particular issue see the first post, Filing a Complaint with the State, for background about the problem and the second post, State Complaint Part II: Resolution, for how it was resolved.

I've gotten the impression most people don't know there are resources out there to help when they've been wronged by companies with whom they've done business. In reading through posts on several Ryan Homes communities most folks seem to just accept that they're a big company and there's no use fighting them so they accept it and give up. Our experience says otherwise.

To that end, the following list is the best I was able to come up with of comparable state agencies based on what I dealt with in Virginia. Outside of there I can't guarantee they are the correct places to file complaints but hopefully they can be a starting place to point you in the right direction.

Delaware
Delaware Department of Justice Fraud & Consumer Protection Division
Delaware Division of Professional Regulation

Florida
Florida Attorney General Consumer Protection Division
Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation

Illinois
Illinois Consumer Protection Division
Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation

Indiana
Indiana Attorney General File a Complaint

Maryland
Maryland Attorney General Consumer Protection Division
Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing & Regulation Consumer Complaints

New Jersey
New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs

New York
New York Department of State, Division of Consumer Protection
New York Office of the Professions

North Carolina
North Carolina Consumer Protection Division

Ohio
Ohio Attorney General File a Consumer Complaint

Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Attorney General
Pennsylvania Department of State File a Complaint

South Carolina
South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs
South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation

Tennessee
Tennessee Attorney General
Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance

Virginia
Virginia Attorney General Office of Consumer Protection
Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation

West Virginia
West Virginia Consumer Protection

Some additional advice I can provide based on what we learned through this experience:

-Read your warranty book carefully. (I believe it's on a flash drive now but when we closed we received a binder.) Before you file a complaint, make sure it's something that Ryan Homes should be covering/doing. In our case too, their website stated that they would handle registration of our HVAC unit. While it no longer says that I was able to use the Wayback Machine website that happened to have a snapshot of the relevant page dated several days before our closing. A print out of this was used as evidence to support our complaint. (I actually found a news article referencing a court ruling supporting its use as evidence.)

-Take notes of conversations you have with anyone. Especially when a dispute arises. Note the time and date, the person you spoke with, and what was said. Follow up with an email to the person, "Per our conversation..." Once we had filed our complaint with the state agencies any time I exchanged emails with anyone in Ryan Homes I also cc'ed the dispute resolution specialist in the attorney general's office handling our case so they had a record of it as well.

-Get everything in writing. Don't take anyone's word for it. If the sales representative, project manager, service manager, etc promise you something get it in writing. It's much harder for them to dispute it later.

-Keep copies of all paperwork to reference back to or use as evidence to support your dispute.

-Be thorough in your complaint. Explain in detail what happened, how it happened (if you know), effects of it, and include as much evidence as possible to support your claim. Include, again in detail, your desired resolution to the problem.

-While I didn't have to take it to this level, consider recording phone calls. The laws on this vary from state to state so be sure to check on legality before going this route. (Some states only require one party consent while others require all parties involved to agree to it.)

The last thing I'll add to this is to say again that in going through this situation I got the impression most consumers don't know these resources exist. It's because of this that I decided it was important to write this post and share it. As I mentioned earlier our HVAC company was the one that suggested this route to us. Before this I had a vague notion that these things were out there but didn't totally understand how they worked or what they could do. Having been used them successfully I won't hesitate to turn to them again should the need arise and urge anyone else caught in a similar position to do so as well. These agencies and the people that work for them are there to help.

State Complaint Part II: Resolution

Back in March I mentioned that I filed complaints with not only the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation but also the Virginia Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection. This was a result of them not properly registering our HVAC unit for the full ten year warranty like we were told they would do. As of last month our complaint with the Attorney General's office is closed and I'm happy to say we got the result we asked for.

In mid-April (I'm a little behind on writing this up) we received word through the attorney general's office from Ryan Homes' general counsel and the current service manager that they were purchasing us an extended warranty through AIG. The coverage and conditions were essentially the same as what we would have received if they had simply registered the unit to begin with; namely it only covers parts and excludes things considered normal wear and tear. It does however have a ninety day waiting period and won't take effect until early July. Because of that I have it in writing via an email from the service manager that Ryan Homes will cover any issues under the same conditions as the purchased warranty until then.

When we were first told about the solution being provided to us I was skeptical about it. I'm wary of home warranty companies owing to a less than stellar experience years ago on our old house. Because of that I went back and forth with the service manager with questions to make sure we wouldn't have an issue when the time came to utilize this one. Mainly,  I wanted to be absolutely sure that we would not have an issue using our own contractor and I wanted to be clear on how the process would work when we needed a repair. Along with getting answers to these questions in writing, the HVAC contractor we use also looked over the service agreement for us to make sure there was nothing questionable in it. With all of that being satisfactory we ultimately closed the complaint with the two state agencies.

There are ultimately two takeaways from this. First off, I have nothing but profound gratitude for Virginia Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection and the dispute resolution specialist I dealt with there. I feel like if it wasn't for them we would not have gotten a positive resolution on this.

Second, I am still angry with Ryan Homes about how this whole process played out. Not only the stress I felt, but the time and energy I had to waste getting this resolved. I said from the beginning that all I wanted was a guarantee in writing that we would be reimbursed for any parts that would have been covered had the unit been properly registered years ago. Because Ryan Homes and the service manager refused to do this (instead telling me they would handle things on a "case-by-case basis") I had to file the complaints with the state. In the end they gave me what I wanted but I shouldn't have had to go through all of this to get it.

Filing a Complaint with the State

Last week I filed complaints with the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation as well as the Virginia Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection. Back in the fall we discovered a refrigerant leak on our outside air conditioning unit. In the process of getting it repaired we discovered that due to Ryan Homes not registering our HVAC unit with Comfortmaker like we were told they would do, we did not have the extended ten year warranty like we expected. Instead it was only five years. (Initially we were told by Comfortmaker this warranty started from the day the unit was bought by the installer, but their own paperwork included with the house states on new builds it starts from the day of closing.)

I spoke to Ryan Homes and their current service manager about the issue. The details of those conversations are included in the complaint copied below but I let it be known that I expected them to reimburse us for any parts that otherwise would have been covered had the unit been registered like it was supposed to. His response repeatedly was that it would be handled on a "case-by-case basis." He would not, however, commit to putting it in writing. Because of this I filed the complaint with the state. I've opted to redact the names of the service managers mentioned.

"My wife Jennifer and I built a house with Ryan Homes in early 2014, closing on the purchase and taking possession on April 24, 2014. We were told at the time that the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) unit installed in our house would have an initial warranty of five years on parts from the date of closing, but we would receive an additional five years warranty (for a total of ten) because Ryan Homes would register the unit with the manufacturer, Comfortmaker. It was stated on their website (I have a saved image of the page verifying it) and was also verbally told to us by their service manager [name redacted] (after I specifically asked during our ten month review in February 2015) that Ryan Homes would handle the registration and there was nothing we needed to do.

In late September 2018, we discovered a refrigerant leak on the air conditioning portion of the system. In the process of obtaining the parts for repair our contractor told us that we did not in fact have any warranty at all. After some research with Comfortmaker, it was discovered that contrary to what we were told the unit had never been registered for warranty at all. We were then told that the unit was only covered through late February of 2019, the date the installer purchased the unit from the manufacturer.

Upon finding this out, I immediately called Ryan Homes and over the course of two weeks had several phone calls with their current service manager for our area, [name redacted]. He conceded that at a minimum the warranty should have started from the date of our closing. He then went on to say that Ryan Homes was aware of a period of time in 2014 when a number of HVAC units were not registered for warranty as they should have been. It should be stated here and emphasized that although they were apparently aware of this issue prior to us discovering it, NOTHING was ever communicated to us that we did not in fact have the warranty we believed we had. In addition, none of the neighbors we have spoken with whose homes were built in the same time frame received any sort of communication to this effect either.

During these phone calls, I expressed my frustration and anger to [name redacted] that the unit had not been registered like we expected. I was worried that we would have to put out money we would not otherwise have to spend once the initial five year warranty ran out. He stated that past the five year mark Ryan Homes would handle requests for reimbursement of out-of-pocket costs for parts that would have been covered on a case-by-case basis. He also told me that Ryan Homes was no longer using Comfortmaker, not only because of the way they handle warranty registration, but also due to a high number of issues they found with the units they were installing as well as the limited availability and poor performance of the one parts supplier in Richmond. (A similar sentiment about that parts supplier was told to us by our HVAC contractor as well.)

In February of 2019, a bearing on our furnace's blower motor went bad, causing our heat to malfunction. During the course of our contractor obtaining the parts, we were again told that per Comfortmaker our warranty would end during the end of February. I again had another discussion over the phone with [name redacted] at Ryan Homes. I expressed that I was concerned about the longevity of the unit given the repairs we had dealt with already (along with another repair the HVAC technician has told us to expect on the outside air handler motor) and again emphasized that I expected Ryan Homes to reimburse us for parts costs should something fail that should have been otherwise covered. Just like in October, he said this would be handled on a case-by-case basis. When I asked for clarification, he stated that this meant things not considered wear and tear items, but those that would have otherwise been covered by the warranty in years 5-10. He also told me that should something fail that would result in it being more cost effective to replace the unit versus repair to please contact him first because he would talk with the HVAC subcontractor they now use to see about getting us a new unit installed at a lower price.

At a bare minimum I would like to receive in writing a declaration from Ryan Homes that any parts that would have been covered under warranty from April 24, 2019, to April 24, 2024, had the unit been properly registered will be covered in full without objection and repairs performed by a contractor of our choosing. While we appreciate the gesture made by [name redacted] to have Ryan Homes’ subcontractor install a new unit for us at a cheaper cost our concern is that in order to get parts covered they will make us use their contractor instead of ours as well."

At this point we've received confirmation of the receipt of the complaint by both state agencies and are waiting for it to be processed/investigated. I will update on here as this process plays out.

On a side note, I'm convinced the Comfortmaker brand is total junk. In addition to the aforementioned repairs we also had to replace the capacitor on the outside unit in April 2018. That at least was caught during routine maintenance before it could become a bigger issue. I have no doubt at this point that the clock is ticking down towards the next repair or premature replacement. It's especially frustrating because in addition to doing the recommended twice a year (spring and fall) preventative maintenance, we keep the temperatures around 67-68 in winter and 73-74 in summer. The unit has been taken care of yet it's still given us multiple problems. By contrast the Trane system at our old house, that ran far more, gave us one problem in the almost seven years we had it before moving and the Goodman system installed in my mom's home in late 2007 has given her zero issues since then.

Garage Door Insulation

A few weeks go I finally got around to tackling a project that's been my to-do list since we moved in almost five years ago, insulating the garage door. It was fairly cheap, very simple, and seems to have made a difference temperature wise.  

There are a number of different kits available on Amazon and elsewhere. Most of them seem to be more or less the same thing, rolls of reflective insulation that tapes to the door. I ended up going with this particular kit that cost me just under $100 with free Prime shipping. 

It arrived on a Sunday morning around 11am and within a half hour I was out in the garage installing it. If it hadn't been for a trip to Lowe's to get extra tape I would have been done in about an hour or so. 

Garage door before.

The insulation comes in four equal rolls, one for each horizontal row on the door. The kit says it'll cover up to 7x18 feet. Mine is only 16 feet wide so I ultimately ended up with some material left over. Installation was very simple. Put double sided tape around each door panel then unroll the insulation. Due to some dust and dirt I also wiped the door down ahead of time with a damp rag to ensure adhesion of the tape.

Tape around the panels.

One mistake I made (that resulted in making the trip to Lowe's was using two parallel lines of tape on the vertical sections of the door. I felt like it would provide better adhesion of the insulation but there wasn't quite enough tape provided for this. I picked up a $5 roll of double sided carpet tape that one of the reviews on Amazon mentioned and it worked perfectly for the sections I still needed to tape.

I did one horizontal row at a time. After taping my wife held the insulation and unrolled it as I made sure it was straight on the door. To finish it off Jenny used a utility knife to trim around the hinges and lock. 

Finished door.

While I didn't use a thermometer to measure the temperature before and after it feels like it made a difference. A few days after installed it the temperature dropped into the mid teens over night and while it was still cold out there it seemed like it wasn't quite as bad as it had been in the past. It's only going to do so much however. It continues to annoy me that Ryan Homes did not insulate the exterior walls or ceiling of the garage where it sticks out from the house. (Despite me asking about it and even offering to pay extra.) I've since heard that from others that pushed much harder than I did and were able to get it done. I'd advise this if you're still in the build process. But I still consider it to be a worthwhile upgrade.  

*Update July 15, 2019* After having this on our garage door for five and a half months and through a decent amount of days where it's been in the 90's I can definitely say this made a difference. Our house faces east and catches sun shining directly on the garage door for most of the day. While it's still warm in the garage it feels noticeably cooler than it has in previous summers.

Garbage Disposal Fix

Earlier in the year our garbage disposal died or so we thought. It started buzzing one day and then we heard a pop and caught a faint whiff of smoke. After that it wouldn't even make so much as make a noise when we flipped the switch so we figured it was just dead. We unplugged it under the sink and moved on. We really didn't use it much (we didn't have one at our old house so we never really got used to having one here) so it really wasn't a big deal. We just figured we'd replace it eventually. They're not that expensive, the model we have actually retails for about $100.

The biggest problem we encountered with it not working was water draining from the dishwasher would occasionally back up in the sink. In that case reaching down to clean out small bits of food debris that made it through the sink strainer or plunging the drain with the rubber stopper was usually enough to clear it out.

For whatever reason and I'm slightly embarrassed to admit it, it never occurred to Jenny or I that it might simply be jammed and in looking up the replacement I apparently overlooked instructions on how to fix it. On Christmas Day we happened to mention its lack of working to my brother-in-law who mentioned using the hex wrench and later in the day it came up in conversation again with my own brother who told me about the overload protector button.

Sure enough that was all it needed. The one thing I did find was that an ordinary hex wrench did not provide enough leverage to move back and forth to free the jam. In my tool box however I had a 1/4" hex bit socket that combined with a 3/8" ratchet gave me the needed leverage to turn it. After that it started right up. Problem solved.

Driveway Resealing

When we first moved into our house we were told the driveway needed to be sealed within the first year and then every two years or so thereafter. Three years ago I went the DIY route with the initial seal. It wasn't terribly difficult but it did make a bit of a mess and I was disappointed with how long the coating ended up lasting compared to some of my neighbors that hired someone to do it for them.

This time I opted to pay someone to do it. I had discovered in the past few years that what some of my neighbors paid to have it done wasn't much more than what it cost me to do it myself. So I asked around, found a local company with good reviews, and arranged for them to come by. It ended up being about $50 more expensive than what I spent last time, took far less time, and looked nicer afterward. A crew of three showed up early one morning, cleaned the driveway, applied the coating and left, all in the span of about a half hour. As much as I prefer going the DIY route to save a bit of money, this is one I'll leave to the pros from now on.

Ring Video Doorbell Pro

One thing I've never liked about the layout of our house is the inability to see out the front window from the living room. Like most people nowadays too we've also been getting a substantial number of packages delivered and I worry about potential theft. I started looking at the Ring video doorbells last year and was impressed by what I saw. It looked easy enough to install and when I saw the Pro model on sale for $50 off a few months ago I went ahead and jumped on it.

The Pro model is hardwired (versus batteries for the original and 2 models) and also has a component that connects to the existing chime. Installation is simple and the included instructions (along with available video guides) are very detailed. Ring also includes a screwdriver and even a drill bit in the kit as well. Because it involves live wires flipping the breaker to shut off the electricity is a must. In our case the same breaker controls the front hallway where the chime is along with the front door area where the doorbell is mounted. This shut the lights off in the area too and because I'm inpatient and didn't want to wait until the next day my son held a flashlight while I did the install.

Doorbell chime with Ring's Pro Power Kit installed.

Installing the door bell unit itself is even easier. Unscrew the existing doorbell and disconnect the two wires connected to it. Connect them to the back of the Ring Pro. It doesn't matter which wire goes to which screw. Then attach the doorbell to the door frame. Don't attach the cover until device set up has been completed. (Flip the breaker on before doing so obviously to power everything up.)

One thing I really liked about the Pro versus the previous models was the ability to set customized motion zones. I'm able to extend out the zone slightly to cover my mailbox to get a notification when the mail is delivered but it limits false alerts due to traffic passing by. (You can also set the sensitivity level too.) It's not perfect but I'd rather it go off than not. 

As the screenshots above show image quality is very good, even in the dark. Voice quality is also quite good although if there's any sort of wind, etc. it can be a bit difficult to understand the person outside. Several times since installing it I've been able to tell door-to-door solicitors to leave without getting off the couch, which is an added bonus. I've noticed that some them seem to recognize that the Ring is installed and knock on the door instead to avoid setting it off. The joke is on them when I come through the speaker anyway. 

After using it for a few months I've been really pleased with it overall. It does occasionally not register motion and miss a package being delivered for example but that's rare. There are also occasional glitches with Ring's network servers but again, fairly rare. I liked it so much that the week after installing it I added a Ring Spotlight cam as well (post on that to come) to cover the entire front of my house. It's hard to beat for the purchase price and the monitoring cost. ($3/month or $30/year per camera.) 

Plumbing Leak Detection

As I mentioned in the previous post I had a plumber out last week regarding our water pressure. I was initially worried we might have a water leak and while we didn't he showed me a way I was not aware of about how to detect if that's the problem.

On the water meter along with the dial there's a low flow indicator. In our case it's a blue gear shape but from what I see online it can also be a triangle or other shape and another color. According to the plumber this will detect the slightest of leaks. So if you suspect that's your problem make sure the water is off at every faucet in the house and then pop the cover off in your yard where the water meter is located and look at the small dial. If it's moving, water is being used somewhere in the house. (To demonstrate it to me he turned on the water at the outside bib.)

The link above also mentions how to tell if the leak is occurring in the house or in the supply line leading to the house. It's useful knowledge to have for future reference. 

Tankless Hot Water Heater Maintenance

The past few days we've been having water pressure issues, mostly in the mornings. Not being real sure of the cause I had called a local plumber that everyone in my community speaks very highly of and asked him to come out and take a look. I was concerned that we had a leak somewhere or it was an issue with our hot water heater. By the time I got home the water pressure was back to normal but I kept the appointment because I figured it wouldn't hurt to have him come out and at the very least do maintenance on the water heater.

We have a Noritz tankless hot water heater that runs on natural gas. It's very energy efficient and up until now the only issue we've had with it was due to the water savers that are in every shower head and faucet. (Link to post from November 2015.) It's recommended that the unit be drained and flushed periodically, particularly in areas with hard water but we'd never had it done. The plumber checked the unit over including removing and checking the inline filter that was clean. (I failed to get a picture of this.) Because we've never done it I went ahead and paid him to flush and descale it.

The process involves turning the valves to isolate the heater from the house plumbing and then attaching hoses to circulate a descaling solution through it pumped from the bucket. Once it was finished the water was fairly clean indicating not much in the way of build up. Still there was no way to know for certain until it was done and we shouldn't need to do it again for a few more years. From what he told me though if you live in an area with hard water, this is something that needs to be done more often, at a minimum once a year. (Refer to your heater's owner's manual as needed for guidance regarding your particular unit.)

As for the water pressure issues, the plumber wasn't able to find anything that might be causing it and it being back to normal by the time he came out made it all the more difficult. My next door neighbor texted me to say he was having the same issue at the same time we were leading me to think it might be an issue on our county's end with the water supply. They sent someone out to take a look as well but didn't find anything either so for the moment we're in a wait and see mode with that. 

Spring HVAC Maintenance

I've stated on here before the importance of doing twice-a-year preventative maintenance on your HVAC system. About a month ago I had the local company we've used for years, James River Air*, out for the spring check up on our air conditioning system. During the course of the visit the technician discovered a problem with the capacitor on our outside condenser unit. Had it not been caught when it was it would have failed in the near future resulting in a miserable wait in the heat for a service visit to repair it.

This is the second time over the years these preventative maintenance visits have caught issues
ahead of time. I also have to believe it's prevented additional problems from occurring. It's a good reminder of the need to have it done and that it's not wasted money to do so.

*I make nothing off the link above but I've used them for years and recommend them. The handful of times I've had issues with service they've been quick to make it right. They even sent my mother flowers after she had to postpone a scheduled HVAC replacement after my father died unexpectedly in 2007. They're a good company with good people.

Furnace Heartbeat

Last week I had a local HVAC company out for fall maintenance on our system. The technician showed me something useful on the system that I wanted to share. Our unit is made by Comfortmaker but this apparently applies to other manufacturers as well.

On the front of the system is a light that they refer to as the heartbeat. Normally it will be a steady flash when everything is working correctly. In the event of a malfunction that flash will change to a pattern. If the issue is intermittent (or you shut the unit off/restart it) that code can disappear before someone can get out to look at it. So he told me if I ever experience a problem to write down the pattern just in case. When a technician arrives it will assist with figuring out and correcting the problem quicker.

On a side note, I've said this before in previous posts but I'll say it again. if you’re not getting your system checked out twice a year, in the spring and fall, start. I’ve been doing it for years and at least once in the past at my last house it caught an issue before it became a larger problem. With the company I use at least it also gives me priority service in the event of a problem. It's money well spent.

Bathroom Fan Cleaning

A few weeks ago it started getting very humid in our master bathroom and bedroom after taking morning showers. Every time I vacuum upstairs I clean the dust off the outside of the cover to the ventilation fan but finally got up on a chair and took a much closer look inside. The cover comes off very easily. Ours at least was held in place with wire hooks on a spring. Pull the cover down and then squeeze the wires together to pull them out of the slots in the ceiling.

While I was able to clean the dust off around the motor with the cover off the only way to clean the fan blades was to remove it from the ceiling. There were two flat headed screws on the right side in the photo above that had to be removed. They weren't in the metal but rather in the drywall itself with the edge of the fan assembly resting on them. The edge of the metal frame has two hooks that fit into slots in the ceiling. There's also a simple two prong electrical plug that needs to be unplugged as well. (I didn't see any reason to shut off the breaker to the bathroom but it might not be a bad idea to do so just in case.) 

This was the fan after removing it from the ceiling. I ended up using a bristle brush attached to my shop vacuum to clean out all the dust in the blades. Putting it back in was as easy as removal. It definitely helped with the humidity and I'll be adding this to list of items to clean every few months to keep it from getting this bad again.

A few days after I cleaned the master bath fan I checked both the hall bath and the downstairs half bath. Both of them were slightly different in the way the cover hooked into the ceiling and the way the fan was mounted in the ceiling. Neither was bad enough to require full removal to clean at least. 

Morning Room Update

When we signed our sales contract just over three years ago the incentive being offered in our neighborhood at the time was a free morning room addition. The extra space that provided along with the upstairs laundry room were big reasons behind us going with the Sienna versus the Florence. (The next level up in our neighborhood.)

Judging from other blogs most people use theirs as a dining room. We on the other hand envisioned it mainly as a home office along with a playroom for the kids and a spot to relax. We originally had a small couch in there but replaced it last year with this chair from IKEA. Our older son's big gift this past Christmas was an Xbox One (and let's be real here, I wanted to play it too) and we didn't want it upstairs in his room. (See previous parenthesis among other reasons.) I had been looking to add a television in there for a while already and I managed to catch this 39" 1080p Insignia Roku set on sale for $199. It's the perfect size for the room and while we don't have a cable outlet in there the built in Roku means our younger son can still watch his shows without tying up the main television in the living room.

There are two regrets I have with this room:

1. We should have added a ceiling fan rough-in. It can get a bit warm out there in the summer even with the blinds and curtains closed. Eventually I'm going to talk to an electrician about the feasibility of installing one but it would have been far easier and I'm betting cheaper too if it had been done during construction.

2. Not as much of a regret as #1 given the amount of natural light from the windows and sliding glass door but do wish we'd gotten the two extra windows. On the other hand having a solid wall gave us a good spot to hang our college diplomas and I'm not sure where we'd put them otherwise. 

IKEA Trip

As I've noted in previous posts, Jenny and I love IKEA. It's gotten to the point where nearly every room in our house has something from them. With the closest store a 90 minute trip up I-95 (assuming minimum traffic) it's generally an all day affair between the trip, assembling whatever we buy, and then being too tired to do much of anything afterward. Over winter break we made our first trip up there since last spring to pick up a few things we'd been eyeing for a while.

Earlier in the year Jenny set up a crafting area in our master bedroom using a small table and a little drawer organizer to hold her supplies. Needing more space we originally planned to get a larger desk and an additional drawer unit. But then we found this Linnmon/Alex desk/drawer combination that provided even more space and storage. On top of that, it saved us from needing to get an additional nightstand for my side of the bed. (In front of the lamp on the desk one can also spot the USB hub and dock I use for charging my Apple Watch, iPhone, and iPad. As an added benefit it puts the watch in nightstand mode.)

On the other side of the bed sits the Hemnes nightstand that finally completes our bedroom suite. The lamps on both sides are basic stick lamps from Target. 

A few other bigger things we picked up on this trip along with assorted minor odds and ends:

-Kallax Drawer Insert. We have the older Expedit 2x2 storage cube in the morning room that the Kallax replaced. It has the same interior dimensions however and these inserts fit perfectly. After getting home and assembling the drawers I wish I had gotten a second one along with the door insert to hide the mailing supplies that sit in one of the cubes.

-Fixa electric screwdriver. Having assembled a lot of IKEA furniture over the years inevitably my hands hurt from turning the screwdriver repeatedly. This $10 electric one was a savior this time around and slightly surprisingly even had enough torque to put screws into the aforementioned Expedit cube securing the drawer insert inside. While I've got another one of these somewhere in the garage, for $10 this was cheap enough to pick up as an extra.

Deck Stain and Painting

Over the Labor Day weekend we managed to get a few things done to our house.

Much needed and long overdue was sealing the deck we had added last summer. I bought two gallons of Cabot Sun Drenched Gold exterior stain around the end of June with plans to use it fairly quickly. But the heat and humidity this summer was oppressive and prevented me from doing much of anything. It wasn’t until Labor Day weekend that the temperature finally dropped enough with no rain in the forecast to get it done.

Before.

I started by washing the deck with a bottle of deck wash attached to a regular garden hose. We had a bad stain on the corner where grease had dripped from the grill but between the wash and a wire brush it made it barely noticeable. From there we applied the first coat on Monday afternoon using a brush to do the edges and trim and a roller brush on a stick for the rest. Within a few hours it was dry enough to walk on but still a bit sticky. When I got home Tuesday afternoon I applied the second coat to finish the job. The next day we got some completely unexpected heavy rain but thankfully the coating was dry enough at that point that it didn't seem to affect it. There are however a few spots I still need to sand down a bit where the roller applied the second coat a little too thick. Overall we were really pleased with the result.

After.

The other project we completed was to paint the front wall where the front door is to match the accent walls in the living and morning rooms. While we generally like the color of the color Ryan Homes used on the walls the contractor grade flat paint shows every little smudge and bit of dirt. After two and a half years the front wall wasn't looking too great and needed a touch up.

Before.

After.

Close up of the sign Jenny made for the wall. 

To make the sign She took a basic 12 x 12 canvas panel from Michael's, applied a gel wood stain, and then printed out a vinyl decal with her Silhouette Cameo cutter.

Under Cabinet Lighting

Jenny and I were in Costco this weekend when we passed by an end cap display of these remote controlled LED lights and grabbed a set of them on a bit of an impulse. (They're not showing up on the Costco website but they were about $20.) Initially it was to add a light inside the closet underneath the stairs but we also placed them under the cabinets in the kitchen and were really pleased with the results. Best of all they're remote controlled and have four levels of brightness.

I'd share a photo of the closet too but it's a bit of a mess at the moment. Suffice to say two lights in there makes a big difference. 

Light Sensors

After our neighborhood experienced several car break-ins and vandalism last summer I started turning on all our exterior lights at night. (Along with the front pole light that automatically comes on at night via a sensor.) The problem has been remembering to turn them off in the mornings. (And sometimes turning them on at night for that matter.) With us leaving to go on vacation for a week earlier in the summer it became even more important to find a solution to turn them on and off automatically.

After I little searching I came across these screw in sensors and bought three of them about $10 each at Lowe's. I also had to get one shorter light bulb owing to the size of the fixtures outside the front door and garage. I set them for dusk to dawn mode and after using them for a few weeks I can say they work well. The light sensors don’t seem to be very sensitive, less so than our front pole light especially when it comes to shutting off in the morning but that’s more of a minor quibble than a real complaint.

Don't Cap the Vent!

Similar to how our heat went out on the coldest night of the year in 2015 (the first winter we were in the house) our air conditioning went out on the hottest night of the year last weekend. I had heard it shut off at one point mid-evening and when I looked over at the thermostat it was completely blank. Based on what happened with the heat I knew immediately this meant that the moisture sensor in the back up drain pan underneath the HVAC unit in the attic had been tripped.

Sure enough once I climbed into the attic I discovered the pan to be full of water. I hauled my shop vacuum up there and once I had sucked up enough water to get it below the sensor the unit came on again. (We’ve had the thermostat set at 74 and thankfully it had only climbed to 76.) Between my vacuum not being very big and getting heavy with water it took me three trips up there to remove all of it.

So how did it happen? The day before this happened a local HVAC company had come out to check over the unit and make sure everything was working properly. I’m on a twice a year preventative maintenance agreement (which is cheap insurance against bigger problems) but I had been worried the last few days that something wasn’t right and with the temperature scheduled to nearly 100 degrees for several days with even higher heat indexes it was worth the $57 cost for a little extra peace of mind. (Everything ended up being fine.) When the technician came out I had asked him about how there was cold air blowing out of the condensation drip tube and if it should be capped. He agreed but said it should be left loose so it could vent and still allow the water to drain. But the cap ended up being on too tight and prevented the tube from venting. From there the water backed up to the secondary drain and out into the pan.

Arrow marking the vent where the cap was placed.

Back up drain pan underneath the HVAC unit.

So the lesson learned from this, while it might seem like it makes sense to cap the tube, don’t do it. On the flip side, I know for sure once again that the back up drain pan and moisture sensor work that keep water from overflowing and leaking through the ceiling.