Mid-January Doldrums

Since we finished the energy audit, our home projects have been a bit stalled.  What I’d like  to work on most right now is the air sealing of the basement and whatever else we can do to help keep the house warm because it is REALLY COLD right now.  Unfortunately we’re still waiting for our proposal to come back from our energy auditors.  Also, this past weekend we momentarily retreated to Brooklyn for house-sitting duties so we could see friends and spend a couple days in apartments where we didn’t have to grimace every time the precious heat came on.

Hopefully we can get started on the practical stuff soon, but in the meantime I’m going to start some cosmetic work on my office nook – the smallest possible space I could overhaul, except maybe a closet.  It’ll be more paint stripping – this time with better safety precautions in case some of the paint ends up being lead.

The lead is actually another issue contributing to our work stoppage.  We had planned to pay for professional testing in various areas of the house so we could know where we do and don’t have to take extra precautions.  Unfortunately, it seems like there aren’t any professionals in the area that do residential lead paint testing so we’ll just have to rely on DIY test kits and use plastic sheeting and respirators just in case.