Having looked at our new house online for over 7 months, I had made a mental list of improvements I wanted to make. Given that we moved with only our suitcases and knowing that all my tools would arrive at a later date made job selection difficult. I did buy a small tool kit with some of the basics in it. The tools were of the finest Korean quality and marginally dangerous, but better than nothing during the interim.
First things first, the pool needed to get in shape!
Went down to our local pool shop to have the water tested and picked up some pool cleaning supplies. It didn’t take long to get the water looking good, but there was still one problem… the temperature. This was some Niagara River in December, ice cube making, polar bear water temperature that would take your breath away. Well, okay, maybe not that bad, but it was 68 degrees or 20 degrees Canadian! I looked at a few options and decided on a 240v heat pump that also has a cooling feature. This unit will be able to keep the pool temperature perfect year round. I spent a couple days digging in the new water lines in preparation for the electrician.
Given that I wanted to warm my pool with electricity, I needed to offset the expense of running this energy hog with some solar power. I also wanted to fit in here as most of the neighbourhood homes have some type of solar system on their roof tops. Unlike Canada, the cost of solar panels and inverters is extremely affordable and the government has a generous rebate structure. I called a few installers for quotes and selected a company called DSES.
In only a couple days the installers put up 24 solar panels on the roof, installed two new minisplit AC systems, wired in the pool heater and added some additional plugs in the garage. It wasn’t long before we were selling our power back to the grid and swimming comfortably.
Next on the list was the bedroom carpets. There was an attempt by the previous owner to clean the carpets of stains and mask the smell of pets and whatever pets do to your carpets when you’re not looking. It was a mediocre job at best to remove the stains and the looming carpet cleaning fragrance of apple blossom and eucalyptus greeted you on every visit. These carpets just had to go.
The new flooring we purchased is a vinyl plank – hardwood looking product. We selected a mahogany color that will tie in perfectly with the wood trim and window covers. After a day of pulling up carpets and wooden tack strips, the trailer was loaded and off to the local landfill it went.
I still have a few more jobs on the list, but these will have to wait until my tools arrive… soon?