Getting ready for old man winter

Work is slowly getting done on the basement. Slow is good at the moment, fast would mean spending more money, and the days of wild spending are coming to an end.

I started adding wedge bolts to the sill plate in the basement. They didn't anchor the framing to the foundation back in the 20's, they just relied on gravity to hold the house there. It's the place houses fail if there's an earthquake. Not saying it still wouldn't fail, since we don't have any shear walls, it's at least an improvement.

Next I started adding some insulation. We've been using a product called Roxul. It is fire resistant and has a slightly higher R value than fibreglass. I find it easier to work with as well. Hopefully we get a small section insulated and vapour barriered by the weekend, so we can run some pipe for the bathroom and the kitchenette.

We're currently getting quotes for furnaces, since our furnace is an old beast. It's at least 50 years old, and runs on fuel oil, which isn't too common around here anymore. With fuel oil costing what it costs now, it's time to change it out. We're looking at mid and high efficiency furnaces. Since we don't have ductwork inside our chimney, which works for oil, not so good for gas, it turns out the high efficiency isn't that much more. The government has a lot of rebates right now too, and there's no provicial tax on the high efficiency models. So we're leaning towards high efficiency. We'll have to make a decision soon, old man winter will be knocking on our door soon enough.