Bloodletting

Its fun sometimes to think of the House of 42 Doors as alive. Not in the sense that it is full of spiders, centipedes, sow bugs, hornets, bumblebees, mice and humans. But in the sense that it has a hard exoskeleton (brick), a digestive system (the sewer), a respiratory system (the tuberculosis vents along with loose windows) and a circulatory system (the boiler and radiators). It turns out that the poor organism that we're acting as symbiotic hosts to has health problems with almost all of its systems. Today we bled the little bugger dry.

After four months of waiting, we finally got the heating guys to come out and drain the radiators. When they stopped in last April, they said they'd be back in May to finish the job. I called them in June. No action. I called them in July. No action. I called them in August to tell them either get somebody out here to finish the job, or send me the bill for the time and the "Lipitor" and I'll find somebody else. That was Friday. They had someone out today.

They drained the radiators and the pipes, added fresh water, bled the radiators of air, turned on the heat and verified that all the radiators heated up. We are still waiting to hear back on the metal tube used for draining the boiler and the cost to replace the radiators in the sun room. I also asked them to drill a hole through the foot of concrete that is our basement wall. Ever since we got our new dryer, we haven't been able to vent it outside. This makes for pretty humid conditions in the basement in the winter. In the summer it hasn't been bad, as Ms. Huis has been hanging laundry outside.

Here's hoping the house appreciates its new blood.