Stop Water Stains on the Ceiling in Bathrooms

Posted on December 30, 2010 by Bill Hutchison — 4 Comments ↓

I finally had someone explain to me why we were getting staining on our ceiling around the exhaust vent in the bathroom. My wife and I had thrown around a few different ideas like:

improper seals around the roof vent
insufficient vent strength
condensation in the attic
improper ventilation
leaking pipes

After the bathroom ceiling fan starting to rattle on the weekend I decided it was time to replace the exhaust fan. I figured while I was replacing one fan I might as well replace them all as they are all old and they donâ€™t actually clear the steam from the bathrooms during showers.

When I was there purchasing the new exhaust fans I was told why our current fans and ventilation is leaving a stain on the ceiling. The problem is that the ventilation is not insulated. This causes condensation to form on the outside of the pipe and run down the pipe to the bathroom ceiling.

Then I install the new bathroom exhaust fans I will be insulating all the exhaust vents in the attic with either spray foam insulation like in the photo from the Ask the Builder article about bathroom fan ventilation, or by wrapping it in standard pink batt insulation.

The basement vent so far has proven difficult to put in as I need to work from underneath between the basement ceiling and the main floor. There isn’t much room to work in and it’s been hard to attach the ducting to the fan in the limited area before attaching the electrical. I’m hoping that working in the attic for the top two fans will be easier, but I haven’t been in the attic for our new house yet, so we will see what is up there soon enough …

Make a Cheap and Easy Window Cleaner

Posted on November 16, 2010 by Bill Hutchison — 6 Comments ↓

Lately I needed to clean the outside of all the windows on our house. I headed down to our local Home Depot to find out what they recommended and I was pointed to a very large bottle of Windex. Considering that I was needing to apply the liquid to a squeegee the end of a very long poll, this didnâ€™t seem like a very economical solution, which got me looking for alternatives.

The alternative that I found to Windex was very simple.

2-caps full of dish washing liquid
1-cap full of Vinegar
Bucket of warm water

This solution worked great for us in cleaning our windows, although I do wish that I had a better squeegee to stop those annoying streaks on the second floor windows â€¦

Children Sharing Bedrooms

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Bill Hutchison — 6 Comments ↓

I know that itâ€™s strange for a web-site dedicated to Renovating, but we would rather not have to renovate at the moment with us expecting our third child. Weâ€™ve been looking at different options for preparing out house for child number three, but with a pregnant wife and a tired husband we would love to find a solution other than renovating our house, again â€¦

One that thing that we have discussed a lot is for our kids to share a room. We have an eight-year old boy, a four year old girl and number three (gender to be determined) on the way. If can figure out a way for the kids to share, then we could avoid, or at least put off, renovating our third house in a row.

Setting Up A Room for Siblings to Share

For us to set-up a room for our kids to share would at least require us purchase some new furniture, and decorate the room in a way that would suit both kids.

The first thing we would probably want to consider, given the limited floor space in the bedrooms, is a bunk bedâ€¦

Your basic bunk bed is a great use of space that basically lets two beds fit where one bed would normally fit. Some of the nicer bunk beds actually separate to make two separate bed, but your basic bunk, like the Ikea Mydal Bunk Bend above, is a single frame. At a cost of only $139.00 CAD though itâ€™s a very tempting product.

Some of your fancier bunk beds can include everything from a desk, a dresser and a book case in it. A good example of this is the Ponderosa Student Loft Bunk Bed from The Brick Canada. At a cost of $1,199.97 + tax it’s a fair bit more than the Ikea Mydal option, but it includes the desk, bookcase and a dresser.

Another option that pursued when we were in Townsville was to build a loft bed.

The loft bed wasnâ€™t as high as a bunk bed, but it still allowed us to use the storage space under it to put a book shelf and a toy box. The kids also liked to use it as a cubby hole by draping their blankets over the edge to cover the front of it.

There is a whole story behind the loft bed that I need to write about someday, but it eventually involved us lowering the bunk to the normal height of a bed after a couple of â€œincidentsâ€â€¦

Can our opposite sex children Even share a room?

The main hurdle that we have come up against in considering if our children can share a room is the law. This is something that we certainly were not expecting to be an issue!

In Calgary, Alberta, Canada it is illegal for a child over the age of eight to share a bed-room with a sibling of the opposite sex.

Well, there goes the plan of our eight year son sharing a room with his four year old sister. Besides the fact that one is a morning person and the other a night owl, this certainly throws a spanner in the works â€¦

Should A Baby Share A Bedroom With An Older Sibling?

Since we know that our four year old girl and eight year old boy are not legally allowed to share a room, should we let one of them share a room with the new baby?

I guess when considering this we need to consider our two children. Our daughter is a very light sleeper, and I think sharing with a baby would be very detrimental to her sleep and and therefore health. Our son is very heavy sleeper, but also needs a lot of alone time, which would be hard if he were to share a room.

So I guess that leaves us with the option of the baby sharing a room with us, or renovating the house. Either option will be hard on our sleep as weâ€™ve found beforeâ€¦

Mixed Messages from the Gas Company

Posted on October 18, 2010 by Bill Hutchison — 1 Comment ↓

Iâ€™m so confused â€¦

So we have been trying to work out some different options to prepare our house for child number 3. We have a three bedroom plus office house (I work from home and need the office) and are trying to work out how to best set it up for three kids. There is a large storage / furnace room in the basement that could be separated into two separate rooms, but we are sure how to best use those rooms.

The biggest problem is that of the two external sides of that room one is under a deck and the other is where the gas line comes into the house.

I called the local gas company, ATCO, a few weeks ago and was told that we need 39â€ between the gas meter and a window, but that we could put a window under the gas line once it came into the house. This week I called again to check it and was told that a window needed to be 36â€ away from the gas meter and that it could not be under the gas line!

So two different stories from the same office about putting a window near where the gas comes into the house:

39â€ away from the meter but the gas line can go over a window
36â€ away from the meter but the gas line can not go over a window

So which do I believe? Based on the first option I thought I had actually come up with a solution to make the storage / furnace room into a new bedroom, but thatâ€™s not possible if the second option is true!

In the idea above the place I thought we could in a window is the big block on the left, with the gas meter the block on the right and the gas line is the green line. This would work if the first person I talked to was correct, but not if the second person I talk to was correct.