Electric roughed into the kitchen:

We had serious adventures with the electric. The first electrician cut all of the knob and tube, which left a massive job for the second electrician. One of the remaining problems is below (a cracked power line that runs from PECO into our house):

On the bottom photograph you can see where someone used to electric tape to deal with these cracks.

I want to buy something.

There are very few stores left and I’m usually confronted with salespeople who may or may not be trustworthy. It’s hard to believe their motivation would be anything except trying to sell you something, particularly with big ticket items where it would be unlikely you’d ever return.

The internet has a wealth of information. As the years go by, filtering good information from bad is nearly impossible. (See Louis CK on customer reviews on Amazon). Unless it’s a small site clearly run by careful amateurs — see most of the model train sites — I’d hesitate to accept any information as legitimate. And…a couple of opinions aren’t evidence.

I’m at the point where I’m totally dependent on Consumer Reports. If their testing and/or methods are called into question, I’ll be doomed.

View from Dining Room

View from mud room

A good week’s work: tear the roof off the mf’er, post wall, rebuild, wedge under existing bay!

The crew tells me that they pulled more than ten tons of material from the house. More than 20,000 pounds of stuff!

Kitchen
The old exterior door turned kitchen window:

View from dining room into kitchen, pre and post-

Ghost of renovations past:
“hey man, just jam all those wires back up in there.” (why the electric box looks like the first draft of a ninth-grader’s essay)
“Don’t worry that I broke your gas shut off. You can always shut it off at the main.”

Second Floor

Second Floor Here

Two dryers, both highly rated by Consumer Reports:

LGE2250W: Electric $717.30 on AJMadison
LG DLG2251W: Gas $807.30 on AJMadison

Electric rate: .1025 per kWh via the Energy Cooperative
Gas rate: 1.40 per ccf

The Clapper family uses the dryer for about 10 hours a week.

How fast will we pay off the difference in price between the electric and gas dryer?

Day begins at 9:30A. Ends at 5PM. Immense piles of rubble everywhere.