Catskills - Sullivan County - Ulster County Real Estate -- Catskill Farms Journal

5 short weeks ago...

Foundation -

Partial Frame -

Frame -

Tyvek and roof...

Roof on...

Siding on ...

Wayne County Fair with Bryan from Cottage 34.  Oh, and Lucas.

Monster Truck Baby.  With my John Deere cap from last year.  Does my head look small in this photo?

My home...

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Hammering rock and setting the footings at Woods Road in Barryville.

Lots of action at the building lot next door as well, with the windows, siding and roof going up.

Interior shot at Woods Road.

Question - We seem to be getting mildew and even some light mold in our basement.

Suggestion - Weather is hell on a home and even more hell on a home that is not lived in full-time, since the act of living in a home invites air circulation and fresh air into a home.  With super-sealed envelope from our enhanced insulation which results in comparatively low heating and cooling costs comes a side issue of ventilation, or actually lack thereof.

In basements, there is no substitution for a good dehumidifier running all the time - by running all the time I don't actually mean 'running all the time' - I mean being set to a dehumidification level on the machine that provides for it to kick on and off as needed - and these requires 2 things for success - a good dehumidifier and a place to drain the water being sucked out of the air.

A good dehumidifier will run $300+ - you get what you pay for, especially with dehumidification.  Also, you don't want to depend on the internal pump that is supposed to pump the water up (against gravity) and out a window - they don't seem to last for long.  So the drain line out of the dehumidifier should drain into a laundry drain (with the machine elevated) or a hole in the concrete floor of the basement.

It's always good to air out a basement on occasion - so when you are up, open up the doors and windows of the basement and get some good fresh air down there to replace the dank, moisture-ridden, subcavernous, stale air that is naturally lurking in a space like this.  A fan isn't a terrible idea either.

For those homes without basements or with finished basements, the necessity is even more real, since while an unfinished basement will naturally 'leak' some air, a fully finished and lived in basement will prevent some of that passive air leakage, creating a more urgent need for ventilation, and dehumidification.

Hot summer months in a locked up, windowed up, non-air conditioned home are when the humidity can really cause some problems, and there is no real secret to keeping it from happening - and that is adequate dehumidification.

With 100 homes out there, and lots of customers, some living in there homes almost a decade now, we have a lot of opportunity to hear feedback of all sorts about what works, what doesn't and how to make the whole homeownership thing a little more straightforward.

Today's suggestion -

Question - What could be some reasons my water pressure has decreased over the past year?

Answer - More times than not, the cause of a decrease of water pressure has to do with the filters being clogged in the individual faucets and the whole house filter that we are now installing in the basements.  Both could be part of a regular maintenance program with the house - like checking batteries on smoke detectors, repainting porch railings/spindles as needed (and before they reach the point of no return).

The filters at the faucets can be removed with a simple cloth (to protect the finish) and wrench, and the whole house filter is pretty straight-forward as well, or can be demonstrated by James, who has a great stage routine down for this demonstration, and reminds me a lot of the flight attendant show of how to use the oxygen masks and debark a plane in an emergency.

It's funny how a small thing like a clogged filter can really affect the pressure of water in a house. And with upstate wells being nothing more than an 8" hole drilled hundreds of feet into the earth through all the sub-strata like clay, rock, etc..., it's easy to see the potential for particles to make their way to your faucet or filters.