Today's projects or a few of the lesser joys of being a home owner

Maybe about two weeks ago now I started to notice that our drier wasn't drying clothes as effectively as it had been.  Obviously, I immediately checked a few of the obvious potential problem points: the outside vent, the lint trap, the hose running from the drier to the vent.  All of these seemed to be working properly.

After some additional trouble shooting over the phone with my father, and a test run with the drier unconnected to the hose, I've come to the not-immediately-obvious conclusion that somehow the textured aluminum hose and two 90 degree turns are enough to slow down the exhaust enough to prevent the clothes from fully drying - a process that I suspect has been further hampered by low temperatures.

The solution, suggested by my father, that I eventually settled on was to replace the drier hose with a solid, smooth metal tube/duct.  

Today, because I didn't have to work, I finally got around to measuring the distance from the drier out to the vent connection above.  Turns out the gap was 60 inches.

Once I made it to the local building supply store I was pleasantly surprised to find that the material I was looking for came in just two sizes - 30 inches or 60 inches.  I was incredibly pleased to learn that I wouldn't have to hack a longer tube down to meet my needs.

Because of the wonderful coincidence that the size of tube I was looking for was exactly the size being sold the installation process was quite quick.  Lets just hope it works

For the time being, at least until I can determine if today's 'fix' worked or not I'll hang on to the old hose.  

While picking up the aluminum tube I happened to see some styrofoam and was reminded that we had an insulating project that we'd been meaning to take care for some number of months (almost a year at this point).  I decided to check out my options and see if I could find appropriate styrofoam.

As I'd long assumed that I'd need to buy a 4x8 sheet, which is much larger than will fit in our car, I was a little hesitant to proceed with the project.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that they sold multi-packs of much smaller sheets.

By also using styrofoam that we received as packing material this past Christmas I was able to fill in the space between the inner and outer balcony doors.  

Though it still seems a little cool in Jeannette's office we're hoping that before long we'll start to feel the benefits of this added insulation.

Cameron - 6

Neil - 0