I’m separated for some years now and I rent a three bedroom tract house in Roseville, California, cheap from an old school friend in exchange for my refurbishment and maintenance work on it.
Although the structure is getting on in age and is a cheap, stick-built gorilla cage, suburban house, it is still basically sound and should last another several decades if it doesn’t burn up or get swept down Dry Creek in a huge flood.
As Groucho Marx noted in The Cocoanuts, “You can even get stucco… boy, can you get stucco!” That was in Florida but stucco is also very popular in beautiful this area, especially in cheap tract houses from 1967.
And despite the tatty old 1995 paint and half rusted off gutters most of the house functions pretty well. When I moved in three years back it had not been lived in for some time and was neglected and worn down, despite my decade long work on it for my old college pal.
So I earned my low rent the first year or so, ripping out and removing pet peed carpets; paying $350 to have our local handyman replace the kitchen sink plumbing, and the defunct 1995 HVAC thermostat.
Early on I paid $700 to have a grand pile of leftover old deadbeat tenent junk, smelly carpet, derelict furniture, house refurb scraps and other assorted detritus carted to the dump. An 8ft high pile of wet trash maybe 20ft in diameter. Worth the money.
Then my landlord/buddy paid $500 to have the HVAC igniter board replaced so I’d have heat. I seldom run the heater except on cold mornings but they are pretty frequent in winter here in North Central California.
I remember when the former house owner had this HVAC unit installed after the 1995 flood and it was rather marginal in power even back then, amazing it is still working. Marginal, true, but nice to have even in our generally mild climate.
The roof is worn but does not leak except from maple leaves clogging the roof drain valley (the cricket), easily fixed and prevented by clearing maple leaf roof mats off the cricket. But a scary tall height for an old man with arthritis and a fake hip. I let my also elderly LL climb that tall ladder.
The gutters were a different story, rusted and flooding the foundation, so we ripped off and cut off some of it. It should all be removed and gravel poured on the house’s ground drip line.
Windows are 1967 single pane with aluminum frames, some with cracks, with next to no insulation value. Likewise the loose excelsior paper attic insulation is matted down from age, and trampled thin by racoon gangs when the house was unoccupied.
So even when the old weak HVAC gets the place to a comfortable temperature, within an hour it’s guaranteed to be too hot or too cold again.
Did I mention I ripped out all the cat, dog and hamster smelling carpet and have been living on the hard particle board underlayment for over 3 years?
Breathing that dust can’t be good for my allergies and sinusitis. And drafty, and unable to be actually cleaned. I never go barefoot here except in my back lawn.
My pal scrounged me some good used laminate flooring but spackling came first, and painting also comes before flooring installation so I’ll be walking on 1967 carpet underlayment for some months more.
So the heated or cooled air sneaks out the walls, windows, doors, attic and floors. This would probably kill me in Battle Creek, Michigan, but here in the milder Great Valley low foothills it just makes me a tough old bird. Not one illness in the going on four years that I’ve lived here so far, knock on Pergo.
Tips are coming here soon on how I spend so little on gas, water and electric bills despite the leaky old house I rent. But you will be required to be a tough bird, old or not, for the weird tricks to work for you like they do for me.
My benefactor gave me this window room AC unit to augment or replace the old house Carrier HVAC unit on very hot days. It cools the dismally dark living room and helps in the next room too, my small dining room nook, with the only newish, double pane, windproof window.
Back yard pics, garage improvements shots and indoor shots in further episodes. And Cheapskate Tips on spending half as much on energy as your energy efficient neighbors, and three times less than your average energy use neighbors. In a decrepit old rental house.
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