A couple of days ago, we signed a contract to get a new furnace installed, including new ductwork.  That will happen on May 14th and 15th.  I would have preferred sooner since we are heating the house with our wood stove, but the installers are busy trying to help folks who had their heating systems damaged during this past winter.

We had planned to have a new water filter and softener installed, but the man who was going to do that is booked into June, so we ordered the water filter and softener on Amazon and Mark is going to install it himself.  The filter/softener arrived on our doorstep today.

There are a number of steps that need to be taken before all of this can happen:

This is a hydronic-powered baseboard heater.

It has copper pipes that run water from the boiler in the utility room.

This is Mark trying to dismantle the boiler in the utility room.

I spent today trying to take out as much of the baseboard heaters as I could. This causes a dilemma about what to do with the walls after we get the heaters out of the rooms.

Here’s the pile of scrap metal I pulled today.

This is the old water softener. It broke over the winter and needed replacing.

This is the new water softener that arrived from Amazon today.

And this is the answer to all our problems!

This thing that looks like a tall Grecian Urn is a well water filter that filters out iron.  The blessing of having well water is that we don’t have any water bill to pay.  The curse is that everything the water touches gets discolored.  I have to run CLR (Calcium, Lime and Rust) remover through the washing machine before I launder anything light colored or my clothing will get rust stains on it.  All the sinks and toilets have rust stains in them.  The shower head is rusty.  Our water is undrinkable and we’ve had to use water dispensers for drinking and cooking in water.  We have never had an iron filter before and I am bound and determined we won’t get a new tub or washer and dryer before we do have a filter.  I am looking forward to getting this installed!

Today, Mark went to Green Bay to get his business truck registered.  He also stopped at Home Depot and bought fifteen rolls of insulation for under the house.  In the past two summers, we have noticed that it’s colder in the house than it is outside.  We think the ground under our house never really warms up, so we’re hoping that insulating under the house will help.

Ah!  One other thing I did yesterday…

Last fall, Wisconsin Public Service sent a notice that they were selling LED lights at a discounted rate to Wisconsin residents.  I ordered a large box of the lights while we were still in Oregon and we’ve been carrying them around in our RV.  Yesterday, I changed every non-specialty light in the house.  Wow!  What a difference!  The house had mostly compact fluorescent bulbs when we bought it.  I suppose they saved us some on electricity, but the house always seemed so dim.  These LED lights have really brightened the place up!  They may be a bit more expensive than other light bulbs, but I highly recommend getting them.