Today we got some much needed rain here in the Austin area. In the last few weeks the weather has been in the high 90’s if not the low 100’s. I was not only thankful that the rain cooled the area off but also because I got to see if my installation of an attic vent went correctly. It did as there were no leaks .
At the end of last summer I noticed that our attic storage area would get really hot and muggy, more then it was outside. In looking around I found that there was not adequate ventilation between the storage area and the rest of the attic where there were more vents. The storage area did have 2 vents but they were at waist level. If you bent down to that level you could feel the difference in temperature as it was cooler. I concluded that an additional vent was in order and should be placed at the highest point to allow proper ventilation.
I bought the vent and sealant to install it several months back but was really hesitant about cutting a hole in my roof. I did some searching around and found a video on how to do it which made my feel more confident. Here is the video:
After seeing how easy it was for them to install I set out last week to install it myself.
The install ended up being a whole lot easier then I anticipated. What was interesting about doing the install was that I did it in the morning when it wasn’t that hot, but when I cut the hole in the roof I could feel air coming out. I guess even with minimum heat that area need more ventilation. I ended up using at least half of the tube of sealant to seal everything up as my main concern was that water would leak through the vent.
Later in the day I went into the attic storage area to see if there was any difference in the 100 degree heat. While it was not cool in there it was not any more warm then the lower section of the attic which was the goal. We now had proper airflow! That coupled with today’s rain test makes me feel really good about my roof cutting abilities.
I took the time this morning to tint two more windows and a door this morning. The project took about 1 1/2 hours and used an entire roll of 3″ x 15″ tint which cost around $35. The location of this morning’s project was the upstairs family room which is center and to the rear of the house which faces east.
As mentioned in my previous posts on window tint the results could be felt immediately. Today is our second day in a row of 90 degree plus weather. Yesterday I noticed that the air conditioned kicked on regularly to try and combat the heat. Even with it kicking on regularly it was still warm in that room. After I finished the tint today it is nice and cool upstairs and down.
With this room done that only leaves the bedroom downstairs and our master bedroom upstairs. Between those two rooms there are still 5 windows to tint. Together I estimate that it will be about $100 to do these rooms.
When it is all said and done I think I will have spent around $400 to tint all the windows in the house. I think I we will see a complete return on investment by the end of this summer which I think is awesome. It certainly is nice to run the air conditioner and not have it kick on all the time.
Over the weekend I noticed that a “Sold” sign was placed in the lot that is on our north side. I was excited to see it since a sold sign in an empty lot means that the people are building the house as opposed to the builder building a spec home. Spec homes in our neighborhood remain empty from anywhere to a month to 9 months after they are completed. Having a person waiting for the house next door to be completed is really nice.
Over the weekend we had the first real cold front come in from the north and since currently we do not have a house to our north we felt the brunt of the front’s cold wind. I remember thinking that it would be nice if the people building next door would build the other two story house that our builder offers so that it could shield us from those cold north winds. I stopped by the sales office on Sunday and they told me that indeed they are building that two story house. Wishes do come true.
Now all we need is a neighbor in the lot that is south of us and our section of our block will be completed. There is still both sides of the street around the corner from us that has about 20 lots that hopefully by the end of next year will be finished up. It looks like DR. Horton is still selling anywhere from 2-4 houses a month in our neighbor hood so I would think that is a pretty good estimate. We will see.
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I took the time this morning to tint two more windows and a door this morning. The project took about 1 1/2 hours and used an entire roll of 3″ x 15″ tint which cost around $35. The location of this morning’s project was the upstairs family room which is center and to the rear of the house which faces east.