We finally decided take the old air-conditioning unit out. We've been in this house over 1.5 years now and Bobby finally had it with the squeaking. Ha ha!!! We have been getting quotes for central air-conditioning and that was waaaay over a budget. And the split units are still too expensive for us too. So, we've decided to just replace this "antique" with a newer through-the-wall unit.
Here goes! We had to move my chair away from this nook. Where is Mommy going to put her feet up at the end of the day now??!
We're slowly nudging the ac unit out to see if this is even all worthwhile. Yup! It's heavy but do-able!!!
The ac unit is out! I didn't realize it was going to create this hole beneath the frame/sleeve. I'm on the inside taking a photo of Graham standing on the outside patio. Ha!
Here's a video of the squeaking. I swear Bobby is going to remember this one for a while :-)
Here is Graham trying to explain every part of the ac unit. I wonder if he will learn to fix things around the house when he grows up. I sure hope so!
Here's the view from the kitchen. You know, I sort of like that hole as a window. My mind is racing now with ideas. Muuuaaahahaha...!!!
Bobby is constantly checking on my progress from his spot on the back patio. uh huh... Whatevs!!! :-P
I can't believe this frame/sleeve was nailed in to the frame! 6 big nails to be exact!!!
Okay, after much discussion - we've decided to just use this old existing sleeve with the new ac unit. So I have to wipe it all down:
Blah! It is filthy!
I was curious if maybe we CAN actually take this ugly sleeve out. And after a couple of different wrenches, I am finally able to take the rusty screws off from the brackets. And wouldn't you know, these brackets weren't even really secured to the wall properly! Yikes!!!
Well, now I have the job of pulling up those nails. The first 5 were of course the easy ones. It's too bad you can't see the size of the nails that I'm holding. They were a beast!
For that last nail, I had to finally get the crowbar. Should have used the crowbar in the very beginning. Lesson learnt:
Okaaaaay, so here is a problem... despite getting all those nails out, I still can't nudge this sleeve out of the wall. Hmmm... I sort of see the problem here. Maybe bending the bottom part might help??!
The metal frame of the sleeve has a lip that just won't go over the wooden frame. So now I realize the problem - we're going to wrong direction! Instead of pushing it out the window, we should be pulling the sleeve back into the house:
I had to "hire" my part-time worker for that :-P
Phew... halfway out!
Ta da!!! And oh, those brackets, easiest part of the project so far. I just pulled them right out! Ha ha!
But what a monster of an old rusty sleeve! Look at all the tools I had laid out for this job. It's hilarious!
There's a few more hours of daylight so I decided to go ahead and put together the new ac sleeve that came with the new unit. Why can't it just come assembled???
Looking good! Just trying out the dry fit right now. Yup, there's a gap on the top as this sleeve is shorter in height:
At least it looks prettier and nicer :-)
So in the meantime, while I try and figure out how to anchor this new sleeve, this cardboard will just have to do. Do you like my pretend window? I even drew Charlie and Graham in it (playing outside) with the sun shining and birds flying. Can you tell it was a long day???
And on the outside, yes - I did managed to find the "Perfect Fit" of a cardboard for this hole. And I told the animals to "Stay out!" Yup, those raccoons, skunks, bugs, and rats too! :-P
The next day, I had to go through all the foam that goes inside the new sleeve. This way the vibrations will be dampened and the unit will be tilted in the correct angle. Again, couldn't all this just be pre-assembled? I mean, c'mon...!
One final look at the new sleeve and I even got around to getting the grounding wire screwed in. Of course, my drill's battery had to die and of course, I couldn't find my charger! So I had to make the hole for the grounding wire the conventional way - that is by banging a hammer into a nail through the metal. Then I had to make that hole big enough by getting a same-size screw through it. No wonder this project is taking forever. Hey, do I get paid by the hour here???
More tools! At least I remembered to wear my gloves and so far so good on the injury count (knock on wood!). No more incidents with a screwdriver but let me tell you, every time when I have to push in and tighten a screw, that image/thought of driving the screwdriver through my hand still pops up in my head. Makes me shiver!
So another night with the cardboard up. Bobby said that we should put something on that sill so if someone or something does come through this hole, we will hear it. Our best bet were a couple bottle of vitamins and TicTacs. LOL!!!
To be continued... quite the exciting project so far :-D
No comments:
Post a Comment