Hotter 'n Hell

Well...maybe...it's plenty hot though, been about 100f for the last 4 days. There goes the PGE bill! I checked the Smartmeter site this morning to see the sticker-shock and while it's higher than our average it's only going to last til tomorrow it looks like. The ol' Suisun west wind is turned ON and that signals the beginning of cooler times to come. When it is quiet, we roast. Simple as that. The name Suisun means West Wind in some American Indian dialect. Our big house was situated so that the afternoon wind flowed thru it and thus kept the whole house cool and comfortable most of the time without using air-conditioning. Here in the new abode...that is simply not the case. We used Nansulate paint on the outer wall interiors and that has helped the ground floor to remain in the 70's when it's 100 degrees outdoors, without A/C! Yes, it's doing it's job alright. Well worth it though when the temp is in three digits. Upstairs in the office space it too has the Nansulate but the outer perimeter of the room, built iside the attic area is an oven, enclosed and heated by the sun to 120+ degrees most days in the summer, wind or not, good ol' solar power at work doing whatr it does best, heat things up. So I used one of the A/C units from the Swamphouse inside that space facing into the office room itself to turn on when it got as hot as it now is. I keep the thermostat at 75 degrees which is even cool feeling when it's so hot outdoors. Today Kelly asked me to raise it as she was actually chilled! So it's at 78 degrees now and it feels just fine to me. Without the A/C it would be above 90 degrees in here right now. As it is it's about 85 actually.

Picked most of the tomatoes two days ago and the rest wait for ripening and that will be soon in this heat. They are beautiful, bright red and sweet as could be.
Make great Sugo and Ragu. I just poach them for a few minutes in boiling water to soften the skins, then pass them thru a hand mill to separate the skins from the pulp. I then freeze it for use later in the winter when these lovely things are hard to find unless, of course, you don't have ill-feelings for tomatoes from far off places somewhat south of our border. Not me! I use either canned or my own frozen puree instead. Same with the basil. Worth it!

Nansulate To The Rescue

We purchased our 2nd batch of this miraculous substance and it was delivered to our door within a week, terrific! This time it came in one 5 gallon bucket instead of the previous single gallons. The target is The Big House across town where we plan on living for the next few years (if not for the rest of our lives..ahem!). I've rollered on about 3 of the gallons so far and completed the Living Room, Dining Room and will finish the Kitchen-To-Be, the laundry, back bedroom, front bedroom and the upstairs either today or by the end of the week depending...I have medical tests (routine annual-type) and dental appointments scattered throughout the time and that will serve to slow me down a bit. Nansulate goes on easily with a roller and spreads evenly by overlapping somewhat as you apply it. The odor is that of ammonia but is not objectionable and fades quickly. Even in the cool of the house at 60 degrees F it dries in about 2 hours. I allow a full day between coats as that is the way I work, not the way I could work as multiple coats in a day are certainly possible. Today I'll apply the 3rd coat to the remaining rooms that need it downstairs and move to begin the upstairs room.

Tai Chi last night was an easy session, I don't feel so very foolish anymore as I now can "Parting The Wild Horse Mane" across the room if need be , that and the Crane move can be roughly accomplished as well. So some degree of limited proficiency is coming forth to be modified shortly by our Master Practicioner's instructions. I do like the activity. It's good exercize, my failing balance as I age past 100+ years has improved and the damned "hitch" (muscle cramp in the side) has decided to take a break for a while. So...I'm doing well I guess, as well as can be expected.

S&D are Baaaack!

Cool...folks to chat with again! Watering their garden was interesting, fun and rewarding vegetable wise...lots of lettuce, tomatoes, beets (oh the beets!). We had a good time with it as our own is a mess and all because we have spent all this trip in the house "doing things". I used to tend the garden at Dix and loved doing it, once in and growing it was not hard to maintain at all. Now though...the courtyard here is just overgrown with weeds and unpicked flowers and has a generally sad look about it though there ARE flowers amidst the gloom and the herbs are fine as they are. The weeds? Roundup anyone?
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We are redoing the infamous Blue Room...the WC with the motto "It's Not A Turkish Toilet!". Not that I have anything much negative to say about any "facilities" when you really need them but a hole in the floor is just a bit much. At least we had a fine white ceramic toilet to use. First the ceiling, white to reflect the little light that enters naturally. Then a little bureau that will be the stand upon which the new sink will reside. A new faucet is ready to be installed...at $7.90 Euros it was the cheapest one there and it looks fine, nice crome, the valve is all bronze and while there is no fine ceramic seals...it will do. Kelly picked out a wild green, fushia (purple) and cream white wallpaper and bought a color matching fushia for the lower wainscotting area. No more Blue Room indeed! It will be just this side of shocking!

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We (I) have used up the last dregs of Nansulate on the front walls of the parlor. 5 gallons are on the house's outside walls (mostly) and we will be ordering more sometime in the winter so we can have some handy after the new roof is installed.
How much? The roof is huge...another 5 gallons might be enough...maybe. The most interesting experimental use of Nansulate for me has been on my little gas oven. I've coated the sides of the thing with 3 coats as Industrial Nanotech has instructed and wow...what a difference in performance after about 3 weeks of curing.
I can get temperatures above 650 degrees...the limit of my temp measuring equipment was 650F so if it was higher I'll not know...yet! But the upside is that the leakage from the sides has been cut dramatically...enough that it reaches 450 degrees in 20 minutes where it used to take 50! The sides aren't cool..but they won't burn you either...which is another dramatic improvement. The refrigerators are equally happy about having their outsides coated in Nansumate Home Coat...they now are turned to their lowest setting and still are very, very cold inside, below 40 degrees...and the freezer is now at -45 degrees F! it was -25. All in all things have changed for nthe better, howmuch money it will wind up saving us is hard to say now as billing for electricity is a not so often occurance. I'll report though when I get some numbers.
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Take care everybody!
Good health to you and yours!

An Update...Aren't They All?

Nansulate Application: Nearly 5 gallons of the precious stuff has gone on walls and various objects at 35 R MJ in the last few weeks since it arrived. Up the ladder, down the ladder, paint, paint, paint. 3 coats everywhere that we could get to with quite a lot more to go (next year). Tearing apart wall coverings, stripping wall paper, preping cracks and crevises, undercoating as necessary and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. The magical stuff has been applied with a rather thick foam roller and a smaller one (also foam). The roller does not seem affected chemically, it is still foam and largely in one piece with just a couple of small tears where hidden picture hangers grabbed hold of the foam and tore out a piece. Nansulate application with a roller is easy and quickly accomplished. The time between recoating does not seem critical in any way after the one hour recomendation has been reached. I've coated a wall and allowed it to dry overnight and recoated the next day with no problems noted. It cleans up handily with a wet paper towel but once it is stuck to a surface and has dried...you will have to scrape it off and it is amazingly tough. The odor is hardly noticeable, a slight ammonia odor that is largely gone after the 1st hour after application. My wife-mate-best-friend does not seem to suffer from it though she is a highly sensitive asthmatic. After drying and with the three coats...the surface effect is that of a slight gloss. All in all application has been by-the-book...or is it FAQ?

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I've started up my Etsy photo site, selling only the best of my French and European photos, take a look at http://unephoto.etsy.com
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The house at 10 Rt. St.Amand is SOLD! Yes! We and the prospective buyer who already owns a large house in Lignieres has bought it for her son. We got what we needed to get the roof on this place with a bit loeft over ...maybe...and Ted will get his half for the transmission(s) he needs for his Jaguar. Whoopee!

Bye for now!

To The Wall(s)!

The prep of the rest of the sewing room exterior walls was completed this morning. I have applied two coats of The Precious Stuff (Nansulate Clear Coat) and am about to apply the third. The Guest Room follows and it was a bitch to take all the old layers of wallpaper off, but off they came bit by bit, layer by layer. I counted 5 layers in the corners. A copious water spray soaked the paper and eventually the glue let go. No fun there. It now awaits it's third coat of Nansulate in about another hour. Then...we wait for 30 + days til we can wallpaper the completed jobs and finish the refurbishment of the upstairs rooms. Kelly has finished the appliance applications and one gallon of Nansulate is now on the walls and appliances. Onto the 2nd gallon for the third coat on the walls.
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One of the prospects for buying the Little House at Dix Rt. St. Amand called this morning and we met him at the Cafe Commerce downtown and had lunch (on him!) prior to visiting the house for an inspection. He was most organized, having a folder with all the pictures I sent to him and all the other info about the house as well, very impressive documentation. He was a yacht broker in a previous life and his attention to detail was very apparent...like a ship inspector checking out an old hull! Money is very difficult to get these days so we will see. He's be a real asset to our local community. We shall see.

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Back to the Nansulate job. I applied the final coats on the sewing room and guest room exterior walls. Now we wait in earnest for the CURE, 30 - 60 days though exactly how much time depends much on the humidity and temperature. Otherwise a good guess is the best I can do...so 30 days it will be. It looks good now, all shiny and the walls are quite sealed by the coating and definetly in a better structural way than they were thanks to the glue-like effects. Kelly finished up on the refrigerators and her clothes drier. They seemed like a good idea but how to test now that they are already coated? It's ok.

Nansulate Applied!

Yesterday I gave three rolled coats of Nansulate to our attic mounted water heater of unknown capacity, perhaps 200 liters. Today I took the ambient temp of the attic adjacent to the water heater and it was 72 degrees. the temp on top of the water heater itself was 78 degrees...a difference of 6 degrees. Yesterday the temp difference was over 9 degrees so we are in the positive so far in this grand and somewhat expensive experiment ( the closer the water heater temp is to the ambient temp of the room the better the paints performance ). Kelly coated the clothes drier and the small refrigerator in her kitchen, I took no before and after temps but it couldn't hurt the performance of those devices to have additional insulation now could it? Then I tackled the back wall in Kelly's sewing room so she could put the chest of drawers back in place and we could get on with coating the rest of the room. Nansulate is tough stuff when dry, drips come up but only with difficulty. I think it would make great glue if it didn't cost so much. The surface after three coats was smooth with a matte transparent appearance. The same held true on the appliance applications...plus it developed a feel as though it were coated with rubber. I had Kelly coat her little water pitcher too to cover the rusted ridge on the bottom so it would no longer stain her drain board. We'll see how all these little projects play out. Other uses have come to mind as well, the car's firewall to keep heat from the engine out, on patio umbrella cloth to keep the UV damage to a minimum, on the outside surfaces of my countertop oven to prevent heat loss. I'm SURE there are many, many more things that we will discover uses for this nearly miraculous substance. Tomorrow we will "paint" the Nansulate on the exterior walls of the guest bedroom...three coats and wait the requisite 30 days before we apply the wall paper.


An additional note: the sewing room wall is covered with horsehair, lime and sand and had many small surface cracks thoughout though it was firmly attached to the waddle and dab underneath. The coating filled most of these crevices completely and with the strength of the bond I think that it has helped overall to maintain the quite ancient surface from degradation. We shall see. I'm very hopeful.

The Cure Is Taken

Today we ventured to Bourges and the Tissues Du Monde outlet in the eastern part of town. Kelly was looking for a bold cloth with pink and perhaps black or violet as an addition to the current curtains in the dining room that we have hung over the two front windows. We both hunted high and low in this quite large stock of raw cotton, linen and polyamid cloth. They have a wonderful array of material from intricate brocades to common canvas and oil cloths. We have spent much time in the store going back several years, and always seem to find something that will be either superb or fantastic and that happened again today when Kelly spied a rather bright pink material with large dark flowers, at 50% off. It was only 18 Euros for 4 meters. She bought some other yardage for projects yet to come. Then we drove back through the recently harvested wheat and colza fields to the Maison Blanche to tackle the painting of the insulating paint on the water heater in the grenier (attic).
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The Water Heater

Kelly washed it and dried the heater thoroughly and then I tackled the Nansulate application chore. I measured with a precision digital thermometer I use for my wine making activities. I took the temperature of of the attic adjacent to the heater, 77 degrees it was and then on a spot midway across the top of the heater and it indicated 86.3 degrees. I will retake these some days from now and see how the application is doing. They say full effect isn't met until 30 - 60 days of cure time has gone by so my expectations are less than immediate. I used a very short nap roller of the small variety, only about 5 inches in length. I stirred the translucent grey-looking Nansulate for a bit over 5 minutes and finally deposited a few ounces in the small plastic roller tray and rollered it on careful to cover the top evenly and without thick areas or drips. It is similar in viscosity to regular paint, it is NOT overly thin and doesn't drip everywhere or spray from the roller either. Very well behaved in fact. It is a milky translucent material and goes on absolutely transparent. The first coat on, I retired to my computer for the requisite 1 hour drying time before the next coat, to chronicle the start of this quite amazing project.

A Red Letter Day and 108 Euros!

Fed Ex recieved the paint on the 14th and as of last night it was in Paris getting duty assessed by French Customs before leaving for Bourges (St. Doulchard). 5 US gallons of the ever more precious nano paint are, at last, in the country of France and subject to whatever duty Customs can figure out. There is no estimate of additional charges on the Fed Ex site at this time, and there probably won't be anyway as by the time they process all the fancy and expensive paperwork the stuff will be on the truck speeding down the heart of France to our anxious little hands. We will pay by check whatever amount is necessary to get the paint into our house, rest assured. And I did, and slept like a baby.
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Up at 7am, coffee, potty and check the Fed Ex web site...it's IN Bourges! Arrived there this morning, terrific! Now to another truck (probably a local expeditier) and then to us sometime today! Whoopee! Guests gone one day and The Paint arrives the next! Great timing! Another cup of java at 8am and read the emails, start writing the blog to explain all of this. Recheck the Fed Ex site and l'viola! It's on a deliver van already! Cool! Or HOT depending on which side is one or the other (It IS insulating paint after all!) Wondering where we start the application and if we have the right roller(s). Kelly wants her sewing room finished and so that is where the action will start so that we can paint and wallpaper and get it back into useable condition ASAP. I walk downstairs and go to my kitchen to assess the days activities in that arena. Wash a couple of pots left over from last night, put away the now cooled thoroughly roasted (overdone actually) chicken and on my way back to the sitting room...the truck of our dreams (nightmare?!) arrives in front of the house.




I openned the front door and the driver handed me the small box with 1 gallon of the ever more rare and precious paint inside, he then returned to the truck for the other 4 gallon box. $108.68 duty is indicated on the shipping receipt. Wow...$657 for 5 gallons of the stuff. We must be mad or terribly convinced. Check out their website...http://www.nansulate.com/

Another Sunday

We have established some sort of routine for Sundays...up at a reasonable hour...7 - 8, then breakfast minimalist with toast and butter or Kelly has toast and salmon with her cheese spread she has made. Then double up with our friends D and S and brocante (the verb). Off to the small and large villages of the Loire Valley in search of who knows what. My interest has waned in recent months, I don't want more stuff, just replacements that are "better" or very, very little in addition. I cook and so am always interested in apparatus, things that are sharp and pots and pans of copper and otherwise. Since my enthusiasm is low I buy little most of the time. Kelly is on the hunt for cloth, old cloth in good condition, sheets, yardage, linens of all kinds but she is very descerning so not much is purchased by her either. It HAS to be GOOD whatever it is. Nonetheless it is great fun and a good walk and we have taken to having picnics in mid brocantes and I love doing that part and I hope it pays D&S back for their fuel outlay every Sunday while hauling us to and from. We should kick in some sheckles too I think so will approach that with them soon.
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Tomorrow we are off to Paris's north eastern sector...the 18th I think to load up two red arm chairs to replace those in the parlor. It's a trip and we have divided it into 2 parts, here to Fountainbleau then on to the city and the village that contains our goodies. Bought, of course, thru eBay for a song. By the time you pay for gas andluches, musee visits etc they aren't QUITE the bargain they were but heym we have two new chairs (to us) and finish the house a bit more. It's a good deal.
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The Nansulate paint company has NOT notified us of anything by email or otherwise.
All silence from Florida where the company headquarters is. They had promised to email us this last week with the shipping info, alas...nothing of the sort happened.
I even examined our isp's grey mail server for any sign, nothing. What's next? Take then to court I guess and sue. We can't wait all summer for the stuff, it's been three months already. The project is stalled and we are out the 500+ US dollars. I contacted the Florida State Attorney General's Office and the Better Business Bureau as well two weeks ago. I'm exasperated and not a happy camper.
I want the Nansulate paint and I want it now.
I guess I'll have my daughter call them once again and then start the paperwork to sue them.