Lots of invisible work accomplished the past two weekends. First, we've started spending serious money. Bought an A/C unit! We chose the Coleman Mach 8 Cub with the heat pump. Peter pressed me for a reason I wanted this one over the Domestic Penguin II everyone else uses, and, I don't know. It's a little lighter and a little shorter and a little cheaper. It does not have a condensate pump, but we aren't planning on polishing our Rhody Stream, so that should be fine.
The last of the subfloor went in while I was off having coffee with a friend. Peter discovered that the u-channel, the banana wrap and the shell were actually NOT ATTACHED in that corner. On a hunch he drilled out the outside trim after fitting the last subfloor piece, and lo and behold, it protruded past the shell by half an inch. It appears that the PO did some repairs along that back corner, and for some reason the banana wrap was reinstalled to nest over the shell instead of under. We had corrected this on the other side when we patched the hot water heater hole, but now that the subfloor was in, we didn't have that access to the u-channel any more.
Peter sliced off the bit of protruding subfloor and re-riveted the banana wrap to the shell like the PO had, using about half a tube of sealant in the process. U-channel still needs to be reinforced to the shell, and subfloor needs a few more bolts into the u-channel. We will re-rivet the entire trim, but on the back part we may add a gasket of some kind to help repel water from that backwards seam.
Various and sundry: We found the keys to the utility doors! Polyurethane went on the subfloor. WD-40 went on the window latches and they are smooth operators now! Peter build a scaffold to help us remove the old A/C unit and get it off the roof without breaking anything. The fact that his dad just had scaffolding hanging around is just another reason why I am so thankful we have the farm to be doing this project at. It would be a very different story in my parents' cul-de-sac or in the parking lot outside our apartment.
The Fan-tastic Vent 1250 is on backorder because of coronavirus, which is a bummer, because one of two major leaks is coming from the old fan, so we were hoping to replace at the same time as the A/C. The other major leak is from our missing skylight cover; Peter's improvised Rubbermaid lid is not impregnable. We want a clear cover that can be cranked up and down like the original, but can't find such a thing available on the internet right now. May end up going with a Maxim skylight just for watertightness.
Speaking of, we leak-tested with a powerwasher once we had the A/C shroud off and still no drips aside from previously identified. Really impressed. PO clearly took a lot of care in sealing it up. We have been wanting to start on outside sealing, but the winter gave us a ton of mildew and even black mold on the outside, so it needs a good powerwashing. We have borrowed one from the fam, but turned out attention first to the inside skins. Peter removed all the remaining rivets and screws from the skins while I started scrubbing and paint-removing.
They had been sitting outside since we removed them last fall, which I had hoped would assist in the paint removal process. There is a layer of Kilz mold-killing primer, and under that some blue latex paint, and it does NOT want to come off. I alternated powerwashing and mineral spirits, but have 4 rounds the skins still have 60% of their paint still adhering. I didn't want to use anything too powerful because we are wanting to leave the vinyl on, and we are doing this in the yard, and the thought of toxic stripper draining into the well or the pond concerns me. We will try vinegar next, and if that doesn't work, Citrastrip. Dish soap has worked fine to get the grease, grim, and leaching glue off of the vinyl-only skins.
Next visit: A/C installation, wire mapping and taping, external powerwashing, preliminary external sealing, and please, oh, please, completion of interior skin scrubbing. Peter is beginning to research door latch repair since we locked ourselves out one night. Getting quotes from electricians and attempting to map out our electrical system. Electric feels like the next big hurdle to getting the skins reinstalled, so I am anxious to start chipping away at that task.
