Over the last couple of days I've been working on a new project inside the house that was really in the planning stages on and off over the course of a couple of years. It all starts off with the central HVAC system in the house. This system had been malfunctioning upwards of 7-10 years ago, shortly after really getting the house set up. At first it was the AC side of the system, always needing recharging and when it was running it would somehow condense ridiculous amounts of water to the point that the drainage tray couldn't handle it. It was almost like the thing was sucking moisture off the coils and depositing them all on the floor. Eventually it started making the floor weak in spots so the system had to be taken offline. On the heating side it had started tripping breakers after running a few minutes. None of this made me comfortable enough to keep messing with the system so we ended up abandoning it instead for using window AC units to cool only those parts of the house we're occupying and using the wood stove and portable (yet safe) electric heaters for heating. I've been looking at this piece of real estate inside the house with hungry eyes as I can use that area for many things.
A couple of years ago I ended up making a large shelf using some 2x4's and pallet wood. This thing is four levels plus the very top and very large by shelving standards. It is currently being used for our pantry/food stock shelf. Canned goods and other non perishable foods are stored on the shelves. Between #10 cans and smaller can organizers there is plenty of food stocked up to last a good while for us. Only problem is with the small footprint of the house, even a useful piece of furniture such as this takes up precious room. In comes the HVAC nook. I've been looking at the idea of pulling the central HVAC system from its nook and re-doing the small cavity with shelves to serve as a new pantry. This would allow me to eliminate the pantry shelf from the kitchen/living room area and tuck it out of the way and out of sight while still being able to maintain a food stockpile as before. Deleting the large shelf would also allow for us to move the china cabinet that is currently next to the large shelf in order to open up more space around the wood stove and clear a section of wall next to the window that is by the stove. This window currently has the large window AC unit installed. My plan afterward is to get one of those easy DIY wall HVAC units where the evaporator unit mounts on the wall and two holes drilled through the wall accommodate the refrigerant hoses going to the compressor that is mounted outside. These units come pretty cheap by HVAC standards and some even work as heat pumps where they can pull double duty as a heater in the winter. Point is I need to clear some wall space in order to be able to install the unit so I can then remove the window AC unit. But first we have to be able to eliminate the large pantry shelf. Well first day I went ahead and disconnected the copper lines from the A-coil that makes up the evaporator of the AC system. This went pretty easy. The next thing was the furnace part. After confirming all power was cut to the system I disconnected all the wiring from the unit then found all retaining screws that held the unit in the nook. I was able to wrest the unit free and pull it away from the opening that resulted. At this point I pulled away some shitty drywall that was breaking up along with the accumulated dirt that was around the unit. I also had to cut some drywall out from the front wall that extended above the furnace unit up to the ceiling. With this I had a 7' tall x 2' deep x 2' wide opening to work with. The next thing I did was buy a 2'x2' piece of 3/8" plywood. I had to trim a few inches from one side to give me a side that was just narrow enough to fit in the nook on the floor to cover the opening to the duct work and the opening where the AC drain tube and refrigerant lines went out under the house and to the compressor. With these openings covered I then cut a couple of 2x4's and secured them with wood screws to the back corners of the nook. After fitting some 2x4's against the back boards to the front, I found that the board to the right in the back was not going to allow the shelf board to sit perpendicular to the back wall. I didn't want anything looking any more cockeyed than it may end up since the interior of the walls in the nook weren't at perfect 90 degree angles to begin with. I removed the right back board then test fitted the shelf 2x4 again and found it to rest much better. At this point I secured the duct cover board then measured up a foot from the floor and marked that point on both the front boards of the opening and the back left board and the wall on the right. I secured the first set of shelf 2x4's to the sides with wood screws. I cut three pairs of these boards, measuring 2' in length. I measured up another foot and marked those points so I can repeat with the next set of boards to get the next shelf. I did the same for the third tier. I ended up having to cut out the board that was in the front that helped secure the furnace framework at the top since this board wasn't going to be needed. The next thing I did was bring in a bunch of pallet boards, which were stored neatly on the salvage wood rack that was built a little while back near the new fuel shed. I measured a span of 20 3/4" to cover the span between the shelf mounting boards to the left and right. I cut a bunch of pallet boards with this length and test fitted them just to get a good idea of how everything will look. My next move will be to make a couple more tiers of shelf mounts and cut a bunch more pallet boards for those shelves. I also need to bring in the pancake compressor and hose and brad nail gun so I can secure all the pallet boards. At that point I can start moving canned goods and other shit from the large shelf over to the new pantry nook.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
May 2023
|