That lovely shakedown cruise time in a new/renovated home
This spring, our builder completed months of renovations, complete with a new addition, to our Natick fixer-upper.
But that does not mean we haven’t been busy over the past few months.
There’s a get acquainted period when you move into any house, including new construction, when you start to discover its quirks and those things that need to be fine tuned.
Kind of like a shakedown cruise for a new ship.
And while we did not do a tear down, in some ways it’s been like moving into a newly built home, with all that implies.
We basically added a new, modern half to the back of our hundred-or-so-year-old house, with a new kitchen and family room downstairs, and a second bathroom, two bedrooms and an office upstairs.
The old half got a thorough upgrade as well, with new electrical system replacing 1920s-era wiring and fancy new, code-approved fire alarms.
The good news is the big things work just fine, with no leaks, faulty floors or other horror stories.
Our builder knows what he’s doing. But that does not mean there haven’t been some kinks to work out, either.
The first became apparent one evening around 11 p.m. as my wife and I was heading to bed, our three children, all five and under, fast asleep.
Suddenly our quiet house erupted with earsplitting sound of multiple alarms squawking throughout the house, complete with a robotic voice shouting over and over again, “evacuate, fire, evacuate.’’
Within seconds my five-year-old had leapt out of bed and into my arms, screaming in terror, my three-year-old not far behind. Poor baby Tessa was bawling in her crib.
By the time we made it downstairs, it became clear there was no fire, just an over vigilant alarm system. (This is the latest code approved system, which puts the old battery powered units to shame, at least when it comes to getting the message across.)
I chalked it up to the jitters of a new system. Until it happened again the next night, kicking off a pattern of occasional, nighttime false alarm panics.
Out went some calls to the electrician, kicking off a couple months of trouble shooting.
The electrician replaced one of the units in the front hall and all appeared well for the next few weeks.
Then the maddening false alarms started again, this time in the morning instead of at bedtime. A small improvement, I guess.
The culprit turned out to the attic alarm unit. During the construction of our new addition, a squirrel managed to work his way into our attic.
The electrician had apparently stashed the alarm unit on the floor there before he installed it.
Anyway, our little furry friend, who it took some weeks of fumbling attempts to trap and expel, apparently marked his territory, so to speak, on the alarm unit sitting on the attic floor. (How our electrician installed the unit without noticing this is another question, for it still stinks months after the squirrel turned it into his potty.)
Getting soaked by squirrel, of course, did wonders for our new, code approved and all so vigilant alarm system. It was certainly detecting something in the air, but it sure wasn’t smoke.
All for now. Next time I will treat you to next shakedown cruise quirk we discovered, the mystery of our new, and suddenly stinky, family room carpet.
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