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Because free is never really free.

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Remember the free pool table my husband came home with a while back?

 

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Well… it turns out the damn thing is going to cost us a fortune.

Why?

Because now that he has a pool table, he wants to build a bar. And while I’ve never been a woman to argue with bars, if he builds the bar he wants to heat and cool the space… which means he had a guy  (the son of the  soon to be ex  friends who gifted us the pool table, which can’t be a coincidence)  come over and give us an estimate for a heat pump unit.

Ka-ching!  That free pool table is going to cost us $4,000.

But that’s not all.

If he heats and cools the space it has to be air tight. And while he did put insulation under the floor and behind his pretty walls….

It’s a barn! It’s nowhere near air tight.

So….

 

 

Construction of a frame to seal air leaks in the big doors began.

 

 

Foam boards were purchased and cut.  (with – it’s a miracle! –  a 21rst century tool)

 

 

But my idea of an easily removable frame was thrown out like baby’s dirty bath water.

 

 

And to my horror….

 

 

This monstrosity emerged.

 

 

A screwed in framework with double sided attached foam boards.

 

 

And plywood covering.

 

 

This sucker isn’t going anywhere.

 

 

When I lamented the decided un-movability of this air leak blocking structure, he told me it would only take a few minutes to undo if we needed to open the doors.

Considering it took him a day and half to put together, I highly doubt the veracity of this statement.

And if you think the sound of the cash register ringing is finished?

Au contraire mes amis, it’s just begun.

The heat pump contractor told him in order for all the heat to stay downstairs, the ceiling would have to be insulated as well.

This is the ceiling.

 

 

It’s a lot of ceiling.

 

 

And this stuff is $55 a bag.

 

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KA- fuckin’-CHING!

And I haven’t even talked about how he’s going to have to block off the opening to the second floor yet.

Free.

It’s a relative term.

52 thoughts on “Because free is never really free.”

  2. You’ll have to report back in the spring. If a heat pump can get that space comfy in a Maine winter, it may work for my much smaller workshop. Check the prices on insulation from a lumber yard. We got a great deal when we did our addition. A bag of 25 of those bags, for about 50% less than retail.

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      1. Wow! If I could keep my workshop at even 50 degrees, I think I would work in it in the winter. I can heat it up to 50, pretty quick with a propane space heater, but the tools are too cold to hold. I mentioned this to my wife this morning. She agreed that these people should be ex-friends.

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  5. It is good you know how to build as does hubby. No wonder the pool table in our big red barn warped after a few years. So few monies spend as I think my family inherited it also from a “good friend.”

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  14. Agreeing with some of the other comments in that those potentially ex-friends sound rather shifty. Is this a good time to introduce you to my buddy Bubbles so you can inquire about her “resolution services”…?

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