I am please to announce that on February 29, 2020, at approximately 10.30 pm, I did it!! I finished all the connections to bring heat and return air to the upstairs to the Little House on the Hill. 6.5 years after moving in, I am now heating my bedroom. In Michigan. Where we have cold winters. This feels like a big upgrade for this humble dwelling.

Last fall, I had a couple HVAC contractors out to look at three things:

1. Bringing vents to the second floor
2. A new AC unit (the old one died a couple years ago)
3. Converting the furnace from propane to natural gas

The first company gave me a quote for #2, telling me that “when I install it, they would quote the vents, and that they can’t convert to natural gas.” Company #2 was far more helpful, the guy who came out does the work and knew a lot more than the estimator in Company #1. He answered several questions for me, pointed out a few things, etc. And followed up with quotes for all three things.

He said that bringing the vents to the second floor was going to cost $3,000. Gulp. And that didn’t include any of the real carpentry work or the finish work afterward – I’d still be doing that. It made the decision to run my own vents a lot easier.

The timing was important because the longest project spiral ever (living room door way, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, laundry room) was almost done but I needed to finish up trim. I realized I’d be wrapping it up just to cut open a spot in the living room to run the vents up. SIGH. I should just make the mess and then close it up.

I had to start researching everything I could about HVAC. It isn’t like installing subway tile where you can find 1000 easy to follow tutorials on how to do it. Nope, it is a murky search of threads and forums and professionals. I got a bunch of books out of the library and searched for critical info. I looked up specific questions. I read everything I could and started measuring, planning, thinking, sketching, and costing out materials.

The furnace is directly below the chimney in the living room. I knew from previous “research” (aka floor cutting up) that I could run the vent stack up beside the existing chimney and up into the kids bedroom, and from there into the attic. One straight shot up from the furnace to the attic and would just require boxing out the existing chimney a bit larger. It’s easy! Hahaha. Just like everything else, right?

My first trip to the home improvement store I spent over $400, knowing I’d be back (and I was… again and again and again). Know what is pricey?? HVAC ducting and especially the duct fittings!! Still, was it cheaper than the $3,000 quote? Yes, yes it was. It was strangely comforting having that number in my head for the month of messing around on this project. I’m saving myself thousands of dollars. Thousands of dollars. This headache is worth thousands of dollars.

Deep breath.

Another fun spin in this project was the fact that there was no return air vents on the first floor. There was one kind of hacked into the floor at the uninsulated bay window, and not realizing that’s what it was, I put a dog crate over it for several years and then closed it up entirely when I decided to insulate the floor of that bay window during the hardwood flooring install of 2019. Hmmm. Wish I had realized what was going on — but also it still didn’t work in that location so I would have had to move it then anyway.
Anyway, I needed to add return air somewhere on the first floor too.

I started by cutting the holes alongside the chimney. First in the living room – ceiling, floor, and then the kids bedroom: ceiling, floor. I cut an attic access into the upstairs attic – previously inaccessible. When I poked my head up there the first time, I was pleasantly surprised to just see insulation (though it needs more) but no random crap like I discovered in the lower attic section. Being inaccessible at least saved me that much. There was a mouse looking at me from across the small attic. Not exactly surprising but thankfully there wasn’t any evidence of an attic infestation or anything like that. He’s probably a loner mouse, crawling up into the attic for a little peace and quiet (shut up).

I’m going to spare you a lot of details because this project is not what I would call smooth sailing. Oh running the vents from the basement to the attic, pretty straightforward. But that’s where it ended. The duct fittings had to change to accommodate vent locations and the attic framing. I army crawled through the attic several times, releasing a world of insulation dust everywhere repeatedly. Duct fittings had to change to because I found a better way to do things- repeatedly. I’m not going to lie: I went to Lowes, Home Depot, and Menards a LOT during the month of February and spent a lot of money. And also had to special order a few parts. I may have cussed more in February than I have in awhile.

“These cuss words are saving me thousands of dollars…” And they did.

I tried to call in some Payback Saturday points early in the month but my mom was in the hospital and people were sick or doing taxes or doing anything but crawling through my insulation mess to help me with this. Such is real life. My cousin came by for a couple hours for her first Projects with Reenie Saturday. We patched up the subfloor in the kids room and she was with me while I cut the messy attic access. After teaching her some basics, she got the hang of the drill (woo hoo!!) and said working with me was “actually fun!” Excellent.

I got all the attic connections made. Holes into my ceiling for a heat vent and a return air vent. Hole in the kids’ bedroom ceiling for return air and put a duct along the stack near the floor for the heat. So the furthest run is my bedroom and that’s okay. I’m used to sleeping in the arctic so having it a few degrees cooler than the rest of the house is no great suffering and is to be expected. I can add a duct fan at a later date if it seems necessary.

Toward the end of the month, I connected the heat (hooray!!) but was still trying to sort out the return air connections. I cut a hole in the living room floor (the new, beautiful one) for the return air but couldn’t screw a box in while holding in place from below. Just not enough hands. So I admitted I really did need some help and that Saturday my brother Donal and his capable helpers (ages 3 and 5) came along with their tools and expertise (no actual expertise required).

It was the help I needed. We probably spent at least an hour of the four we had together debating solutions, standing there in a dank basement staring at vents and trunk lines to cross over, and the huge box of fitting options. We got the first floor return air box installed, and started connecting the return air vents (all in the basement at this point, just not connected to the furnace yet). He had to leave and we realized we needed two different connectors (of course). We were almost there but not quite!!! Determined to finish up, I showered and went to Lowe’s and then Home Depot (buying a few options at each store) but glad to not need to go to the further away Menards (who actually has a far better HVAC supply inventory). I went to Mass, turned down dinner plans, and went home to finish this thing. I was feeling desperate to get all the connections done!! 

Naturally, when I finally got to the point of cutting the hole into the return air trunk, it kicked up so much dust I couldn’t breathe and almost couldn’t see. But I cut the hole, used straps as extra hands to hold connections in place, AND I FINISHED.

I turned the furnace back on and could immediately feel the return air pulling through. The bedrooms were warm and had return air pulling the warm air through the room.

THE HOUSE IS FINALLY FULLY HEATED!!!! 

And I lived to tell about it.

While not a cheap project, I saved thousands of dollars doing it myself. I learned a lot in the process. And I only burned through 4 hours of Paybacks. Booyah!! I also returned a massive amount of duct fittings that I didn’t need at the end. It felt great getting that money back into my account and that huge box out of my living room.

Did I mention my home is now fully heated?

Well it is. And it is great.

Funny story: I keep my thermostat low at night because in the past, it was just the downstairs and the dogs live in fur coats (also I’m a miser and propane is expensive). Who needs it warmer than 55 degrees while you’re sleeping anyway? The first couple nights after the heat was running, I woke up sweating in my bed in the middle of the night. My room was a solid 53 degrees and I woke up because it was too hot to sleep. I’ve concluded I no longer need two big comforters, socks, a sweatshirt, and a heated mattress pad to sleep well. Removing a few layers has made a world of difference and getting out of the bed in the morning is 100% not as awful.