Hick has been working on the plumbing under the new bathroom he is adding to Bargain House, our latest flip. He can get to that area in the cellar, but the cellar doesn't run under the entire house.
"The living room isn't over the cellar, but there's enough room I can get under there and work. It's more than just a crawlspace. I can be on my hands and knees and crawl across."
"That's good. It's better than Pony's house, where you had to send in Old Buddy on his back or belly, like a snake!"
"Yeah. And now I know why the pipes in Bargain House never froze. The air vents? They're not insulated. I was crawling along and got my back up against one, and nearly burnt the skin off! They're wasting heat."
"Not really. The heat still rises up under the house. It's not like those ducts are in the ceiling, letting that heat waste out through the roof. It's still helping heat the house itself."
To which Hick replied that the heat is rising into the house to help heat it. Saying EXACTLY the same thing I had just said. I don't even think it was one of his attempts to scoff at me and show his handyman superiority. He just can't hear, but nods and pretends he can.
"Oh, and while we was down under the house, we found a dead cat. Mummified."
"From the heat, I guess! Like the one you found in my grandma's attic over the garage, and HOS (Hick's Oldest Son) wanted to take it to school to show the teacher."
"Yeah. And there was also three bird heads. I guess that cat had been eating birds under there."
At least Hick didn't bring any of these discoveries home to show them off. It's his own fault HOS thought it would be acceptable to take a dead cat in a big ziploc bag to middle school...
