One of the smoke alarms began to beep periodically, freaking us out. Since there wasn't any smoke in the house, we figured that it was either telling us it needed a new battery, or that something else was otherwise wrong with it. After putting in a new battery, it stopped beeping but was still blinking red once in a while.
The stack of manuals that was in the house when we bought it did not include one for the smoke alarms. So it was Google to the rescue once again. A quick search for "Firex 120-1182" turned up a vendor that included the PDF manual and specifications on their
website. Now that's a good sales pitch, in my opinion!
Anyway, the red-blink once every 40 seconds was normal, just checking the battery level. All the other alarms were also doing it, we just didn't pay any attention to them because they're just those "work quietly in the background" things.
So what would _you_ do when something in the house starts acting weird? Start practising your Google-Fu now.
One thing we learned was that oak trees don't like being trimmed from April to October. The tree is actively trying to grow then and therefore loses nutrients through cut branches, which then develop infections. End result: dead tree. It was already March so I began calling around for estimates from professional tree service companies. This is way too big a job (and way too dangerous!) for a DIY project.
We found a local company which gave us a very reasonable quote, described to us what the crew would be doing from start to end, and, most importantly, a written estimate that included the entire list. The boss also offered much appreciated follow-up care advice which demonstrated his knowledge and professionalism.
The full crew turned up the very next day. I'm not kidding when I mentioned earlier that it was a very dangerous job!!
The trimming and cleanup took about 2 hours. The results (below) speak for themselves. It's reassuring that we won't have dead branches the diameter of my leg fall on our heads while we're out in the yard.
