Randolph "Randy" Kelly, BHGRE, Heritage Group

09/20/2026

Well this certainly sounds interesting. Cheese, potatoes and tomatoes. What could be wrong with that?😋

This crispy cheese and tomato potato bake is super easy to make. It’s layered up with mature cheddar cheese, thinly sliced potatoes, and a rich tomato sauce – the perfect vegetarian side dish. It's one of those recipes that’s a winner on all levels. It’s easy to make, it’s kid-friendly and...

06/30/2026

Time to finish this story:

Episode 7: "Postscript" or "Free at last, free at last!??"

Yay! The Radon problem is fixed. (My last 24 hour sample had us below 1 pCu/L the entire time.) So now, what about the REST of the work that came out of this "adventure"? Well, Leigh got her "sun porch" a year or two earlier than it would have happened had we not run into this problem. As I implied before, after some "visualizing" of the forces in the structural trusses intruding on 2 sides of the porch, my GC and I were "on the same sheet of music", and his workers were able to truncate those trusses back to the main structural walls without creating "spreading loading" to the walls adjacent the house. This allowed the GC's workers to "raise" the ceiling of the porch over 2 feet over the wall closest to the house and recover it with tongue and groove planking. The porch was closed in with double pane French doors, large double doors, a wet bar, two bar refrigerator niches and overhead cabinets. While that "fix" was expensive (several tens of $K) it is probably one of the nicest rooms in the house and certainly added value. (See pics.)

This whole unpleasant story should be a lesson for those of us Real Estate professionals working out there like my colleagues at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Heritage Group It sure would have been nice to have known of this problem before we bought this house. As I said in an earlier episode though, Radon was essentially unheard of in the 40s, 50s, 60s and until recently, it just wasn't something buyers (or inspectors) were routinely looking for. The population influx to Tennessee the last decade brought in a lot of buyers who came from states where Radon was more of a concern, so more buyers are going to be asking about it. (One of the first questions I got from each of the mitigation contractors was "is this house being sold", and they seemed relieved when I said "no".) The housing codes for most of Tennessee were changed in 2009 to add the requirement for a "membrane" (to slow/stop Radon seepage) and a passive vent to all new construction. If you get a listing for a 2009 or older house in Middle TN (especially if it is on a slab or in one of the counties considered to have higher Radon levels, like Bedford County) you might want to have somebody check on the Radon levels for you. If a buyer's home inspection discovers Radon, it could throw a real "monkey wrench" into your closing timeline. Obviously, if you are a buyers agent and your client is looking at one of those older homes you should advise them to check with a Radon professional during their home inspection period. If that home has high Radon levels, you may want to recommend mitigation as a pre-condition or a price negotiation point. High Radon is a problem that NEEDS to be fixed SOONER rather than later. OUR Radon problem was worse than most because of the multiple slabs, so our FIX was going to be more expensive regardless of who did it. Our MUCH higher final cost though was the result of us connecting the remedy to an already planned improvement, but if we hadn't done that, the price could easily been another $6K-$10K higher and we wouldn't have had the additional benefit of the lower humidity and dust levels. For "routine" Radon problems, there are multiple mitigation contractors out there that can probably fix the problem in a reasonable period of time at a reasonable cost. As a final reminder, here are all the contractors we worked with while diagnosing and fixing this problem. I'd recommend any of these contractors if you need work in their specialty areas:

General Contracting/Construction: Ferguson Construction: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100062951604159: Jeremy Ferguson and his team accomplished the demolition and modification of the old porch area to allow rerouting ducting to the new HVAC location, building the new HVAC utility cabinet, closed off the old return ducts, sealed the old return plenum, installing the scavenging ducts, routing power to the Radon pump, modifying the trusses to allow removing the old roofs and correcting the previous structural deficiencies, building new walls, installing floor tile, installing the doors and building the new counters and finally, converting the old utility closet to a new double-width pantry.

HVAC: AVU Heating and Air: https://www.avuair.com: AVU Heating and Air is a Veteran owned business and offers a Veterans discount. They were prompt with their inspection of the area, providing a bid and getting to the actual job (when we were ready for them). They relocated the HVAC heat exchanger unit from the indoor utility closet to the outdoor closet, cut 3 new air return vents in the ceiling, ran all new air return ducting and hooked up the relocated air return and supply vents. We were happy with the work. One of the vents was in hindsight not optimally placed but in my opinion, that was a result of the increased complexity of "reworking" an installation in an already closed up and insulated attic (where what you're looking at has no resemblance to what's below the ceiling) plus the task had to get handed off to another worker after the initial specialist was called to another job. The problem seemed to be more cosmetic that functional, so we let elected to not relocate that vent.

Frontier Foundation and Crawlspace Repair https://www.frontierbasementsystems.com: As their name implies, the Frontier Foundation and Crawlspace Repair folks seem to specialize in foundation repairs, basements and crawlspace issues. "Radon Systems" is one of their offered services and they were responsive to my query, called to set up an appointment and showed up to provide a quote. I showed them around and explained the "uniqueness" of my problem. The representative provided an estimate during the visit but also gave the caveat he did not know what other work I had noted would need to be done was not their specialty and he would need to talk to their specialists before starting the job. I had the impression OUR problem was a bit of a stretch for them, but I think they would be fine for a "normal" slab venting case or crawlspace venting problem. The DO have a Veteran's discount.

Radon 1: https://radon1.com: The Radon 1 folks were responsive to my request and provided a convenient time to meet with me. When their representative showed up I explained the "uniqueness" of our problem before the walkaround. The Radon 1 guy had a real-time Radon "sniffer" and was the first/only representative who was able to give us some data supporting the hypothesis that Radon "seepage" was slightly higher in the carpeted rooms versus the tiled rooms and that Radon levels in the air return plenum significantly increased when the HVAC fan was on. They advertise "custom solutions" and were also the first to note that depending on the slab layouts it might be possible to vent multiple slabs with one pump. They were able to give me an estimate the same day, and they have a Veteran's discount.

Tennessee Radon Services: https://tnradonservices.com: The Tennessee Radon Services folks were responsive to my request and provided a convenient time to meet with me. Again, I explained the "uniqueness" of our problem before the walkaround, and they were amenable to a "tailored" solution based on my situation. They were the first contractor to recommend a pe*******on near the center of the home connected to a Radon pump in the attic.

Radon Solutions LLC Tennessee: https://radonsolutionstennessee.com: Radon Solutions LLC is a Veteran owned business and offers a good Veteran's discount. Radon Solutions was responsive in answering our query and arranging a convenient time to look at the "old" system. They did a walk around while I explained the "uniqueness" of our layout and problem. They provided a bid/estimate later that day and they were happy to work with/in between our other 2 contractors and "stand by" indefinitely until we had a better handle on what exactly was needed. When the time for the final piece of the Radon mitigation solution was needed, they were able to get us on their schedule to install the Radon pump in about 2 business days.

The "technical solutions" offered by all 4 Radon Mitigation Contractors was pretty similar. Depending on their "inspections" and assessment of the severity of our problem, the contractors recommended using between 1 to 3 Radon pumps with an additional pe*******on to vent all 4 slabs. All of them offered a veterans discount, and their "per pump" pricing was comparable. As I said in an earlier episode, we eventually selected "Radon Solutions LLC" for our job because 1) they were amenable to a tailored solution, 2) they had the best Veteran's discount, 3) they were amenable to working/consulting with my 2 other contractors (GC and HVAC folks), and 4) they were based close to Shelbyville and seemed the most amenable to being put "on hold" indefinitely until we had a better idea of the scope of the problem and we could clear the "critical path" that would need to be finished before we could actually put them on contract. In my opinion, any of those 4 mitigation contractors would give you a dependable reasonably priced solution for any "normal" high Radon level issue in a slab or crawlspace-based house.

So, that's the end of our 6 month "Radon Saga". I hope you found our tale informative (and a bit amusing). As I said in an earlier episode, if you have or are looking at a newer home on a crawlspace, you probably won't have to worry about Radon. If you have an older (pre-2010) home or a home on a slab, you might want to get a Radon assessment from one of those 4 contractors I mentioned. If you have a problem, you DO want to get that fixed as it is both a health risk and an obstacle if you wish to sell your home. Good house hunting and sleep well.
Randy Kelly

06/19/2026

"Holy bug-out bag Batman!" Take a look at this Prepper Special camping trailer: (Wow, you can buy a new double-wide for that kind of dough!)

Mammoth Overland just unveiled the Xtinction Level Escape off-road trailer. Deliveries of the $123,994 caravan will begin before the end of the year.

06/15/2026

Peanut (and peanut butter) lovers. Mmmm. This sounds like something you need to try.

Nutter Butter Bars have a thick Nutter Butter crust, sweet peanut butter filling, peanut butter chips, roasted peanuts, Nutter Butters, Reese's Pieces, and a peanut butter drizzle. For die-hard peanut butter lovers only! I have a very deep and profound love of layer bars: Hello Dolly Bars, Magic Pum...

06/09/2026

(Here's a tidbit for my fellow aviation oriented friends and customers.)
In a hurry? Got places to be and no time to fight airline schedules? Maybe this bird is for you: https://robbreport.com/motors/aviation/bombardier-global-8000-record-flight-canada-france-1238310377/?bt_ee=WAxhq5ZVE3jNzgjxyNqdDX3AXGP91cMFIhWHkgOfwPf3OCU00rsj8geN3rL%2Fflbf&bt_ts=1780956272893
(Too bad it will only cost you about 40X most folks life savings just to put in on the ramp, and probably a lot of folks monthly income for an hour of fuel. Of course - if you're a corporate pilot for some big company with a worldwide footprint, you might get paid to fly this.)

The Global 8000, the fastest civilian jet since the Concorde, just set its first speed record, flying from Montreal to Nice in just over six hours.

06/07/2026

Episode 6: The Shelbyville Experiment?

So, in previous episodes I recalled a tale of how we discovered our mid-century Ranch house built on multiple slabs was seeping dangerous levels of Radon into the living spaces, mostly (we hoped) through incursion via the sub-slab air return vents. The vents were sealed and all the HVAC ducting was relocated to the attic, but would this "simple" (though NOT inexpensive) mitigation measure make the problem disappear? With the house sealed up again, the windows closed and temperatures and humidity finally at "Summer" levels, it was time for a test. We turned on the Air Conditioning and checked the recording Radon detector over the next couple days.

Remember, during our original longer period sample period we were seeing Radon levels at levels of 18, 20 and at least one reading of 24pico Curies/Liter (pCi/L). That was WAY above the EPA 4 pCi/L recommended maximum. With "baited breath" I looked at the history and we were seeing levels of basically below 3 to 4 pCi/L during the day but which were going to 6 to 8 in the evenings. Huh? Apparently, just like the rumor that in 1943 the US Navy was able to make the USS Elridge "disappear" in the "rumored" "Philadelphia Experiment", it appeared that "Shelbyville Experiment" to make Radon disappear from a 1949 Shelbyville slab based Ranch style home was also a failure.

However, to paraphrase a saying from the flight test business, "...a test where the data does meet expectations is NOT a failed test." The end result of "The Shelbyville Experiment" was disappointing, but the time history data seemed to correlate maximum Radon maximum/minimum levels to the roughly 24 hour diurnal cycle. Huh? Radon seepage should not "give a flip" about whether it's "light" or "dark", so what was going on?

Well, if you go look at the wind predictions on your weather app (if you use one) you should see that the wind speeds tend to be lower at night and higher in the day. ("Sol", that closest star to us is after all the primary driver of our weather and our winds.) So, what would the wind have to do with Radon levels? Remember, the current configuration of our passive Radon vent was a pipe going through the roof with a rain cap on it. The rain cap is essentially omni-directional as far as the wind is concerned, but higher wind levels should logically equate to a higher "artificial vacuum" across the top of the pipe, meaning, more wind, more vacuum on the passive Radon vent.

If you go talk to any of the Radon contractors, the primary method of venting a "slab" is drilling a hole under a slab to accommodate a piece of perforated pipe and attaching a vacuum fan (Radon pump) to pull a small but constant vacuum under the slab. Basically, they are expecting the Radon to "flow" under the "membrane" through the sub-slab gravel base to be "scavenged" by the pump. Perforated pipe is obviously more "porous" and a better "collector" than the (leaky) cardboard tubing our return ducts were made of, but the exceptionally high Radon levels we were seeing when the HVAC fan was on gave us hope that existing piping was porous enough to use as a Radon scavenging duct.

The new data showing the Radon levels were well within limits sometime and the correlation with diurnal cycle gave us hope that putting a continuous vacuum on the sub-slab air return ducts would allow us to stay in the "safe" zone all the time. It was time to tell our Radon Contractor we were ready for him. Since we had kept him "in the loop" during the entire multi-month process, not only were we still on his "radar" but he already knew what the layout was going to be, allowing him to rescope his original bid. Since we had "pre-engineered" the ducting, access and power to where the Radon pump would be located, his bid went from $1,600-$2,000 for the piping and installation to $650 for the pump & install. We give him the "clear to proceed" signal. A few days he showed up and it only took a few hours to get the Radon pump installed. It first appeared we had a bad extension cord from power plug we'd installed but during our "debugging", everything worked fine. Radon levels inside stayed low and we waited to see what the readings would be the next morning. Next morning the Radon levels are back up to 6+ pCi/L and we're going "what now"!

Up into the attic I go. The pump is not running, and my tester shows the extension cord is dead again. I run an extension from a different outlet near the attic entry stairs and the fan works fine now. I go to the other attic entry access where we had run the original extension from and start my debugging process again. To my surprise, that circuit is good. What the??? I come out of the attic and start telling my GC (who's there working on the porch) about my power mystery. As soon as I review all the stuff, I did with him, we look at each other simultaneously and say "that's a switched outlet". (Think of it you go turn on the lights first to check stuff before you go into the attic and debug further, so after we confirm operation, go outside and turn out all the lights in that part of the house after dark, then the pump stops and Radon levels go back up.)

I leave the Radon pump plugged into the other outlet and my GC says he'll install a new electrical outlet for the pump. Problem solved. The new norm for the next weeklong sample period shows levels varying from about 0.7 - 2+ pCi/L, well within the normal ranges for this area. Victory - we hope. I'll continue to do some occasional monitoring over the next few months to check the weather related "variability" of the seepage rates, but hopefully, THAT problem is fixed. I'm going to note again - the PROBLEM, not the symptom was fixed. The original symptom (the EFFECT) was high Radon levels in our mid-century multi-slab sited Ranch home. The PROBLEM was Radon not only seeping through the slabs but large amounts being scavenged from under our slabs by the HVAC fan sucking return air through permeable sub-slab air return ducting. Our "engineered" solution was to use the faulty sub-slab return ducts which went under all 4 slabs of the house as the scavenging pipes hopefully eliminating the need for multiple pumps and scavenging pipes under each slab. Basically, we turned the biggest source of the "PROBLEM" into part of the "SOLUTION". As somewhat of a bonus, we discovered that not only were the sub-slab vents the main source of Radon, but they were also the main source of humidity in the house. The house is much dryer now and I suspect this will translate to lower air conditioning costs. (Ask your nerd friends about heat of condensation/vaporization.) It also has seemed to cut down on the dust level in the house.

Well, it now looked like the Radon problem was fixed, but we still had workmen in the house and on the back porch working to complete Leigh's vision for a "sun porch". We were finally "out of the woods", but we were not "home" yet.

Next Episode: "Postscript" or "Free at last, free at last!??"

06/03/2026

Episode 5: "First Contact" or "Lions and tigers and bears. Oh my!"

Our GC finally got finished with his current job and it was our turn. Per "THE plan" the first task was to open up the ceiling of the existing porch so we had enough space to run both return and supply air ducting. The GC's workers cut open the ceiling the width of the new planned HVAC closet to reveal the top of the exterior structural wall as well as the "original roof" of that section of the house. It was apparent the original roof (just above the ceiling of the porch) would need to get cut open to have enough clearance for the ducting. Through the original "exploratory hole" we knew there was something else above that original roof and the current "top" roof. When we started opening up the "original" roof we discovered there was another roof "structure" in between the original roof and the "top" roof. The GC said he needed to open up the whole patio ceiling width of the proposed HVAC closet out to the end of the roof. We cleared him then went back to work inside.

Shortly thereafter the GC comes in with the "you need to see this" caveat, so we went out to take a look. Apparently when the additional "wings" of the house were built, the 3 roofs for those wings all extended over the porch and the contractors that added those additions just built new roofs on top of the old ones. To make matters worse, one of the roofs was a flat asphalt and gravel roof and it appears there 10s if not 100+ lbs of gravel up there. It also appeared the "top" ceiling joists had just had tapers cut in the end and screwed into the roof/supports at the far edge of the porch. It was apparent there was probably even more evil hiding above the ceiling of the porch that wasn't just an "esthetic" problem, but was probably a structural issue that HAD to get fixed. We cleared the GC to open up the entire porch so we could get a full picture of the problem. If we had structural problems like we suspected it would need to get fixed NOW, which was bad, as "demolition" and engineering was definitely going to "bust" our original cost estimate. We HAD the funds to do what was needed, but like other followers of Dave Ramsey's school of financial thought, those funds were already assigned to a different upgrade (namely completing al the shelves in the "library" so the "Borg Cube" of books could finally disappear from the middle of the library floor.) However, seeing as how one of our "visions" had been for a "sun porch" for Leigh out there, this might be the time to accelerate that project.

After discussion between us, Leigh and I decided the "farther down the road" "sun porch" improvement was now a higher priority. With the GC already on site with workers and having to tear the porch roof up as part of the Radon mitigation (a MUST DO), the porch upgrade would be cheaper and easier to do now.

The porch "ceilingectomy" was very revealing in a not so good way. Yay verily we did have 3 roofs over the porch and there was rotten wood in up there on the "2nd" roof. The "top" roof was not appropriately tied into the beams at the outer end of the house the full length of the porch roof and there were structural trusses protruding beyond the house exterior walls over much of the porch area which would severely limit our ability to raise the ceiling of the porch. Lions and tigers were bad enough, but our final assessment was that the beams holding up the existing "roofs" had never been stressed for that. So, the whole supporting structure needed to be re-engineered and a new structural wall for the roof needed to be installed. On the good side, when we had finally cut away the two lower roofs over the new utility closet area, we had enough space to install the ducting recommended by our HVAC contractor.

While we pondered the implications of how to "restructure" the roof supports and give us clearance to raise the ceiling outside of the utility closet, our GC was able to frame up that closet and install power and condensate drains. With those two things done we gave the HVAC contractor the OK to install new return vents in the 3 wings of the house, route ducting to the closet and move the HVAC heat exchanger. It was going to be a couple days before the HVAC guys could get to our job which allowed our GC to work on the other problems of the porch. Fortunately, the weather was looking pretty mild for the next week plus and we wouldn't need the HVAC. While waiting for the HVAC guys to get there, we continued with the demolition into the exterior wall adjacent the bathroom of the original house to access power, water and sewer lines which would be needed for the wet bar, refrigerator niches and cabinets. The GC also came into the house to start sealing off the old floor air return vents leading into the slab.

A few days later the HVAC guys showed up. The split into 2 teams, one team crawled into the ceiling to locate places to cut the new return ducts and run new ducting and the second team to relocate the HVAC heat exchanger from the kitchen utility closet to the new cabinet my GC had constructed on the porch. While there always interfacing issues when moving existing equipment to a new location, the "joint" meeting I'd had with the "leads" on the GC team and HVAC team before we got started kept the problems small. The biggest disconnects appeared to be a the "finished" passage for the air returns appeared to be too small and a coolant pipe that looked like it was going to interfere with the doors. In both cases everything was built to the agreed upon size but the "fitting" and "final installation" of adjacent structure had to done separately by the different contractors. (Basically the "finished" dimensions were adequate for the finished installation but the finished dimension didn't allow you to install the other parts, so we had to pull stuff apart, finish the HVAC installation then put the pieces back in.) After 2 days, we were able to power up the HVAC and had heating and cooling again. This was a critical Radon mitigation milestone as we were no longer pulling air into the house from under the slabs but there was still an open hole in the kitchen closet floor that needed to be sealed and we still needed to install the Radon venting pipe to the existing sub-slab air return ducts. Work commenced on the porch again and we began the "reconfiguration" of the kitchen utility closet into a pantry. With the closet empty the GC's team cast a concrete "cap" for the air return plenum and sealed that plenum up and we started looking at how/where to run the Radon vent piping from the only access to the old return ducts.

Routing the Radon out of the slab and up through the roof for a passive vent looked like it would be easy but with the new ceiling we were concerned that if we would need to install a Radon pump to keep a vacuum on that vent, that there wouldn't be room. I'd been keeping our Radon Mitigation Contractor in the "coordination" loop for the previous several months so we pulled him back into the discussion with "requirements" for access, space needed and power for the pump so if the "passive" vent was inadequate, we wouldn't have to start tearing stuff out. With that information in hand our GC ran the appropriate size pipe up from the floor vent, along the back wall (where it would be hidden behind the cabinets), up into the attic and over to the apex of the roof and through the roof. We now had a passively vented 60+ year old slab twice as large as the slab for most houses of our size with "conventional" attic ducting. If we were ONLY dealing with Radon incursion from the return vents we should be home free. How much any cracks, seam incursion or/and our floor vent closures that were not absolutely sealed would impact our Radon problem was still unknown. Could one simple modification (sealing the vents) make a problem that was intrinsic to the very ground the house was built on disappear? Time for another test.

Next Episode: "The Shelbyville Experiment?"

05/26/2026

Hum. Interesting concept on "re-use" of business property in the "post COVID" "telecommuting" environment. Could this man's ideas work and if so, will we see them being "downsized" to work in smaller towns with a more "country" or "homey" atmosphere? Fellow Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Heritage Group agents? Could this be a new development and rental market in some our smaller Middle Tennessee towns? (Hey it wouldn't be attractive to me at this time in my life, but consider some of our younger Bedford County adults who might love being within walking distance of "The Grindstone Cowboy" or "The Coffee Break"?

Developer Asher Luzzatto has targeted Denver for a radical experiment in converting vacant commercial space into residential units.

05/25/2026

Episode 4: "The Plan..."

After talking to all 4 mitigation contractors as well as my GC and HVAC contractor we were pretty sure we understood the basic problem, namely the slabs were trapping Radon under the house which were being scavenged by the HVAC circulation fan and pumping the Radon back into the house. At first each of the contractors had an idea of how to fix the problem based on their understanding of the problem and previous works. That gave us about 5 "plans" (options) to consider, but personally I was convinced we needed an overall engineered solution to deal with the actual problem versus the solution.

It was pretty obvious we needed to get the returning air OUT of the slab. Our HVAC contractor determined it was fairly simple to install air returns in the ceiling but getting them back to the HVAC heat exchanger could be a problem. I coordinated with our GC and HVAC contractors to get them there at the same time as we were obviously looking at simultaneous space, air circulation, engineering/structural as well as "esthetic" issues. After several individual and group discussions we had a basic consensus of our primary constraints.

First, the existing air return plenum in the floor of the utility closet drove the basic circulation pattern for the HVAC heat exchanger system, and our heat exchanger was optimized for a vertical orientation. The space above the HVAC utility cabinet it was almost completely covered by the existing HVAC supply manifold/plenum. It may have been possible to come in from one corner but it would still require rebuilding the supply manifold and the ducting would completely fill the remaining portions of the utility closet which was part of Leigh's kitchen storage space. We were now pretty sure we were looking at relocating the HVAC heat exchanger which could present space, power, noise mitigation and condensate draining problems.

While we thought there was (barely) enough room to relocate the heat exchanger to a platform in the attic, the ceiling joist structure would probably not support it and it would be noisy. It could have been possible to route a return outside into a vent adjacent the wall to the porch and pe*****te back into the house but again that would take up MORE of the closet space we were using for storage. After closer inspection looking back at where the roof structure crossed over the exterior wall it looked like we had enough vertical clearance to run two sets of HVAC ducts over the top of the wall to an outside closet. Since the initial "remodel" of the house, Leigh had a vision of improving the back porch into something more useable. An outside utility closet would interfere with her "vision" but we thought it might still work. We measured the existing HVAC unit and utility closet and determined there was sufficient space to duplicate that space on the porch and still be able to have usable space around an exterior closet on the patio slab without occluding the back porch door. If that would work, we could relocate the HVAC heat exchanger and recover almost ALL the utility closet for a pantry adjacent the kitchen.

We cleared our GC to cut a 6" diameter "test hole" through the ceiling of the porch to see what was above that ceiling. There was structure up there from the original porch roof and another "layer" of something, but it looked like we had room between the roof and the wall to run rectangular ducts. With this new information at hand, we mapped out THE plan (as Mentat Piter de-Vries would say): 1) Open up access from the attic for both HVAC supply and return to the back porch of the house, 2) relocate the HVAC heat exchanger/condenser from inside the utility closet adjacent the kitchen, to a new utility room on the back porch, 3) seal off all air return vents from the house into the sub-slab return lines, 4) cap off the HVAC return plenum in the old utility closet, 5) connect a passive Radon vent pipe to the existing "vent" through the back porch slab and route back through the attic to an area with sufficient space and power to support a Radon pump if needed and vent through the roof, and 6) convert the existing HVAC utility closet into a pantry for my Spouse's kitchen.

OK, now we had THE plan, but there's an old saying in the military, "No plan survives first contact with the enemy." We didn't know what if any "surprises" we would encounter as most of this work was "hidden" behind existing walls and ceilings but we had a plan and an idea of what it would cost to do the main pieces of work. Our GC was busy on another task and stated it would be another week before they could start working - but at least, the wheels were in motion. In the back of our mind though was, "what was that other structure" our GC's "test hole" had revealed and how far did it go?

Next Episode: "First Contact" or "Lions and tigers and bears. Oh my!"