Hole in Wall turned into Vent

My house's duct work is worthless, but it will cost $4,000 to redo. Not the kind of money we have at the moment for this. Essentially, the people who built our house were not that bright. But I won't go there.

So, the wall in between our h/ac unit and the stairwell gets hot because the ductwork they put in leaks so bad that this is where the heat goes. In the summer that wall is cold, in the winter hot.

Well, hubby tripped going up stairs last fall and made a hole with his shoulder or head or something (This is not the first time he has made holes in things just by walking, I've lost track on how he did this one, don't worry, we don't visit china shops). And I've been lazy and putting off pulling out the joint compound just to patch this.

Well, we took a break from using the wood stove this past week and I noticed that this hole let all that stuck furnace heat out. It helped tremendously to heat the upstairs; it's almost too hot up there! So I'm thinking, why patch it up, let's use it!

So, I found the nearest stud and cut the hole to be even with it.

Took a register cover we salvaged from another house, painted it with the closest colored spray paint in our inventory, and screwed it in. Viola!

Now, I'm thinking, I'll put another one in on the other side of the wall for the downstairs and when I want the heat or cooling that gets stuck in that wall to go up or downstairs, I'll open one and shut the other. One of these days we have to pay for new ducting, but this will work to make use of the lost energy for now.