We are moving along now....

Since Dave has been on eight hour days, and afternoons, he wakes up and starts working on the house.  I'm home to help whenever possible.  So, we have gotten quite a bit done in the last month.

The plan is to move upstairs this summer!  We'll see how it goes.

So....

The insulation in the attic is completed.

 For those of you who know R values, this is an R value of 50.  We are on a hill and it is windy.  I think normally the R value would be 25, which is one layer, but we added an extra layer and crossed it the other direction over the first layer.  I was glad to finish this before summer heat arrives.

It's one big sea of insulation.

And for the record, do not walk on this stuff, because there is some plumbing and vents and such under the insulation.

This is the bathroom ceiling upstairs on the 2nd story.

We had to do some work in that bathroom, even though we don't even need that level finished right now, because duct work, plumbing, and some electrical, go into this ceiling,

which is our bedroom ceiling.  (below the upper bathroom) And we couldn't cover our bedroom ceiling until all of the 'stuff' that needs to go into it, for the above level was completed. 

So, we got the tub installed,

 which required building a wall.

This is where the tub plumbing had to go, which is looking into our bedroom ceiling (below)

I don't know if you can see it from this picture below, but originally the vanity was going on the left wall.  You can see the plumbing for it on the left bottom of this picture.  However, after installing the tub, there would be no room to stand in front of the vanity.  So we moved the door to the center of the room, (it was on the right hand side of the wall)

and you can kind of see in the picture below, the vanity is going to go against the wall on the right now.  However, this required moving plumbing that was already installed.  It...is...always....something.

In my spare time I've been stapling these air vent things in the ceilings...which I forgot about until I saw this picture!

OK this is enough for now, but I have a mouse story to tell you in the next post.

Cindy

Woodstove and Insulation

The next thing that took us quite a bit of time trying to figure out was where could we put a wood burning stove.  We visited a friend that has one, and we loved it.

  At first we thought we could build a wall in our "grand banquet hall" and put it caty-cornered against the newly built wall.  See the L shape piece of wood above.  That would be the wall.  And we would have had room behind it to hide some wood.  Plus it hides the door.  Once we laid it out, I didn't like it at all.  

 I didn't like that it was taking up an entire quarter of the room.  I wouldn't have room for a buffet and I would have very little wall space left in that room.  For such a big room it has very little wall space.  We even moved card tables around trying to figure out a furniture layout to see if we could get it to work.  Nope. 

 So then we decided to put it in this corner of the room.  Complete opposite corner.  We wouldn't be using that corner for anything anyway.  So it would be perfect IF we could put some of the chimney inside the attic and have it exit the roof at the peak.  No can do.  The pitch of the roof, hence the pitch of the attic, wasn't in alignment with the ratio  we could angle the chimney.  Code is that the chimney has to go a couple of feet above the roofline.  So we would have about a 12 foot chimney sticking out of the front of our house, with brackets holding it up, if we were to put the woodstove in this corner.  So, we had an expert come out.  After spending an hour with us he determined the best thing we can do is go back to a wood burning furnace and put it in the garage, where the roof pitch is perfect for a chimney.  No stove for us.  I'm over it because if you look in the middle picture above the room next to the big room has a fireplace in it.  And I think that needs to be the focal point of both rooms. 

 So we got busy again.  Insulating.  The downstairs mudroom and bathroom is insulated.

 And so is the attic.  We started with this which was awkward because of the angles.

Note to self.  Do not raise up.  There are nails poking through the roof and they will hurt your head.  I have a hat on because it was cold.

 After all of the attic vents (blue things)  were stapled, we set to insulating.  There is very little room in this area so Dave would cut and I would lay the insulation down.

 I had to walk (crawl) across these boards that he installed so we would be able to get to that section of the attic.

 Then we both got to work on the bigger section of the attic and ta daaaah!

 It's almost finished.  We had about 50 rolls of insulation and ran out! 

 We have been putting insulation down in one direction, then rolling it across in another direction to create an R value of 50.  The R value of the insulation is 25.  This house is on a hill and it's windy out here so we have tried to insulate very well.

We had an extremely windy day yesterday, and there weren't any breezes coming in the house, so that's great!

Cindy

Insulating the closet, bedroom and den

Around the first week of March, we decided to start in the closet, bedroom, den area.  Dave finished the wiring in those three rooms.  The closet is back where you see the four light bulbs hanging down. 

 Then the two of us worked together and got the insulation hung in about 2-3 days. You'll notice he is wearing a hat and coat.  It was cold up there when we were working on those rooms. 

 This is our bedroom, the closet is through the door below. 

 The reason we hung insulation on the interior walls in the bedroom is for sound, more than anything else. You don't usually hang insulation on interior walls.  Above where it is going every other direction is because it was easier to hang that way due to the outlets and wiring.  You would not do that on an exterior wall, such as below.

 Above still the bedroom.  We are going to have sconce lights on the sides of the window in the bedroom.

 

And this is the den.  The insulation is hung and we put osb on the wall where the fireplace will go.  Osb is wood chips glued together.  We hang it on the wall when we feel like we might need something a bit sturdier than just studs.  For example, we are probably going to have a mantle on this wall and a tv.  It's easier to hang those items with osb as a backing, then we will not be limited to where a stud is located. 

 I have some catching up to do on this blog, but this is enough for today!

Cindy

Insulation, drywall, dirt, and a craft room!

I've got a mess on my hands! In between hanging insulation and drywall, I've been trying to get some order to a craft room. I've collected crafty stuff for years, as you can tell.



And now that the insulation is finished...

we're hanging drywall.

And it's very close to being done.

The hanging part that is. We still have to do a lot of mudding and taping and sanding...UGH.

In the meantime, our neighbor is having a HUGE pond dug.

Guess where all the dirt is going?

Yup....our place.

More on that later.

Cindy

Insulation

On Sunday and Monday, I hung insulation in the bath/laundry room in the basement. Why is it, that anytime I hang insulation, it is HOT out? When working with insulation you have to wear jeans, long sleeves, gloves and a mask. I took several breaks.
And speaking of breaks, I temporarily broke the stapler. I was fighting and fighting with it. After a couple of hours of it jamming constantly, I went and bought a new one. Dave fixed it, but he had to take the entire thing apart. Apparently it was some sort of jam.


Anyway, people think because it's a small room, it should be done quicker. Quite the opposite.

In a small room, especially a room that has duct work

and pex

and pipes and drains

and wires

you have to figure out how to fit it all in this small room. It would have been easier to have a big room. Then I had to figure out how to get insulation above and/or behind all this stuff. It was a long, hot, two days. I felt glass slivers in my skin even though I wore long sleeves. I'm glad it's over. So glad. The temps have gone up to 101 - 103 degrees outside. We don't have air conditioning in this room, but since it's in the basement, it's cooler than outside. It almost feels like air conditioning. Almost...

Cindy