It is crazy warm out today! But just in case it gets cold again – we now have insulation in the nursery and master bathroom as well as along the sill plate in the basement 🙂 It was great getting work done on the house while I got to stay at my desk and get regular work done. When they do a good job I like hiring people and this place did a much better job than what we’ve had done before.
Anyway – here are some pictures!
Spraying...Cutting...
And the finished pictures…
Basement sill plate - although the one mistake they made is that there were 2 bays we asked them NOT to spray (i marked under with an X), because we have to still run pipes and electric for the kitchen renovation some day - all well, we'll be cutting that back out.
The master bathroom (we didn't have them do around the windows since these haven't yet been replaced).The nursery and top of stairs.The nursery including the closet.The ceiling in the front hallway (front door entrance) - this part of the ceiling is just a porch roof above so we wanted it insulated.More in the basement - the front and back didn't have actual bays to spray but he sealed up what was there.Even got into the crawl spaces - uck!
I’m not quite sure what percentage of our house is now insulated – what’s not insulated:
 the kitchen
master bedroom
upstairs bathroom (the small one)
what will be the washer/dryer room (small section)
back bedroom (sewing room)
attic
Not too bad – we’re definitely more than 50% insulated, probably 65% maybe would be my guess. And I have all the windows open so the smell is already aired out (this stuff didn’t give off very much of a smell anyway compared to whatever the other people used). Oh in case anyone is interested – we went with GreenStar out of MA this time around.
Going into this weekend I was a little concerned with how much prep work we had to do before putting in the new windows but of course Ryan and my Dad surprised me and got it all done!
First – up went the scaffolding and then down came the aluminum siding which Dad cut and bundled into neat bundles which will be easy to recycle (much better than our previous method of just piling it up) 🙂
Scaffolding upAluminum siding down (around windows)
We finally got to see what they did to side the peaks we have – we were crossing our fingers for shingles – and YUP – shingles – they look awesome and they’re in really good shape so we can just clean them up and paint them when we put on the new siding below them! Yeah!
Shingles! And yes we are missing a piece of glass in that attic window 🙂 It's on the todo list.
Next the wood siding had to come down and the old windows had to come out. They actually did the 2 nursery windows on saturday and saved the top of the stairs window for sunday to remove.
Just finishing up Saturday nightJust before they put up the second piece of plywood
Next up was resizing the windows because we bought smaller windows so we could raise them up to make them a bit safer for the little one on the way. These are in her room (and the top of the stairs) so safer is smarter 🙂 By Saturday night the two nursery windows were reframed and covered in plywood for the night.
What did I do while the guys did all that work? I took nails out of the walls and cleaned up (constantly), plus I piled all the wood up that got thrown down and tried to keep nails out of the driveway.
Sunday Ryan finished taking off the rest of the cedar siding and took out the third window then Dad put in the new framing.
Third window almost ready (top of stairs).
The tar paper started going up and the windows started going in (the windows themselves go really fast once all the prep is done so I didn’t get a lot of in progress pictures!
First window in!
And here’s what we look like this morning…
From the outside - ready for new siding this summer 🙂New window at the top of the stairsNew windows in the nursery!!!!
Once the windows were in there was a lot of cleanup and Dad started getting more insulation out of the ceiling of the nursery. Ryan drilled the holes for the outlet circuit on the exterior wall (so we can install that next weekend) and I removed the old knob and tube wiring (which was still live of course and sitting loose/cut in the ceiling). So that’s now removed (except for the main light which isn’t knob and tube and will get removed once we put in a new light) 🙂
Look how clean that ceiling is (and it's not quite done - still a little vacuuming to do)
Things are right on track! With insulation coming on March 21st and Dad coming out to drywall the weekend after it’s a busy 3 weekends but the plan for next weekend is:
Install corner nailers (at least in the exterior walls, all if time permits)
Run the outlet circuit (at least in the exterior walls, whole thing time permitting)
Run the vent pipe on the exterior wall into and across the ceiling so later it can be met up with the upstairs bathroom vent
Clean up closet (nails to remove, vacuum)
Clean up basement (they’re insulating the sill plate) so they can reach sill plate all around
Clean up ‘guest room/master bath’ (so they can insulate)
Time permitting I’d like to get as much of the electrical run as possible (it’s just a simple light circuit, a smoke detector and the outlet circuit in that room). I will do what I can during the week nights as well so that it doesn’t all fall on the weekend (I can start cleaning up the basement for example). I’m so excited about the progress that was made this past weekend. Soon we’ll have drywall up again and be working on the finishing details – FUN!
This past weekend was awesome! My parents came out Friday night and we spent the weekend putting up drywall in the front hallway/entry and closets. It’s not ‘finished’ because of some areas we left out strategically and also some areas we just ran out of drywall. Plus it was getting late on Sunday for them to drive home.
First up (after tons of prep work), Dad drywalled the closet in the tvroom, some of the plaster walls are staying so it was one wall and a section of ceiling to do.
Tvroom closet wall finishedAnd the closet ceiling
Ryan and Dad framed out the wall at the end of the staircase (we wanted to open up the front entry a bit more) and this adds support under the second floor.
New supportFrom the other side
Next on the list was the front hall closet (coat closet), this was finished up Saturday…
Closet drywalled!Outside of the closet (actually done on Sunday)
Next Ryan and Dad drywalled the stairway, this will keep Fitz from digging the insulation out of the wall so he can hide his bone in the pile of insulation he would make.
Walls!3 pieces high (less than a full sheet to go - but the ceiling has to be done still)
And finally a view of the front hall itself, the exterior wall is finished, the wall leading into the tvroom is finished (so we can install the door now), the wall under the stairs is finished and the wall with the arch is started (ran out of drywall), we also still have to finish the other wall in the stairway area.
Exterior wall finishedThe wall under the stairs (hidden here) is finished, and hte wall to the tvroom is finished!The wall to the livingroom area is started, leaving the easy pieces for ryan and I to manage on our own.
It was a productive weekend, I barely did anything though (never do when they’re drywalling), i mostly hand the screw gun to someone and maybe screw some of the smaller pieces in while the big pieces are getting hoisted by Ryan and Dad. Much better than when it’s just Ryan and I 🙂
Mom was not sitting idle this weekend either, not only did she cook/clean up, she also picked up the yard and mowed for us! Something we just haven’t had time for. While she mowed I weedwacked which I don’t think has happened since early summer at least!
And Sunday evening after getting cleaned up I headed down to my sisters to play with my nephew for the evening! Then driving up to see my nieces on Monday and spend the day with them! It was a great break. Finley is at a wonderful age for playing even if I can hardly understand her ‘conversation’ 🙂 And by hardly I mean she mostly uses 4 or 5 words that have real meaning but she can babble on about something, luckily not caring if I just babble back. We played princess and shopping and baby doll all day until Emily got home at which time we got into a few bigger girl games. It was a great day and I can’t wait to see them again this weekend!
In the meantime, aside from working, I hope to get some costume progress made. Spackling is on hold until costumes are done!
A quick sand and a second coat and the gym floor was done for the day this morning. Still a tinted coat, the third coat will be a clear coat.
Second coat finished!The gym floor with 2 coats!
Once the floor was done we dove back into the electrical. Now that we had daylight it wasn’t difficult to go into the attic to wire the upstairs hallway lights. A few hours later and we had both the stairway lights (sconces) and the upstairs light wired to their own 3-way switches. Lights lights everywhere.
New switch at the bottom of the stairsSwitches at the top of the stairsSwitch by our bedroom door
After dad headed home I did cleanup. I’m surprised by how much we got done this weekend. Poor ryan is getting the cold I had last week so it’s going to be a quiet evening. Maybe some sewing if I’m not too tired to do anything but read 🙂
What a LONG day – we’re just now sitting down after a 14 hour day (of course we had breaks for lunch and dinner but not long)! And the progress we made shows what a day we had.
First up – the gym floor!!! Dad spent the morning sanding it down and we did a bonus section of the hallway outside the gym (leading into the kitchen). By lunch it was ready to coat (so we headed to home depot to get some stained poly).
First pass with the belt sanderI helped with the vacuuming between sanding passesThis is the bonus section we decided to do, first we had to take up the linoleum in layersScraping up the felt stuff from the edges so dad can run the edge sanderFinal time around the gym edgeA look at what the oak would look like with a clear coat (using mineral spirits)
At this point we broke for lunch and for a trip to pick up some poly and a paint brush. Before I show the finished floors I’ll show what Ryan did this morning.
While dad worked on the gym (with some help from me), Ryan got an early start putting up the window trim in the tv room…
Just getting started.First window finishedFinishing up the second just in time for a lunch break (and a home depot run)And the windows are trimmed out!
And back from lunch, we decided to try mixing a tinted poly (minwax) with a clear poly (to thin it out a bit). We didn’t like the oak with a clear coat and wanted a darker floor. Here’s our new gym floor!
look at that color!And 20 minutes later (or thereabout) the floor is finished! (Well coat #1 anyway)
While Dad did the poly, Ryan and I installed the outside lights finally.
Before...And the lights are up!Check out those front lights, now if only they had some electricity...
So while at lunch we decided we needed to plan another project for the afternoon since the floors only needed another 20 minutes. We decided to work on the upstairs closet, not realizing what we were in for!
Hours later, we basically just got some wiring done – and undone. First Ryan took out the baseboards and then I took out the insulation from the ceiling (that was a messy job!). Then we took a look at the mess of wiring and tried to figure how much we could remove and leave the rest of the non-closet lights working.
Finally, we re-routed the original wires so all the upstairs lights still worked. We also put in a closet light with a switch.
Closet light!
Then we dealt with having no electricity downstairs (in the front hall and livingroom). We decided to actually wire the front hall off the planned feed that was run. The livingroom which was tied to the hall light is temporarily staying on there but now the switches in the front hall all work!
Outside fan, porch lights and hallway light 3-way all wired!New coat closet light wired up
The only lights we don’t have hooked up yet is the upstairs hallway light and sconce lighting on the stairs because we need to run some wires upstairs in a new run. Just doing what we did took hours. So no real closet progress was made but the electrical is in good shape!
That was a very long day. Tomorrow the second coat will go on the gym floor! Time to rest up!
I feel like this has been the focus of my life for the past 9 months or so – but finally it’s over – we have insulation in our livingroom, diningroom and front hall/stairway! That’s most of the downstairs completed now – everything but the kitchen and backporch – plus a tiny bit of the upstairs. What a relief! We should notice a big difference in how long the rooms downstairs retain heat now, I can’t wait – I turned it up to 60 immediately to find out!
So without further ado – here is a walk through of our downstairs 🙂
Bags of leftover insulation, they took most of them this time.diningroom insulatedclosed up window in livingroom now insulatedlivingroom cupola insulatedgaps sprayed with cansView of the front wall of the houseunder the stairwayFront closetstaircase wallCloset wall and stairway wall at front of house
Wow – can’t believe that’s done. I have some cleanup to do, they were having trouble with static making it hard to clean up too well so I’m going to have to go over it one last time, then move some of our stuff around to make the space more usable again. Maybe we can get the gym cleaned out this weekend to work on it again. *big sigh*.
Nothing could beat Saturday, we got so much done. And sunday we didn’t even try. We slept later on Sunday, we played video games, we relaxed. It was great. I did run the vacuum through the house (including the shop vac/demo area) – to get any lingering dust. And I started a puzzle 🙂
Monday however was much more productive. First we got up early and went to the dump – it was closed – so we left and went over to get the truck serviced (oil change etc). Finally home we worked on the outside wiring, we put up the front exterior lights and put a wire for a porch fan.
Front light blocks are up!Wiring on inside for front lights and fan
Then I put 3 coats of shellac on ryan’s work table (throughout the day). That’s all ready to be used (although we have been using it already).
Ryan's work table for making cabinets
During the table shellacing, Ryan went across the street where the duplex was being auctioned – the bank ended up buying it for a crazy amount (they don’t want to lose anything) but I just don’t see how they’ll sell it for that much.
Finally we ended the evening watching some movies while I worked more on my puzzle – I got this one for Christmas and it’s very colorful!
After a nice long weekend (and it really did feel long for a change – which was great!), it’s back to work, although I am working from home today due to the snow – and it’s still snowing out! I think we’re past 6 inches now. I may have to figure out how to start the snowblower later and clean up the driveway before ryan gets home. Or I’ll leave it for him 🙂
We had a very productive day today, it started nice and early but at 8:30am it was only 3 degrees outside and a little too cold to tear down the porch ceiling. So we started with an indoor project first.
We made the blocks for the front exterior lights, then Ryan routed around the edges to make them look nice and I primed them.
Blocks being sandedRyan making the edges look niceBlock ready to be primedBlocks primed and ready to go up
Ryan even took down the siding that needed to come down while I got these primed so tomorrow or Monday we can install them (hopefully it’s a little warmer one of those days).
After the blocks were primed, we decided to do a dump run (cardboard has been piling up since xmas) and a home depot run. At home depot we bought some supplies to make a portable closet! An hour later we had this little contraption all finished up:
Portable temporary closet
I forgot to take a picture after we added the shelves to the bottom to store my shoes and our jeans. We got the closet emptied out completely and sealed the doors (closet and bedrooms) so we could demo our closet. We decided about a week ago that we should do our closet now so we could insulate the exterior wall it shares with the stair well. Also it moves our closet renovation up the priority list which we would both love.
So a few hours of demo later including cleanup, a truck full of wood, 6 bags full of plaster and our closet is no more:
Closet all demo'dAnother view of our closet
We plan to move the door so it’s centered and we can put bars on both sides of the closet with shelving along the back when we refinish it. We also got some cedar from my dad that we plan to use for the walls. Plus taking out the ceiling gives us a couple more feet of space in there (it was a low ceiling).
All this was done by 6pm (including cleanup). So we’ve settled in to relax for the night. Not too much left to get done this weekend, the electrical but we got the blocks already done which was the hardest part. Hopefully the dump is open on Monday because we have a couple loads to bring over!
I think we’re taking most of tomorrow off to relax (maybe some quilting??) but if it’s warmer we may do the outside electrical wiring to get it done. And we still have Monday off to enjoy!
Today was our last day off and it was a day full of wrapping things up. In the morning we ran errands, after lunch I spent some time setting up our new router which arrived.
We finally dragged ourselves into action and got some wiring done. We wired the the cable/ethernet lines in the livingroom, the switch for the recessed lights in the cupola and ran a feed line to the sconce lights in the stairway.
livingroom cable drop and subpanel line run to basementRecessed light switchSconce light feed
After I got all the wires secured I hooked up the tvroom ethernet lines to the patch panel and put the new router and modem in the basement. Finally I hooked up our new Roku player (wired through the patch panel) so now we can watch hulu plus and amazon movies on TV without hooking up my computer. The Roku player was a gift from my brother for Christmas.
Hopefully our exterior lights will arrive before next weekend so we can get the boxes up for those. In the meantime I need to find someone to get an estimate on insulation – very close now!
Two trips to home depot today and we made some good progress on the electrical. We got the front hall light circuit feed run.
Front hall feed goes to a triple box
The blocks for the outside lights put together (Ryan got to use his pocket hole kit).
Blocks for the outside front lights
We also ordered the front outside lights (the one we bought originally for the side was discontinued so we had to pick something new). We went with these:
Then we put up boxes and wired the sconce lights in the stairway. We still need to connect them to the center light at the top of the stairs but that involves getting up in the attic so we put that off until Sunday or Monday.
Sconce light boxes installed in stairway
The checklist is finally getting smaller. Sunday we’ll remove the porch ceiling in the front that’s still up, that way we can run the wire for the exterior fan. We may wait to put up the exterior light boxes until the lights show up to make sure we get the right type of box installed. We still have to run the cable/ethernet lines in the livingroom as well but they’re pretty short since they’re right above the patch panel. We ordered a new wireless router too that I’m hoping to put in the basement (it’s much stronger), can’t wait for that to come Monday too!
A good New Year’s Eve day! Now I just need to bake a pie and clean up the house a bit since my brother is coming over Saturday night after our family Christmas celebration. Then we’ll watch a movie until midnight (very exciting) 🙂
