HOME IMPROVEMENT: caulked and loaded (the seemingly endless insulation project)
Well, this week has been a doozy on the project front. Pretty much every day is wake up, coffee, feed the critters, go to work, come home, don respirator and cruddy work clothes, and back to the salt mines. I mean the second floor… we’ve been making major headway but man it will be nice to get our life back (albeit with a newly beautiful space to live it in)! Last night we took the night off from “homework” to hang out at the studio and do some low-key tidying up… it was weird to think that we used to do that every night, where the biggest project might be laundry, or waiting to see who might stop by for a beer! S. is now an expert foam measurer-and-cutter, and I’m following right behind him with backer rod and caulk, or cutting rolled rubber roof material (bitutac) to block off the eaves after the first layer of foam, forming a ventilation gap behind the first layer of foil-faced foam and up to the roof vents and future ridge-vent.
We’ve so far gone through a lot of foam, over 3 cases of caulk, destroyed one cheapie caulk gun and one inexpensive brad nailer, then exchanged the second sub-par replacement nailer for a take-no-prisoners third version (Hitachi Koki… never thought I’d love an air tool- generally I’m mostly scared of ’em… but this one might make me a convert. It’s solid! And if it’s possible, kinda cute?), and have one to three layers of foam up on most of the lower parts of the inner roof deck… we’re about halfway on our way to R50.
Between that, and the fact that we got the replacement super-efficient windows in on the east dormer (to replace the single pane ones that had HUGE open gaps all around the framing open to the outside) it’s getting warmer in here! Now if we can just get enough foam up to shrink the two stacks downstairs piled in front of the wood stove to only one so we can fire that bad-boy up again instead of relying on just the basement furnace, we’ll be back in serious business on the cozy front. It was 53 in the house when I left for work this morning though, and I’ll take it!
Great news… we found S’s camera (buried under a pile of papers on the table at the studio, whoops!) so there will be pics of the New CapitALE brew session after all… we stopped by last night to pick up the empty carboys, and were sent away with a copy of an album Conrad Freiberg recorded inside the Pod of Absence, his installation piece that landed out back of the gallery after travelling the country with him, that now is dismantled in our back yard in front of the wood shed. I’m not sure exactly what our plans for it are yet… I’m pulling for octagonal goat milking parlour (no pun intended, ha) though I think the fella was thinking more along the lines of meditation chamber or outdoor garden room. We’ll see… either way, I think we’ll find a good spot for it… as word from the ANLAP coordinator at the city is that our application is moving along, and their office might have clearance for the deed on Feb. 14th (!) and we could be able to close as early as March. So… keep your fingers crossed for us and our potential yard-expansion/annexation!
Alright, time to wrap this up, head home, and strap on my old buddy, my oh-so-fetching pink and grey 3M respirator. It’s a great look, trust me.