Today was our second insulation extravaganza. We put in 52 bags of insulation (1.25 pallets, if you're counting). But before that was all the preparation...Today's prep actually started this morning when Troy went out to get the truck to go to church. There was still drywall in the bed! So I run upstairs to change, and Troy heads to the shop and we get all the drywall out of the truck and stacked on the floor. :sigh:
We still made it plenty early to church even with the stop at Home Depot to get the pallet of insulation and blower. With sheer repetition, Troy is forcing the Sunday staff to learn their job and they are slowly getting better at getting the pallet ready and everything loaded into our truck.
Not that they did a great job of loading today; check out how great the pallet looked by the time we got home:
Not exactly confidence-inspiring, but we made it home.
Before today, Troy had filled all the previous holes with his handy drywall plugs and a bunch of silicone to seal. And he also drilled all the remaining holes for the north wall. He figured if we had time to do more insulation than that, we could always blow it into the attic.I'm pretty spoiled in that usually by the time I make it out to the shop, Troy has everything ready so we can just get to the job at hand. Today I made it out a little too quick and had to be there for the unloading of the insulation; getting extension cords for the fans, blower, etc.; shuffling the tractor and pickup around so they wouldn't be in our way, but wouldn't be out in the rain either; etc. etc etc. But I was on fire to get to work because we were toying with the idea of actually going to a movie tonight. If we really moved and kept at it, we could maybe make the 7:30 show.
With two pallets to use, I was able to build myself a nice "nest" of insulation to draw from:
Things went a little smoother today, as it should the second time around. We were talking with some friends Saturday night about how the insulation was going, who was doing what task, etc. I made the comment that I could just not quite keep up with Troy when I had to unload the insulation from the pickup, but that I hoped it would go better since we had them all unloaded this time.
This friend then very succinctly summarized the situation: "You mean while Troy is standing on a ladder holding a hose, you are getting the insulation from the truck, cutting the bags open, and feeding the blower?" Wow, when you put it that way, it just doesn't seem right does it!? (And of course, in fairness, Troy has offered to trade whenever I want, but I prefer to pick a job and then just learn to do it well, instead of flitting about here and there.)
Well, today it only got better. I look up at some point and Troy is sitting on the ladder. (Pretty cheeky.) Apparently even standing was too much for him.
And then later he got smart (read both smart like good idea, and smart like smart Alec): After he would move the hose to a new hole--when he knew it wouldn't need any attention--he would crawl down the ladder, move it over to the next position, and climb back up. I realized this took away the only time I had for even a small break. So while he's sitting on a ladder, I'm still cutting open bags and feeding the blower 25-lb bags all afternoon. And that is one hungry machine.
The topper was when he ran off into the house and came back with his winter coat. I was having no trouble staying warm, and was in fact contemplating removing my sweatshirt.
Anyway, back to the point of the post, we got the entire north wall done today. We did not proceed to the attic since we were still harboring hopes of a movie. After cleaning up, and looking at the clock, however, we decided to not make a run for it, but to stay home instead. I'm not sure what Troy's up to*, but I am enjoying my usual Sunday evening activities of blogging, eating popcorn (thanks, honey), and listening to music (substitute for my usual TV).
*oh wait, I remember: Troy is enjoying the fire I finally let him build. I came into the house rather hot and would not hear of a fire for quite a while!
Next week the plan is to move on with even more insulation. Btw, while Troy was sitting on the ladder, he figured out that we will use about 5 tons of insulation on the shop. That's a lot.
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