Not to Leave out the Dining Room

After all the work on the living room, we moved on to the dining room. (I could tell it was getting a little jealous and feeling shabby in comparison.)

The dining room had been drywalled and insulated quite a while ago. I believe Isaac did the first coat of mud, but that's as far as it got. Troy and I finished the sanding and did more mudding (repeat ad nauseam).

South wall.

West wall.

Finally this week it was done! I primed,

South wall.

West wall.

and then painted:

South wall.

West wall.

Long south wall between living room and dining room.

There's an awkward spot where the old paint of the living room meets the fresh paint of the dining room. I'm pretty sure I'm going to leave it at one coat right now (it looks pretty good) and save the second coat for when I can do all the walls at once (including the interior walls which aren't finished yet).

While we've been working on these two rooms, I have been moving the insulated blinds to whichever room had the least dust and dirt. (The two rooms have three windows each which mirror each other.) Now that they're both going to be living spaces again, I could finally pull the second set of curtains out of storage.

I thought I remembered that one of them wasn't even finished yet (and that turned out to be correct), but I got a worse surprise when I pulled out the two that were finished.

I didn't think I'd be able to capture it in a picture, but they are a nasty bright shade of rusty orange! I had these blinds wrapped up in a sheet to protect from light damage (and it's not like they were stored in the sun), but obviously something happened to the colour. Yucko.

One of the blinds that was not in storage.
The lighter areas are faded from UV
exposure.

The colour of these blinds has been a problem from the start. When I bought the fabric, I thought it was primarily navy blue with a gold tone from certain angles (like flip-flop paint). Once they were hung, however, they never looked blue again. They're kind of a drab brown, and all the time we've had them up, they have looked horrible with the brown paneling that was on the wall. (I actually wonder if I picked up the wrong roll of fabric off the rack after wandering around looking at everything they had.)

I had intended to pick out a paint colour that would complement them better, but forgot all about it when actually picking out the paint. It's all for the best though; these curtains really need to be updated.

I found this picture on the Joann website. I think
this is the colour I was looking at. Just keep
in mind that it is a large scale print. I'd guess
the birds are about 6" tall.
Yay? Nay? Let me know.

I took a look at Joann's earlier this week and the only thing I found was a really bright big bold bird pattern. It might be a bit too much, especially as there's so much of the blinds--six big windows. But I might do it anyway. I can try it on the one blind I have to finish anyway and see if we like it before I do all of them.

Redoing these blinds is going to be a shitload of work. I am not looking forward to it. But on the other hand, it will be expensive too...

We insulate the dining room illustrated

As my DH has requested, I have added some pics of his recent work. I hope you are impressed with the mess, and if pressed I would have to confess that it is still there. I know, just what am I doing that I can't get it done? The dust was fairly well contained to the room and when Troy asked how bad it was, I could honestly say that I didn't notice any difference in the level of dust in the rest of the house...(you may recall that I was out of town when Joel and he did the work--thanks again, Joel!)


And here are some views of Troy's "window boxes."

I do hope you have found these pictures illustrative.
-c

Drywall and forms

The update tonight is that Troy is done the drywall in the dining room. (Yes, a little, Yippee!, would be appropriate.) Next up is the plywood boxes to frame the windows so we can then blow in the insulation. But they may have to wait because...

Troy started working on the shop foundation again this afternoon. (And it was beautiful weather for it.) Although the work from last fall is not going to waste, he needs to add a 2x6 to the top of the forms. Hmm...not that he was doing that today. But he was working on preparing the ground where the floor will be poured. Troy was very excited to start the tractor up for the first time this spring.

That's all for now,
christina

Ode to walls

So yes the work on the dining room walls is moving right along while we still wait for things to come together on the concrete for the shop.

On Sunday Troy interupted some perfectly lovely sunbathing (and you know we don't get much here) to have me help him put up the vapour barrier, or more simply known as plastic. This is really the first of the construction work I have done. [I forgot the first rule of helping (or should I say working with) Troy which is to put on grubbies. So I ruined some nice capris.] But for once I was running the caulk gun and staple gun as much as Troy, not just assisting.

We were working with 8x10' sheets of plastic and I had to agree with Troy that it would have been quite unmanageable with just one. So he was quite justified in drafting me. We caulked every edge and seam and just tried to get it up as smooth, straight, and tight as possible. In the meantime I made a lot of jokes and puns on the word, caulk (who could resist?), and I'm sure if I repeated any of them here we would lose our family rating. But I trust you can come up with your own.

We did get the room done. You'll see in the pictures that it was quite colourful as Troy bought siding caulk (which comes in a variety of tints to match "any" colour). Every new tube was a surprise.

The pictures may cause you to think that where caulk is concerned, Troy thinks more is more, and you would be right. On top of that all the edges were stapled. Troy's new "super-duper" electric staple gun pooped out about half way through so we had to resort to the manual gun. (We are building some strong hands in this house!) Troy later exchanged the gun for a cheaper model (when the expensive one doesn't work where else is there to go?) but it didn't work right out of the box. Wow.

Then, even more exciting, Troy got some drywall up on Tuesday. Look at this:

It really looks like a wall, doesn't it!? With a honkin big window. Yup, that would be about right.

I don't know exactly what's coming up next, but I do know we'll have to blow the walls full of insulation some time soon. Troy promises that's even more fun that working the caulking gun. I don't think I should trust him on that....

-christina

Deconstruction makes way for construction

Hello again. Just some pictures to show you some progress in the dining room. Every time I try to take a picture of an entire room I am more impressed with the photos in magazines. Sure, they have better camera accessories, but it still takes a lot of skill. Anyway, here is some of the newly completed framing in the dining room:The wall on the left faces south (the front of the house). As you can see, we have very fancy curtains hanging in the windows. Ok, maybe not...

Next we have evidence of Troy going foam-crazy. Well, maybe I'll let you decide on the crazy when you visit our crazy-like-a-fox warm house when it's done. Anyway, evidence of his quest to insulate:

And the next picture is evidence of the thickness of the exterior walls: Twelve inches, baby! Forgive the blur, please. I took the pic left-handed, and in quite a contorted position, as I recall. All so that the numbers would be upside right. You're welcome. The window boxes will be even wider. I'm sure we'll put some window seats in the biggest two windows.

Next are the panels he's inserting between the ceiling joists. Formerly, the house didn't have anything of the kind which resulted in a big mess and a not very effective job when they blew in insulation. Since we are also blowing in insulation, we wanted to do it right, of couse. The panels will keep the insulation from being blown all above the ceiling and make sure it can settle properly in the walls. This may seem obvious, but may I repeat that the previous "home improvers" did not do it? With warmer weather upon us, work on the shop will take precedence but the plan will be to have the drywall up and insulation blown in by next winter. That gives us some time, right?

And lest you think I will have one beautifully finished room when that is done, let me show you the interior walls of the same room: (the door leads to a closet, and the right white "column" is a chimney we can't get rid of)Yeah, and all the exterior walls will have precedence over these ones. Ah well, all in good time...

To leave on a positive note, can I tell you how nice it is to be able to sit in the house in a T-shirt? Mmmm...I love sunny days.

-christina

Cleaning up

So as I was sitting in my car after driving home from work yesterday, I realized that I was not just enjoying a "moment" before going into the house as I often do...I was avoiding going into the house! Everything's a mess, there was not a single room that I could just sit and relax in. Sitting on the couch covered in platic coated with dust/dirt is not an option. The bedroom's messy and doesn't have a chair...I wasn't quite ready for bed yet! The kitchen is full of lumber and the table saw. On and on...I was sick of it.


So I cleaned up last night and this morning. I took the plastic off the couch since Troy is finished making big messes for now. And I vacuumed...and vacuumed. Floors, furniture, shelves, rabbit cage, and everything on them. Got the living room and dining rooms done, but not the entryway, piano, etc etc. (Ok, focus on the positive for just a moment, Christina.) It all felt much better as I left today. AND I noticed Troy is finished framing in the opening. Well, it looks like he is anyway:

All for now. I should get home and enjoy it.

-christina

Recent destruction

Troy has been very busy. The wall between the dining room and living room went from this:

to this:

Troy ripped off the panelling (living room side) and plaster and lath (dining room side), we took out some more of the suspended ceiling in the living room, removed trim, and opened up the passageway by a few feet:

Partway through the work:

A view from the dining room looking into the living room:

Things got a little messy, and we went back to the fifties by covering our furniture with plastic:We're thinking about keeping it...ha ha. Ok, maybe not.

And, as promised, pictures of the new windows. Here is the old south-facing window that's still in the living room:
And here's the new south-facing window in the living room:

Double pane, argon filled, I believe. We will enjoy the new clearer view and fewer drafts. Very nice.

All for now. I'm hoping to do some yard/garden work today. It's sunny so I'd better take advantage. I'm installing something to try and hide the propane tank which is smack in the middle of the east yard. Not pretty.

-christina

Winning the war against cold.

OK, technical update for those interested in remodeling an old house.

As you can see from the photographs posted by my lovely wife, we gutted our dining room. I tore the plaster off, then the lath boards, then removed the (spotty and inadequate) cellulose insulation. So, right down to the bare studs. There is nothing quite as dirty or quite as satisfying as tearing plaster off a wall with a sledgehammer and a crowbar.

I debated for a time about leaving all the old stuff in place, and just building the additional wall to give us 12” thick walls when finished. The old walls would contribute some insulating power, and the new insulation/wall would do most of the work.

The problem is two fold. First, I really want to control air infiltration. On a windy day, the effectiveness of most insulation can drop dramatically if air infiltration is not controlled. This is especially true for fiberglass insulation. The reduction can be as much as 50% and it happens when you need the r-value the most.

With new house construction, this is easy. Just wrap the house in Typar or Tyvek on top of the plywood sheathing (before the siding or bricks), and you’re done. Of course, I don’t have that luxury since I am not tearing the siding off my house. As an alternative, I put the “house wrap” on from the inside. I cut a piece of Tyvek for each stud bay and staple it up. If you examine the photos, you see that the Tyvek makes a “C” shape in cross section, since it’s installed on the left stud, the wall sheathing and the right stud.

Once the cellulose is blown in, this will push the Tyvek tight against the studs and sheathing, and will help seal the house wrap to the framing, reducing air infiltration. Without tearing out all the old plaster, insulation, etc, I could not install the Tyvek in the proper place.

The second half of the problem is the fact that this is an old house. I really want and need to know what’s inside those walls. So far, we haven’t found any bad concealed termite damage except in the basement. That’s the nasty “swiss cheese” wood you see in the other photo, now gone/replaced. But the previous insulation job was absolutely terrible. Either they did it themselves, and badly, or a contractor did it and figured the owner wouldn’t know the difference because you can’t see it. I would estimate that 30-40% of the wall was uninsulated.

So the general idea is to tear the old stuff out right down to the studs. Line the wall with Tyvek, build a second wall to make the total thickness ~12”, install all new wiring and plumbing as needed, then a new vapor barrier, then dry wall. Then we blow a foot of cellulose into the wall, finish the drywall then paint and trim. This technique works well for big older homes with nice big rooms, since you will lose at least eight inches on every outside wall. For a house with smaller rooms, you need other techniques like adding the insulation on the outside, or using super high r-value insulation where you can get away with a 6-8” total depth.

That's it for now, tune in soon for further exciting developments.

troy

And two windows installed is even better yet

Yup, Troy got the second window in last night. I don't know exactly how far he got on the sealing and caulking because I was upstairs eating my popcorn dinner and then when directly to bed. This was one of those Sundays I spend all day in town so having the window open all day didn't bother me a bit: I wasn't there! Plus the weather is "milding" a little.

On other news we completely burned through all the glycerin Troy and Isaac had distilled the methanol from (despite the slightly milder weather) and Troy worked on a new batch of that yesterday as well. Yes he can be a very productive man!

I have worked on emptying one of the shelves of tools in the living room in anticipation of cutting the opening between the living room and dining room wider. The shelf has to move so we can cut out the wall behind it. Troy first mentioned this three weeks ago and has mentioned it several times since, but I sense a certain reluctance to let the mess extend beyond the gutted dining room. We really live in the living room. The TV's there; the woodstove's there (where I spend all my time!); the furniture is hard to move (big couch)... We're going to have to work harder to live around that mess. The dining room is easier to seal off and ignore if you're not actually working in it. But we'll have to do it sometime...

Another thing that's come up is that our oven quit. Now, I don't cook or bake a lot so this isn't quite the crisis it might be in some households. But I sure miss it whenever I think about cooking or baking! That is something on Troy's list of things to fix, but I'm not sure how fast it's moving up the list...

And my final note is that the resumed production of biodiesel has rendered the oil stove in the kitchen "useful" again and it is merrily pumping out heat. I no longer need to wear my toque or winter coat in the kitchen. We kept thinking spring was right around the corner and it wouldn't be big deal, but it certainly was as cold temperatures continued to hang around.

all for now,
christina

New Walls, Old Walls...illustrated

Let me try to add some pictures to illustrate the previous post. First of all, here's a shot of the header board of the wall that was in the basement. Looks nice and solid, doesn't it!
And here's a before...
and after...
of the basement support wall. The pics are taken from opposite views, so sorry you don't have a direct comparison. But look at all that fresh new wood. Yum.
And here's a view of the dining room just before we moved in. (The left window faces south, the right window faces southwest.)
Here's a mid-destruction shot: (now the left window is the southwest window, and the right window faces west)
Notice how high the insulation goes. There was lots of empty space in the walls.
And here's the dining room as it sits tonight:

You're seeing the south window on the left again, and southwest window on the right. Troy is putting house wrap on the inside of the walls where he can, and a lot of foam where he can't. And look! There are our new picture windows stacked against the wall ready to go in. How exciting is that!!

All for now, this girl needs some shuteye.

-c

New walls in...old walls out

Wow it's been a while, hasn't it? Well, we've been busy...

Troy finished the wall in the basement so now the wall jacks are out and a nice 2x6 stud wall is in. And by "finished" I should specify it is a bare (empty?) stud wall. But it is holding up the house so that is a big improvement.

While the weather remained too cold for work outside, Troy started on the dining room. Hmm...I should give you a house layout to reference...let me think about how to do that. Meanwhile, Troy is in the dining room tearing out the plaster, lath, ceiling and anything else he can find. He also ordered the replacement windows. Twice. Ok, so he wanted to replace the old big picture windows b/c they are horribly inefficient at insulating. I want to keep them, but can hardly argue the point b/c my teeth are chattering too much to be able to talk. Troy orders a pair of double hung windows to replace the nice big sheet of glass we have now. It's a solution. But you know, not one I'm crazy about. We have a few more of these circuitous discussions and Troy does some more calling. What do you know! you can get a piece of glass that big without getting a new mortgage. So he was able to cancel the old order and put in a new one. And you know what? it was cheaper that way too. Hmmm...chattering teeth or not, my expression is smug...and satisfied.

So last week Isaac came up for spring break and Troy's parents (dad and stepmom in this case) came up to visit and then the work really started getting done! Let's see...

• For one, my washing machines now plug into the wall instead of sharing one extension cord that I would have to trade between the two machines. Not only is this easier on my hands (not having to dislodge the plug from the stubborn cord), it also frees up the ("the" as in only) plug in the bathroom. Nice.


• Our lightswitches were rewired and fixed so they no longer sort of "hang" from the wall instead of being mounted securely to the wall. I feel a little safer already.


• Our visitors will be happy to hear we have a guard rail along the back basement stairs. Now, I never felt unsteady around the gaping hole in the floor, but I did worry about the visitors who didn't have this trap marked in their mental maps of the house. Sorry, it's still not safe for kids as the stiles are a good 24 inches apart yet.


• In addition to being stripped completely bare, the dining room got at least 4 or 5 more electrical outlets. Too many for a dining room you say? I do not agree. Especially since the room may serve as entertainment room or office at some point.


• Troy also managed to use the "warm enough" weather to distill the glycerin (to recover the methanol) and he made a mould so that the glycerin bricks exactly fit the pot we burn them in. He is clever sometimes, I have to admit. This also means the fires are running very hot again for this last kick of winter.

Well, that's all the work I know about, noticed, or can remember. I was at work all week so I did not get in on all the fun. (In fact all I got was a cold!) We had good visits with Tom, Clures, Isaac, Mom and Aunt Marie Ann. It's feast or famine with us and guests I think, but that's ok. Thank you to Tom and Isaac who pitched in mightily and Clures who kept us very well fed.

Sorry, no pictures for you to ogle. I got tired of waiting for a good time to upload them. Maybe I'll add them later.

All for now,

christina