Walls and Floors

A lot has happened in the last two days. This is the what the windows are going to look like. This was the first of the windows with the panels in them; it is unpainted for now.


A full view of the front of the house, you can get an idea of what it will look like now.


The Greatroom has been completely taped.


One of the tapers after sanding for a while; a "Sugar Frosted Taper".


Not only were the walls taped, the entire interior, all the sheetrock,walls and ceilings, was primed. The first coat of paint is on.


The installation of the floor has started; the plan is that the floor installation should be complete by Sunday. This floor is the original floor that was installed in 1938, the former owner pulled it up and was stacked up for installation now. You may have remembered seeing it in earlier photos.



Looking into the kitchen from the Greatroom. As you can see, the house is very white, we will giving the house some color with the next coat of paint.

All Sheetrock Hung

The last of the sheetrock was hung today. This is the Greatroom and as you can see we exposed some of the beams.



This is the view you get when you walk in the back door; through the kitchen into the Greatroom.



This is the view looking the other way in the kitchen toward the utility room. Every room, except for the Greatroom has been taped and only needs a final sanding. These guys don't waste time!



The bathroom all taped.


Upstairs looking at the back of the big wall. This will be finished when we complete the upstairs in the future.

The Sheetrocking Begins

The sheetrocking has begun. This is our bedroom, the opening on the right is the closet and just to the left of that is the bathroom. The "stripper pole" in the room has been boxed in and sheetrocked.


This is looking the other way in the bedroom.


The kitchen, between the two short walls will have cabinets and counter top, sink, stove, and dishwasher.



Looking into the bathroom; the purple sheetrock is moisture resistant.

Before Sheetrock

The ceiling in the Greatroom has been insulated with fiberglass bats. The ceiling on the second floor will be insulated later when the bats get their eviction papers.



On the second floor, the bottom of the wall was not insulated with foam so the electrical outlets can be added at a later date. When that happens, the insulator will come back a fill this area in with foam.



The vent pipe for the stove vent was added today.



Sheeting was added to a section of the floor that needed to be brought up to the level of the rest of the floor.



The lolly column in the bedroom was boxed in. We kid about that being the "Stripper Pole".



A last look at the studs that will be covered with sheetrock later in the week.



The section of this joist was fixed with angle iron. This is the section the the plumber got a little over zealous.



The upstairs walls were foiled for freshness, just kidding, they need to be covered with foil to fireproof them since they will not be covered with sheetrock yet.

Insulation Continues

The insulating process is continuing, here the front wall is done. The excess is shaved off and ready for the sheetrock.


After the first shaving off process, if there are gaps or indentations they put more insulation in to bring it up to level with the studs. Because the foam expands so much it puffs out like this making what looks like modern art.


After shaving off, the excess is bagged and taken away.


This hole is so the bats can exit; this is area is the main exit for them as far as we know and will be filled as soon as the bats are evicted.

Insulation - Now we are cooking with gas

Finally something that you can really see progress. The transformation is dramatic, in one day they foamed about three quarters of the house.


This is a close-up of the insulation. This is the "Open Cell" kind of foam insulation. It is slightly crispy on the outside and the consistency of one of those Temperpedic beds on the inside. It has some give and will spring back slightly.


As you can see above, the foam puffs out some, so it has to be trimmed flush with the studs.


The extra is trimmed with this kind of saw.


Here is a section that was trimmed; you can see the extra before it is picked up.


There is no sheeting under the clapboards so some foam leaked out. This is the worst of the leakage, I was pleasantly surprised. To have a house with siding that could be as much as 210 years old and no sheeting, this is darn good.

They are going much faster than I expected, at this rate they should be done by the end of the week.

Starting to Insulate the Floor

Insulation has begun...yeah!


Under the floor, in the crawl space, the insulation they are using is Closed Cell foam. They say it is Soy based foam, I think that it might contain about 15% - 20% soy. Closed cell foam was suggested for under the floor since it is damp and you don't need much for good R-value.


This is what it looks like before the insulation is applied.


In addition to the insulation the handle was put on the front door, we really like the look and now we can actually open it.

Bat Saga

We still have bats in the house so we hired someone to take care of them. What I mean is, patch all the holes in the house that they can get through and then put in "Bat Tubes", openings where they can get out but not back in. The problem is there are baby bats. He thinks the baby bats will be able to fly with the other bats within a week, they might be able to fly now. To me, they look the same size so I don't think it will be long now.



A pile bats. I am guessing there are about 25 or 30 bats in the house. They seem to be spread around different areas of the house, judging from the piles of guano.

I said that we expected the insulation to start on Friday but when we got there, we found that none of the contractors showed up. I guess we misunderstood when the insulator was going to show up, hopefully this week.

Boo Boo

I had gone fishing(in Alaska) so I had not posted anything for a while. But, not much had been going on, at least not very evident. Last Friday the building inspector came and most things passed with flying colors. There were a few minor problems that were fixed that afternoon. One problem that is taking a longer is this beam. The plumber got a little over zealous and cut a bit too deep into the joist. The inspector is making us contact an engineer to tell us how to correct this problem. We are waiting to hear back so we can do whatever he tells us to do.

Another thing we had to do, unrelated to the inspector, is spray for carpenter ants. Our carpenter, not to be confused with the ant kind, found some on the beams.

I have some exciting news, they are going to start insulating tomorrow. Finally some work that really shows the work being done.