Fall Wrap-up-Part 3.2

From this view it almost looks finished. *sigh* The new mudroom/entry. Which now has radiant heat in the floors, insulation, lights, and drywall up. Still needs flooring, doors, and to be mudded, sanded, mudded....

View from the kitchen- to the mudroom and entry. Bartlett doesn't love the open stairs. She would not like to see through, it makes her nervous.

We desperately need to put down a walkway, we track sand inside and it isn't good for our floors. Erik made a temporary gang plank, so only 1/2 the dirt comes inside now.

Fall Wrap-up-Part 3

That's the inside of the foam truck. Yah. I guess, we were lucky, it wasn't too cold this Fall. Although, the last weekend of October was bitter cold with that freak snow storm. It was awefully cold actually, since the electricians were here that Saturday wrapping up the job, the power was shut off for most of the day, and I was trying to study.Luckily, we didn't get too much snow either, since most people were without power on Sunday and Monday and we had it. Brand new wiring in fact. Finally, on Wednesday we got insulation.

Since the older 1/2 of the house, has nominal 2 x 4 construction we had a closed cell foam sprayed in there. Which gives us an R-21 at the wall. The closed cell also is a bit more rigid and stiffens the walls up a bit. Which also helps. The new construction, roof and 2nd floor got the open cell foam, since it expands more, this fills the entire 2 x 6 cavity and doesn't allow air & moisture to convect or condense in the wall. We are already seeing a difference with the boiler in the older section of the house, not continuously running all day either. Already, we are feeling like the house is more efficient.

Fall Wrap-up-Part 2

So after 2nd floor was reframed, we needed strapping on the ceiling- to accept the drywall, which in an old house all needs to be shimmed- cause this house hasn't been square...uh.... ever! So that took a while. New walls in the mudroom for a closet and powder room were framed. Pocket door for the powder room, which was tricky, needs special framing. But not a big deal, cause you just get a kit at the hardware store. New walls for the laundry room and Oh, I nearly forgot, new windows on the front of the house. Not to mention, Erik had planned on a hunting trip to the NEK with cousin Bob and his friends. A ton to do and not a lot of time to do it.

Bird Camp

After work & the weekends that were available, Erik managed to do it all. New framing, new windows, and the electricians were able to come in the last week in October and pull out all the old wiring, which was called "2 tube" newer than Knob & tube, but encased in a fabric sleeve that screamed "fire" everytime you turned on the switch. It also made a very loud noise, which I was always wondering if that was a spark and if I just turned the house on fire? It was very unsettling, to say the least. Now, all the basement lights come on when you hit one switch, instead of the one light that was on, when you turned off all the other lights. Bowdler Electric also ran wiring for the 2nd floor, so when we get to Phase 3, we'll be wired in and ready!

New wall at mudroom & wiring for outside lights and mudroom overheads.

New framing & wiring, strapping beyond.

Fall Wrap-up-Part 1

It's been a busy few weeks here at 528. In order to get ready for insulation, we needed to re-wire the electric, which needed to have all the walls ready, which meant we had to re-frame and build new walls. Brian King came up one weekend to help Erik reframe the living room. It was a little sponge-y when you walked up stairs in the bigger bedroom, turns out the 2nd floor joists ran the lenght of the existing part of the house. That's why it felt like walking on a trampolene. Erik & Brian ran new LVLs in the 2nd floor framing and cutback and hung the existing framing off of the LVLs to stiffen up the framing. It was a ton of running into the basement, jacking up from below, building walls to hold up some of the framing, cutting back the joists, running down into the basement, jacking up below, then moving the LVL into place, tiring just trying to remember everything that was done.

Brian contemplating where the post can be located.

Brian & Erik framing in a new header between the Living & Dining rooms.

Looking down to where the posts are going.

This was a HUGE push, and we couldn't have gotten ready for the electrical portion of Phase 2 without Brian. Thank you for spending your weekend with us. It is greatly appreciated.