We're happy with the amount of insulation we've gotten in so far, even though we now have to cut it with a hand saw. We also tried a circular saw at the beginning, but the disadvantage there is that you have to do each cut twice, because the blade is not big enough to go all the way through to the other side. More progress on our next post, but we'll have to wait until daybreak for photos, because we cut insulation until the sun went down.
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| Day 23: Our carpenters built this, and then lent it to us. It's to help measure and then hold insulation while you cut it. Cut it with what? An awesome double-long-bladed electric saw they also lent us, that's what. With that baby, we insulated all the walls on the ground floor in a day and a half. And then it broke. |
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| Day 23: Meanwhile, their dog vommed on our floor. It's a give and take kind of situation. (Actually, the dog cleaned up after himself, so maybe we're more taking. Although, he also pooped in the yard a week ago, and that's still there.) |
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| Day 23: Getting those walls insulated, including starting to fill in awkwardly sized gaps that are never the size of the leftover piece at the end of a pad/bale of insulation. |
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| Day 23: They also continued working on the outside of the house. They're getting into the 80% of the work that's only 20% visible, I guess. |
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| Day 24: Started on the ceiling insulation, because the wall insulation (on the ground floor) is done. |
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| Day 24: See? Walls, done. And less stacks of insulation taking up the floor. Also we hauled some of it upstairs. It's heavy when you move it up a ladder by hand--alone you tire out after 1-2 packs. With 2 people we could do about 10 packs at once. With 3 it was the same but quicker because the upstairs person could move the pack out of the way to make room for the next one coming up--perfect for one of the kids. |
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| Day 24: Meanwhile they papered the other porch too. |
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| An off-day that we don't count as a construction day because the saw was broken and the workers were away: It rained a lot one night, and this was taken the following morning: The part right at the apex of the roof that one of us was worried would let lots of water in. It didn't. (Phew!) |
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| All along the apex it's open 1cm or so, but hardly any water came in. Not enough to drip down the wood or even down the inside of the paper much. |
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| However, this northwest-facing door let a big puddle in, which then started to get sucked up by the wall insulation, and sat under the black paper flap along the edge. So we covered it with the sawdust that was handily all over the floor, waited for it to absorb, swept it away, and repeated. Meanwhile we put a blue tarp up outside to cover the doorway. |
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| The southwest-facing porch had the water come in a bit, but not into the house most of the way along. |
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| However, the northwest end saw the rain blow a good 5m inward, almost entering the house. |
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| Here's our emergency rain solution. |
