Busy Bees!

Once again, my in-laws came out to help with the house renovations.  Thank goodness!  We could really use it!  LOL!

This past weekend, they worked on finishing leveling the floor in the hallway, insulating the hallway, and continuing to mud the nursery and guest rooms.  They all have done an amazing job, and it is really starting to come together.  The hallway looks awesome!  I'm excited to see the finished product.  We have really made quite a change in that hallway by knocking down 3 walls and adding in a corner closet and built-in.  It is going to look so good!!!  I can hardly wait!  We are still on the hunt for the newel posts, spindles, and handrail for the upstairs landing.  If anyone knows of a place they can recommend, please let us know!  We don't want to spend more than $100 per newel post (we need 2 1/2), yet we want ones that are at least 4 1/2" in width to make them feel more authentic for the age of our home.  

Picture Time!

Leveled Floor in Hallway

Insulation on Ceiling and Walls in Hallway

 (Looking Towards Nursery)

More Hallway Insulation

 (Looking Towards Guest Room)

Mudding so far in Nursery

Mudding so far in Guest Room

One of the nights when we were all eating dinner, we had an unexpected house guest.  Jim looked up to see a  big ol' fat ground hog staring in at us from our front door stoop.  We've never noticed a ground hog before, so it was a complete surprise.  He was just sitting there as if waiting for us to invite him in.  LOL!  He didn't seem afraid of us at all.  After a few moments, he calmly walked off to lounge under one of the bushes we have out front.  Maybe the septic guys destroyed his home when we had the new septic installed...

Attic Insulation

Jim had requested off work today to go to a midwife appointment with me.  Unfortunately, the appointment had to be rescheduled at the last moment d/t the midwife being ill.  Jim decided in the afternoon to head up to the attic to finish insulating the attic above the nursery and guest room and to start the hallway demo prep.  He has currently finished with putting in the fiberglass insulation and has now started removing the blown-in insulation over the upstairs hallway.  He has taken a few pics of his progress for me since I can no longer get up into the attic.

The as-of-yet untouched blown-in insulation above the hallway, bonus room, and stairwell

View looking towards the nursery gable from the attic access in the hallway

Looking from above the nursery towards the guest room gable

 The ridge vents seem to leak a little when it rains and snows, so we have placed some plastic and paper towels in those areas.  This is only a temporary measure.  We plan to have a roofer come and take a look at the ridge vents sometime next month.  We think that the vents are just bent out of shape and need to be corrected...at least we hope that is all it is.  :?

Cross section of our new insulation in the attic above the guest room

We insulated the guest room and nursery ceilings with R-19 fiberglass batts.  This pretty much leveled with the top of the ceiling joists.  We have now added R-30 fiberglass in the opposite direction on top of the joists.

So far, Jim hasn't found any new treasures hidden under the old cellulose blown-in insulation.

Let There Be Light (In The Attic)!

Jim has been a busy bee.  Unfortunately, I haven't been much help to him.  The last project I helped with was putting insulation on the walls of the nursery and guest room and on the nursery ceiling.

 Nursery walls

Guest Room Walls

Nursery Ceiling

This is at the point where I stopped helping due to being constantly sick.

Jim decided at this point that it would be good to install electricity in the attic.  I believe he spent a weekend installing 5 lights in the attic.  Now we won't have to struggle with portable lights and extension cords like we had to when removing the blown-in insulation over the nursery and guest room.

The attic without electricity

Let there be light!

Yea!  This is the portion over the hallway and bonus room.

During this time, Jim also created a new HVAC box for the new louvered vents that we purchased a few months ago.

If I remember right, his fingers suffered a few cuts and scrapes from shaping the metal.

Jim started back in on the insulation after completing the side projects.

 The nursery

The guest room

These 2 rooms looked much more like rooms once the insulation was up.  We could also tell a definite difference in the room temp and outside noise level.

Panoramic view from the guest room.