Well, I kinda got stuff done this weekend

I have a huge list of things I am trying to get through by Thanksgiving. Last weekend was lousy but I did get the wood funiture waxed and I built a shelf for my wardrobe so I can actually use it.

This weekend, I did a little better but I still don't feel like I accomplished much. I moved all of my tools to my work bench (not on the porch, in the dining room, in the bedroom, in the garage, etc.). I also cleaned my work bench and the area around it. This is a bigger deal than you might think.

I was also able to get the insulation on the hot water heater. It doesn't seem to fit and I feel like it is a crap shoot in terms of additional savings but I consider it a "finished" project and I guess we'll see if there is any residual savings.
I also did some wood patch and sanding on the bean bag boards. They are looking pretty good but I think I am going to take a little more time and patch a little more to make them look better. I also want to show off the designs but have them mocked up, half-finished, so it isn't worth doing that right now.I also finished demolition on the soffit at the bottom of the basement stairs and decide I now want to do more demolition. I intended on refinishing this area but now believe that head room is more important than a finished ceiling so I will come up with a way to trim and paint the exposed duct and piping to make it look acceptable.
My big project, after this is finishing the basement bathroom. I made no headway on this - but I did use the bathroom several times and it made me think about the project. I guess that doesn't account for much. This room and now the "additional" work on the soffit really makes me feel like things are piling up.

To make matters worse, I am starting to make yet another project for myself. I have wanted to bring my vinyl upstairs for some time now. I got these cool wireless speakers for an IPod and luck would have it, I can hook up my turntable too it and it sounds pretty good (and I can then move my speakers anywhere in the house). Problem: I have no place to put the turntable or any records. Solution: hell, I can make a rack for it that would look pretty good. I quickly shelved the idea because I felt my marriage couldn't handle another "diversion" from the work at hand - until I found this cool wood in the attic.It is a pile of quarter-sawn oak from an old table top. It looks cool and there is quite a bit of it five 3' pieces. Yeah, it is stained and I'd have to sand it down but it looks really cool. I could design a cabinet and use this wood (so I won't have to spend any money). This might be a way to make something without pissing off the wife. When she says, "don't you have better things to do?", I say, "but the wood was free so I'm not spending any money". She'll say, "Oh, Okay" before she even realizes that I didn't even answer her question, right? Maybe it's in my best interest to not start this project until I get a few more of smaller "must-do" itemss under my belt (I'm not a complete moron, you know).

Insulation Time

Or maybe I should call it, "it's about time we insulated". I wanted to take on these types of projects much sooner but - well, I guess I have no excuse. This year, I started taking real steps toward making the home more energy efficient. We installed the storm windows just over a month ago and this week we tackled the attic insulation. We are also doing some misc. sealing all around.

The attic was initially insulated with with two "layers" of stuff. The old layer is vermiculite and then over that, probably installed in the 60's is a layer of shredded condensed Fiberglas. It's really messy stuff (both layers) and the R-value of the composition was calculated to be between 12 and 18. I wanted to add additional R-value while also encapsulating these two layers to limit dust and debris in the attic.

For the insulation, we chose Ultra-Touch, a recycled cotton product. We chose this because we wanted a sustainable option: something that was recycled and as "inert" as possible. We purchased the insulation at the local sustainable building supply store, Greenmaker. This was my first trip there and I am both excited and impressed that we have such a resource at such a relatively close distance from our home.

I enlisted the help of my friend Steve for the job and we quickly laid down the blanket of new insulation. We didn't have much "thinking" to do for this project and just laid the insulation from wall to wall in the attic. Our ventilation at the eave is already above our attic walls so we didn't even have to worry about blocking these areas.

One note: if you are considering this option, the bundles of insulation are considerably larger than the rolls of Fiberglas you might get at the hardware store. We took two trips and had to use a large vehicle for transport. Also, getting them into the attic would have been pretty much impossible in a house as tiny as ours so we had to cut the stuff open in the living room. It was a little messy but not a big deal.

The result of this work (though it looks neater up there) remains to be seen. I'll have to figure out how to represent an energy audit of the house this winter to observe the effects.