Category Archives: Siding

Insulation Sausages & Photo Updates

Posted on by

We’re back and traveling at record speeds this week!

Things that were accomplished:

  • Roof!
  • All inspections passed (until whole house is finished)
  • Doors re-framed
  • Deck and stairs installed
  • Insulation Sausages (see below)
  • Priming/Caulking

Things happening this week:

  • More caulking
  • More painting
  • Foam insulation installation (today!!!!!)
  • Drywall, maybe?
  • Ordering kitchen cabinets (another post)

About those “insulation sausages”:

Aaron and I have chosen to “splurge” on foam insulation for the house.  When installing foam insulation, it is highly recommended that all other insulation is removed because the old insulation can take on the aroma of the new foam.  Also, our electrician highly recommended that we pull the old stuff out to see what (if anything) is going on with the electric in the attic.  We’re all about safety.

So, yesterday, two guys came out to pull out the old insulation.  Wellllll……..

There were two layers of insulation (normal), but underneath was…. a whole wood shingle roof complete with nails.  Yo!  So, what was supposed to be a half a day job turned into a whole day and a “you’re going to have to get up there and sweep up more shingles later” job.

They set this machine up on the side of the deck- it would fill huge bags up in the side yard.
IMG_0826
IMG_0830
DSC_0060
However, projectile nails and wood kept shooting out of the bags (and popping them… sending stuff all through the neighborhood) so the insulation guy and I were like:

I’m pretty sure the whole neighborhood is sneezing due to our insulation removal.  I think I have developed a sudden adult-onset allergy to that bill I’m going to receive… Ah-chooo!

I know you just came for the photos 😉 , so here they are:

New porch/in-progress stairs
DSC_0065
Deck (and priming)!
DSC_0072
Primed, new stairs/landing, and door painted so we can install hardware today:
DSC_0062
ROOF, Primed, doors painted, junked up with stuff:
DSC_0063
View from back door:
DSC_0066
DSC_0067
Master bath- see our wall faucet hookups?!? I’m Pumped!
DSC_0068
This has been here a while, but not sure if I have a photo on the blog yet- but the beam shows where this wall will be removed to connect the two houses. Soon we’ll be saying goodbye to this wall!
DSC_0069

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on insulation today and drywall soon.  This place is looking like a house!

We’ve had our fill of “insulation sausages” forever, but it is a step in the right direction!

Plumbers, Electricians, Siding, & Windows

Posted on by

Happy Weekend, Everyone!  We’ve been MIA for about three weeks because there hasn’t been much going on [until the latter part of this week]!

The electricians came in between other jobs and finished up this week.  You can see some pot lights (LED, yay!) in the ceiling rafters and some plug wires/boxes here and there.  We had to seal the window/door holes up until the actual windows/doors arrived to keep moisture away from our electrical wires (hence the plywood over the windows).

DSC_0014

DSC_0015

Plumbing is taking FOR.EV.ER.  I have no photos of the plumbing, but you probably don’t want to see those anyway.  😉  They were supposed to be finished yesterday… and then today… and, well, they’re still not finished.  It’s mostly taking so much time due to a lack of showing up.  I’ll keep you posted.

The Heating and A/C guys are coming in Tuesday to put in some vents and Thursday the roof is finally going on.  The roof is the best news because we’re getting back-to-back storms (it seems) and beginning to have some leaking.  Argh.

Uncle Jeff and “Uncle” Tommy came back up this week… and they’ve been working their magic already.  Aaron has been helping out, too.  Enjoy these pictures!

Windows went in!

DSC_0058

DSC_0051

DSC_0054

DSC_0053

Siding went on. Ah, the smell of cedar!

DSC_0056

Before I share the most recent/impressive photos, I wanted to share something:

Everyone has aspects of home building that are extremely important to them.  One of my huge topics of thought was windows.  When walking through our historic neighborhood, I love the look of wood windows.  In fact, our wood windows were a major reason why we bought our particular house.  After living with them for over two years, plus realizing that restoration is literally 400% more expensive than new windows (for the damage level of our particular windows), we made the difficult decision to replace the original windows in the existing house (that will match the addition).  Don’t worry, we have some plans for the original windows and the storm windows we labored over for months!

Based on property values in our neighborhood, we would never recoup the money spent on custom wood windows (not to mention the maintenance aspect of wood… “they don’t make ’em like they used to”).  We compromised on a high quality vinyl with zero frills in basic white to blend in with the trim.

One of my compromises was that the new windows had to be inset into the house as far as possible so that the eye is drawn to the trim and not to the window itself.

The below picture speaks for itself, but I can tell you that it nearly brings tears to my eyes knowing that we have contractors that not only hear what we are saying, but are interested in keeping the historic “look” of the home to the utmost of their ability (without verbalizing that we’ve totally lost our marbles).

IMG_0764

IMG_0763

My friend, Mandi, gave me the biggest compliment today when she told me that the addition looks like it “was there all along”.   We’ve put so much thought into keeping the look “original”, while still having modern conveniences.  Knowing that our research/plans were not in vain means so much to me.

I’m so appreciative that we’ve had such a wonderful support group through calling/texting/e-mailing/blogging.  You’ve blessed us so much!

We’ve bought some fun things/fixtures for the house that we can’t wait to show you all in a blog post soon!