Blinds and Insulation

I couldn't think of a creative name for this post, so I'll just go with simple in lieu of clever. This weekend, we had projects of varying difficulty level.

Difficulty Level Easy: Blinds

The blinds in the house were, unsurprisingly given the history of this place, disgusting. I didn't put any effort into cleaning them since they were just going to be taken down and thrown away. While perusing Santa Cruz's Habitat for Humanity ReStore (newly opened this past year... just for us I can only assume), we found three matching cell shade blinds in a great color for our living room. I was adamantly against cell shades at first, but I'll do just about anything to make this place even a tiny bit warmer, and they were a great price despite being brand new in original packaging. Steve cut them to size with his miter saw.

Before:

After (with pretty boring Cowboys vs. Bengals game in the background):

On to the next project...

Difficulty Level Normal: Insulation Removal

Bedroom coated in plastic to protect from our attic work (the thing hanging in the center of the shot is the rope to pull down the attic access ladder):

The insulation in our fairly sizable attic space was matted down in places and filled with the vestiges of past pest infestation (termites and rats... neither of which seem to be currently occupying the space). The wonderful attic ladder our contractor installed gives us easy access to the space and we want to use it for storage. So, out came the old insulation. Steve bagged batts of fiberglass insulation while I scooped loose cellulose insulation using the best implements I could find... a dustpan and an old redwood roofing shingle I found in the attic.

Steve inspects old (disconnected) knob and tube wiring for removal (with lots of debris in the air... our masks did a wonderful job of filtering it out, thankfully):

Steve bagging insulation:

That part of the process took all of Saturday. Today we went shopping for lumber to reinforce termite-eaten sections of the structure and hoisted that all into the attic... through the bedroom window. We're lucky there is a window that lines up with the attic ladder, allowing us to pass 12 foot lengths of 2x4 into the attic without dragging them through the rest of the house first.

We finished up with several hours of vacuuming up the last bits of loose cellulose insulation, rat droppings and termite debris. More pictures of this project to come.

Difficulty Level Hard: Completion of the Insulation Project (upcoming)

We've had some minor drama ordering the insulation, since we want to use a stone wool insulation that is (extremely) fire resistant and hopefully unappealing to pests. We realized after ordering the insulation that it wouldn't fit in the intended space (the bays are too shallow) so we had to cancel and re-order the correct size. Of course, since the insulation didn't actually arrive at the store when it was supposed to, that was fairly easy.

Laying the insulation itself is simple. And we don't think sistering the termite eaten lumber will pose much of a challenge. The most difficult task with be laying the plywood attic floor... not because the technique is difficult, but because I will have to hoist the sections up to Steve and help manipulate them. And I have very little upper arm strength. I really wish I'd hit the barbells when Steve purchased them... too late now (for this project anyway). Hopefully I'll get stronger as we go.