Did I mention I'm glad we hired it done?

I've been packing all week and have made good progress despite a sick cat that took up an entire day with a vet visit (punctured foot, abscess, fighting mad, sedation, lion haircut, enough said). Woke up at 4AM and decided to get started on my day - and finished packing the massive hall closet. Woot!

We're making daily trips to the house to drop off boxes and to stoke the fire so the drywall mud will dry properly. The drywaller is on his third coat and expects to be done sanding by Monday. Everything is a mess up there and I'm extremely happy that we're not the ones who had to do all of this. As to the mess, he'll do a preliminary clean-out but our experience with drywall dust is that it lasts forever. We've got plans for a dust blowing system that will be cobbled together using shop vacs and Chris's sawdust collection system. Then we'll move on to mopping, more blowing, more mopping, and if we're lucky some initial painting before finishing the move out of Troy. Too aggressive? Maybe! But we're gonna try.

In the meantime, here is a picture of poor T'BD feeling very sorry for herself. Since she's normally long-haired, this new do is definitely on the chilly side. Fortunately for her, she has to be kept inside for a week. Unfortunately for me, I have to try to keep her inside. Glad the pain meds make her drowsy.

Not a happy cat

Drywall progress and moving

We snuck up to Beech House Sunday morning to see how far the drywallers got the day before. Answer: far!

Pantry/Nook/My space

The light through the windows really bounces around now. It's much brighter inside as a result.

Looking into living room

I was amazed at how large the rooms seemed. The pictures don't really convey this, but the sense of space and light is great. I'm itching to get started with paint and furniture. Chris reminds me that we've got a ways to go and a lot to do (a little thing like moving a household full of goods plays into that) but this is something to look forward to.

Master bedroom

Since we were headed up anyway, we moved boxes. I've got two rooms packed so far and we've been moving boxes every chance we get. Now most of the stuff is stored on the Bridge; at least the stuff that won't freeze anyway. It was 11 degrees up there yesterday.

Another tractor assist

Chris loaded the front bucket and then used it to lift the boxes up to me on the Bridge. Made quick work of all those boxes especially as we don't actually have stairs inside yet. I'm going to be sad once we have to put railings up. Gotta remember to make them removable in case we want to move a piano or something up there (just kidding Hubby! I promise, no pianos).

They still have the mudroom and utility room to hang plus some purple rock in the bathroom. Then they'll start taping and mudding and sanding. I thought it was a mess in there yesterday - apparently I haven't seen anything yet.

Let the drywalling begin!

We spent our first night at Beech House Thursday night. The drywallers were due to arrive first thing Friday morning and we wanted to have the house warmed up before they arrived. Previous sleepovers have been in the Nest and we wanted to see what it was like in the big house. 

It was beautiful. We set up in the master bedroom and learned a few things: the woodstove is able to adequately heat the upstairs without need for fans (hooray!), the moon shines beautifully through the east facing bedroom windows, and the Bridge's westward view in the morning is a mix of sun and shadow that makes me long for a comfy chair, a cup of coffee, and nothing to do. We're really going to enjoy that space.

Looking west at sunrise

The drywall delivery truck arrived bright and early and we had to do some serious sanding to help them  get down the hill. The warm weather we've had the last few days had abruptly changed to 20 degrees and the road had frozen. We all held our breath as he maneuvered the truck around that turn and down the slope.

Careful...

He made it and they used the boom to lift 16 foot sheets of drywall up onto the Bridge. Lotta good uses for that space; it's not just for coffee and views. 

Putting drywall upstairs

By end of day, our drywaller and his helper managed to get the ceilings installed both upstairs and down. Quick work!

Drywall lift

Lifts and screw guns made the work go quickly. Still lots of lifting and ladder climbing and I'm really glad we decided to hire it done.

Drywall dust obscuring the lens

Chris is back up there today to install the water line for the solar hot water system before they close in the wall and the utility room ceiling. I'm packing (this is just a short break! Honest!) at the Troy house and have one room finished and a good start on the next. I better get back to it.

And on to the next step

We have finished insulating and passed the inspection. On to drywall! And the stairwell! 

For anyone wondering - we are not required to insulate interior walls. We did it for sound control and used inexpensive R11. We also didn't bother to fill every bay so it went up lickety-split. 

Pretty insulation

More pretty insulation

We now have a decision to make. We can install the drywall ourselves (as we originally intended to do) or hire it done . Time versus money, baby! With our old house sold and closing on March 8th we have quite a bit to do to move. It would be wonderful to hire a drywaller to have the entire new house done in two weeks. Two weeks! It'll take us at least a month. Per floor. Even that may be optimistic. Can't make a decision without data, so we'll wait on the quotes and see how that sways us. In the meantime, we're packing boxes in preparation for the move. We can always store everything on the second floor and do one story at a time. Hmmm, not a bad idea...

I finally got hit with a Blogger issue. I've been reasonably lucky - banged into the photo storage thing, but that's been it - up to now. For those folks who posted comments two weeks ago - sorry it took me until today to publish them and reply. I check comments regularly and even have alerts sent to my email so I'll see them. But Blogger didn't alert me until today. Argh!

Cold snap

Apparently the insulating is paying off. When we left yesterday it was 56 degrees inside (fire in wood stove all day) and 19 outside. Dropped to 10 degrees overnight and when we arrived this morning it was still 35 degrees inside. Woot! And today the outside temps stayed around 15 degrees and we easily climbed back up to 58. I'd say it's getting close to time to start staying overnight again.

We got the solar hot water quote back and are moving forward with that. They're coming out Thursday to finalize the system layout and start the NYSERDA paperwork.

And we had the drywall estimator out today to figure out how much drywall we need to buy. Given our new timeframe on closing the Troy house (fingers crossed for early March) we think we're going to hire the first floor installation done instead of tackling it ourselves. We need some semi-finished space for all our worldly possessions. We'll finish the second floor later this Spring and use it for storage until then.

So everything is moving forward at a good pace. Next up is building the stairs and packing the old house. Glad I started packing back in the fall as I made good inroads on the amount left to put in boxes. Still, we've moved enough times to realize that you own way more than you think you do.

Forecast: Insulation with a chance of other tasks

Fortunately other projects come up while you're insulating. You get to a bay and realize that something else needs to happen before you can put a batt there. This is great because although insulation is necessary and I'm finding it strangely satisfying to install, it does get boring and repetitive. 

We do not have a direct heat source on the second floor. We're depending on heat making its way up from the first floor (we do this in our current house too and it works surprisingly well). We have a huge stairwell opening and we decided to add a couple heat vents to help circulate the air. We'll have the ability to add duct fans in the future if needed. We'll also have ceiling fans upstairs to help draw the air upward. 

One went into the bathroom floor and is positioned almost directly over the wood stove. There is so much air moving through this vent that the lint fuzzies shimmy and shake (it's been in storage and I haven't had a chance to clean it yet; don't judge). 

Bathroom vent

The bedroom vent is actually over the kitchen so it doesn't get as much air circulation. No fuzzie movement. As I like the bedroom to be cold for sleeping, this may work best for us anyway.

Bedroom vent

I picked up the vents at the Round Lake Antique fair last year and love them! The slats work and the filigree is wonderful. I've got two more vents that will be mounted in the ceiling downstairs to finish the look. Those aren't as ornate so I chose them for the ceiling where they won't be quite as visible.

Close up!

We also needed to figure out the frame and duct work for the range hood. I've always wanted one of these and finally have one. No more setting off smoke detectors when grilling steak on my panini! (Didn't we just talk about judging?).

Instructions said we could have a gap between 24 and 36 inches between cooktop and fan. We very carefully and scientifically measured (marked max and min on the wall and then I stood there and we went up a few inches so I wouldn't bonk my head when cooking) and then Hubbie added bracing. Gotta buy a length of ductwork, cut a hole in the wall (sob) and I'll be able to insulate that bay too.

Checking height

By the end of the day we'd finished one half of the downstairs. Awesome. We're also making inroads on heating the place. We got it up to 56 degrees inside and it was high 20s outside with sun and mild wind. We may actually be able to start sleeping up there again.

Satisfying end of day

One last note - we had a solar hot water guy come out Friday to give us a quote on installing a thermal water system. I'll keep you updated, but so far it looks pretty darn good. 

Insulation progress

And the insulating goes on. And on. And maybe even on. Lots of insulating done and yet to do. But we're getting there!

I've got most of the second floor done now. Cutting in all the bays under the windows and fitting the thinner strips is really taking a lot of time.

Looking a bit tired...

Chris finished putting in all the dog ears (that's a plumbing term for those not in the know - they're the brass pieces that connect the Pex to the wall so you have a firm mount for your fixtures) and was able to start on the first floor ceiling insulation. This isn't for heat but for sound control. I hate to hear people walking above my head. And I like to have a sound absorber for rooms in general so they don't sound hollow. It's not faced as both the upper and lower areas are heated.

Ceiling insulation between floors

This part goes quick as you don't have to deal with facing or staples. We'll be starting on the downstairs walls by Friday. 

We tend to look three tasks ahead so that we don't get too far ahead of ourselves, but can still make adjustments if we need to. Insulating is obviously the task de jour, but after that we have the staircase and the drop ceiling in the hallway/bathroom. Looming on the horizon is drywall. Trying not to think too hard about the drywall though. Dust. Ugh.