Retrofit - Week 2

Week two saw some major cool achievements, but I didn't get to see them till Friday because I spent the week hanging out in Denver with many of the best residential energy efficient building experts in the country at a summit sponsored by the Dept of Energy and NREL. What fun company to be included in. It was encouraging that I could hold my own in conversations about building and energy and I learned a lot about the policy and political goings on. I also tried to get any feedback about what I was planning here that I could. It seems like everything looks good except for maybe settling of the cellulose wall insulation.

The major progress this week started on Friday of the first week when we got the steel for the joist hangers for the 4X12 rough sawn beams in the living room. Sam and Jake put in a long Saturday with me to get these things fabbed up in custom widths for each joist.

Then we painted them on Sunday.

Monday and Tuesday the guys removed the old beam and put in this beauty. No sagging there, boy. (Pictured here with temporary walls under the joists)

Then they spent a long day with a 7 foot long beam bender and an impact driver to put all these pretty, black, embodiments of form and function in place. Here you can see Shawn removing the temporary walls. No more staring up at the poorly spliced excuse for a beam and wondering why the joists weren't pulling more on the 3 nails in each one.

Meanwhile, Mike the Mason rebuilt the cellar door entrance and put a foundation under the corner of the porch. Very nice!

And then by the end of Friday, the roof was removed over the living room. Next week: Trusses.