Retrofit - Week 6

Another good week, even though Peter, of Lofstrom Construction took his long planned vacation. Last week Sam was gone for 3 days and next week, Shawn is off on his honeymoon. That means we have an accidental, but concise test for individual contribution to team dynamics. The team is working well, though, so I have no concerns, it'll just be interesting.

This week saw the boys get all the walls blacked in with ice & water shield and the east wall framed out for insulation.

Here Sam does some detailing on the foam insulation that we are putting there just in case of

settling. We realized we might have to do that under the windows, too.

Here you can see the insulweb mesh that we're using to divide the cavities for the dense packing. Using cellulose in this way is one of the most experimental part of this project. I found myself looking at all the framing and wondering if it was worth it, or if I should've just applied 10 inches of foam board. Five layers of 2" foam board woulda been about $3.50/ft^2 and still woulda needed some good way to support it and have stripping on the outside for the siding. The cellulose is about $1/ft^2 and needs a bit more framework. I think it will work out fine.

Jake and I finished the window well and backfilled it. After putting the rocks in it, we realized that it would be easier to clean out debris that will be falling in during the next phases before we put the rocks in.

Here is a pre-backfill picture showing the dead-men reinforcements.

Chris from Complete Chimney Care got the Chimney got the new stainless steel chimney installed up through the roof. Should be a nice, tight chimney. We still have to cap the whole chimney structure after we get the ducts through the other two flues. And we have to build the structure on the top of the roof before the roofer shows up with the steel.

And we started talking to Nagel-Built cabinets here in Pine River about what He could do for us. He'll have a plan next week to look at.

I also applied for the wiring permit this week. Then just today, as I was beginning the wiring in the bathroom, I decided to pull all the insulation out of that attic space that is now inside the air barrier and an R90+ roof. That little attic can be a Secret Attic Hideaway for the kids.