Tuesday 29 April 2014

Bedroom Update

Here's where we are at right now. I took these photos of the bedroom yesterday. What a difference! It looks really good. It will be warm in there. The R-ratings are really high for a 116-year old Gold Rush house; well, at least they are in this room. It took many hours - over 80 - to get to this point in the bedroom.

The rest of the LBH looks like a construction zone, the kitchen is full of garbage and bits of insulation, and there is dirt and dust on every surface.

We have decided our plan of attack for the rest of spring and early summer:

1. Install new window in bedroom (existing window panes are broken and frame is crooked).
2. Remove old chimney from front parlour and repair roof.
3. Install new wiring in most of original house, including baseboard heaters in crawl space, bathroom and bedrooms.
4. Install new, smaller hot water tank.
5. Apply sealant to new foundation and backfill around house with gravel.
6. Landscaping (rearrange massive dirt piles that currently surround the LBH).

We may actually use this bedroom this summer, sort of camp out in there... The work on the inside of the house will wait until early fall, just so we can enjoy the house, even in its state of upheaval.

The Back Wall of the Bedroom - now R-28
The Entrance from Bedroom to Parlour
Angled Part of Ceiling is R-22.5 & Flat Part is R-40

We plan to complete the rest of the house over the next couple of years. In the end we will end up with a historic house with modern insulation values!

Thursday 17 April 2014

Insulation!

Never before seen at the Little Blue House... insulation! We now have new wall joists and insulation in the bedroom. (Actually, the crawl space was insulated last summer when we replaced the home's foundation, so I lied.)

Furthermore, we plan to raise the ceiling about 6 inches. That's fantastic news for my 6'4" husband. It will give us a few more options when it comes to finding a ceiling fixture also. 

Our trusty contractor is going to insulate the ceiling, too. Room by room, this restoration is slowly moving along. Next step: finding a window to replace the one that's broken. We may end up buying a new one. We will of course stick to a period-perfect wood frame sash window. I shudder to imagine what that will cost. I'll let you know.