Workin' for the Weekend

We have (well, Greg has) been working feverishly toward our goal of finally having wall and ceiling insulation once again. Most of you have been experiencing the same frigid winter weather that we have, so I know that you can relate. But working in those temperatures inside of a home comprised of only thin fiberglass walls, zero insulation and a concrete floor – well, it has been bone-chilling, let me tell ya!

Critical path items for our checklist included:

1. Seal all ventilation holes. The entire dome structure on the roof is one large ventilation hole, plus there are 6” diameter soffit holes in every other section all around the perimeter of the house.

2. Install interior wall framing to support ceiling joists.

3. Install ceiling joists.

4. Re-RE-install both sliding glass doors, and fix those leaks.

5. Complete all electrical wiring around exterior walls.

The framing and joists needed to be in place to allow for electrical wiring to traverse along their path throughout the home. Now that all five of those items are complete, spray foam insulation can be applied. The spray foam folks are scheduled to arrive this Friday, and we are PSYCHED!

Last weekend, as Greg drilled through studs and hammered along joists to string wires hither and yon, I decided to tackle our neglected pile of firewood outside, AKA “Snake City.” Over the years as each old tree died on the property, it was seemingly felled and thrown onto an ever-growing pile of wood situated under the rotting roof of an old, leaning gazebo-like structure. You can see it here:

Knocking down that structure was one of the very first things that Greg and I did to improve the place months ago. That, along with knocking down two incredibly tall aerial antennas on either side of the house. If you look closely, you can see one of them in this picture.

Pulling the structure down was easy; stripping all of the old shingles off before burning was another story because, while Greg and I are usually on the same wavelength (excuse me, did some of my sarcasm drip onto this page?!), we most certainly were on Venus and Mars in that moment. As I began methodically pulling the shingles from the rotting plywood underlayment on “my” side of the pile, Greg simply threw a match on “his” side of the pile. The old, dry wood lit up like the 4th of July and suddenly the race was on for me to get those, old crumbling asphalt shingles off before the fire got to them, creating an environmental hazard. I emphatically worked to educate Greg (in my own inimitable way) on the serious concerns of this matter as I scrambled around the blazing pile with my shovel and hammer, but he just shook his head and walked away. Fire on. Greg off. In the end, I was successful in pulling all shingles away and getting them into the dumpster before the fire consumed them, so yay for me. Eye roll from Greg.

The roof and meager structure have now been gone for months, but the huge pile of logs and stumps that had been sheltered beneath remained for another day. I wanted to be sure to wait until the snakes were deep, deep underground before tackling the wood pile itself.

I had wanted to just light that whole wood pile up, but the conflagration would have been directly underneath two trees and extremely close to the house, so that was not an option. I then thought about relocating a few logs and stumps per week to burn them in a spot nearby, but it seemed as though our weekend weather was often breezy/windy, and I had neither the time nor attention to tend a fire outside when we have so much going on inside. SO in the end I decided to relocate the entire pile, and simply stack it up more neatly.

Before

After

Honestly, this is only ¾ of the wood that sat under all those leaves in that pile. I still have quite a bit of wood left to re-stack, but after walking back and forth to move all of this, I was flat-out exhausted. My pedometer showed that I’d walked 4.8 miles, all within a 20-foot radius. Hopefully I can finish this little project up in the coming days, as it’s GOT to be done before those snakes make their way up top again!

Spray foam is happening this weekend, so there is more to come. Take care, stay warm, and look for an update soon!