Renovations: upstairs bedroom

The upstairs bedroom got the biggest makeover. This project was MUCH more complicated than we expected for a few reasons.

1. We had never done any insulating or drywall before.
2. The stairwell to the upstairs will not admit any non-bendable thing as large as 4'x8' - which is the size of a typical drywall sheet, or foam insulating sheet. This led to a lot more cutting and measuring (sometimes in that highly effective order) than we anticipated. 
3. Our house is not built to current code or standards, so things like the studs in the walls are not regularly spaced and certainly do not conform to the typical widths of things like fiberglass insulation . Have you ever cut fiberglass insulation to fit? Above your head on an incline? A vicious combination.

The demolition of the ceiling revealed a type of insulation from the 1950s or 60s called Balsam Wool. An engineer that we hired to sign off on our ceiling project estimated that (considering the age and condition of the Balsam wool - which had been largely chewed to bits over the years by mice) the current insulation of our ceiling was about R-1.

 

Once we ripped out all the old insulation, we were looking right at the planks that hold up the metal roof. We sealed up what we could, and Nate moved the electric wires to the roof.

 

This was the worst. Installing the insulation took forever, and was brutally uncomfortable. In the picture to the left, you can see the fiberglass insulation behind the blue foam insulation - the fiberglass is cut to fit our oddly spaced rafters. You can also see my kick-ass anti-fiberglass costume. Be jealous.

 

 

 

 

Here are Jimbo and Pete helping Nate to install the drywall over our new insulation.

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