May 21st

Like May 14th, May 21st came and went. Winds howling at upwards of 80 km/h threw off the air-tightness test results with such wild variations that the audit was rescheduled for the beginning of June. That means we just bought ourselves a few more days. It also means we can't take the pace we've been working at down a notch.

Eric managed to creatively fix the rotten beam. Here's the before:

Another more detailed photo of the damage prior to cleaning:

Here's the during:

And here's the after:

Pretty crafty, huh? Job well done, Eric. I never cease to be amazed.

Don't worry about the rot on the outside wall - when we get around to changing the siding of the house (not next year, please!), we'll replace the wood. There was no easy way to repair it from the inside of the house, and it won't get much worse. It's probably taken 80 years for it to get that bad anyhow. A year or two more won't make much difference.

I cannot believe how quickly this repair went - we really gave it a go and worked non-stop for 2 days. The audit on the 21st gave us the motivation we needed to get this job done as soon as we could.
Here Eric is using the circular saw to start the pocket that will accommodate the partly-rotten beam. I had removed the rot from the existing beam with a reciprocating saw, and Eric took precise measurements of the new beam (that weighed about 100 pounds and took 3 guys to manoeuvre upstairs, (thanks JL and Frank for letting us abuse you once again). Eric made a template on a 2x6 that he temporarily screwed onto the formerly rotten beam, and then transferred these measurements to the beam above. I think if something would have screwed up here, we both would have had to leave the house for a few days to help repair our mental states.

It's 9:00 at night - Eric has managed to chisel out the pocket. Now all we have to do is lift it in place...screw it on...and call it a night. The extra work of the template proved to be beneficial, because the beam went up without a hitch.

Today we put up the insulation and finally closed the wall. Here's the before:

And after:

Everything is insulated with 2 layers of Roxul rock wool as well, but I have spared you the sordid photos of yet more insulation. You're probably getting the jist of it by now anyhow.

Yet another before:


And another after:

Tomorrow we are going to finish the reflective vapour barrier here and seal everything well, and then tackle the last exterior section in the stair well. We will have to jury-rig a scaffolding of sorts so we can work safely, and then we'll be on the home stretch.

Eric was going to sub the drywall installation out, but the person who will be doing this work will also be doing structural work on our barn, and honestly, the structure of the barn takes priority over the drywall in the house. It'll give me more time to chose paint colours and figure out what we are going to put on the floor, all those lovely interior details that take hours of shopping trips and leg-work. One more trip to Home Depot and this girl might become unhinged!

Today was an unseasonably hot day - about 28C or 84F - but already we felt more comfortable upstairs. As long as the structural aspects are complete, the insulation and vapour barrier up and sealed, we should be a lot more comfortable during summer hot spells than in the last few years. So bring on the warm weather, we're waiting!

May 14th

May 14th came and went. We had been looking forward to this day, you have no clue how much, so when the auditor called to cancel his appointment and reschedule a week later, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry...

You see, we are no where near finished. By the 21st, we should have the upstairs air-tight, even if the Gyproc is not finished by then. Frankly, the Gyproc will be but a minor detail compared to the rebuilding we have done up until now.

Here is a brief synopsis of where we're at and what we found:

This was the former guest room, the 2x4 on the ground is where the wall is going...

And a view in the other direction, showing the window that was added above the front door at the turn of the century, completely screwing up the structure of the house.

Slowly, the division is taking place. Studs are up, the wiring follows, and soon we have:

...a new division! Complete with wiring and insulation. The only thing missing is the vapour barrier and the Gyproc.

I completed my tear-down of the wall on the left side of the window above. Lovely surprise behind the pine paneling:

More rot and mildew...worst we have seen yet! Wait, wait...there's MORE!

How's that for discouraging?!? Once everything was cleaned up, we assessed the whole situation:

I went wild with the reciprocating saw, and let's just say we're not exactly looking forward to rebuilding this. Part of the outside wall will have to be replaced when we take down the siding on the house because the rot is just to big to attempt from this side. The rotten wood literally shatters into splinters between my fingers, so working here needed a new set of rules. I call it "finesse", whereupon Eric rolls his eyes and puts on his hearing protectors to cut down the din...of my incessant complaining.

But forge on is what we are doing:





And yet another wall is completed!

And yet another! Can you tell we're just storming along? We finished the vapour barrier in this room also, so now we have matching disco rooms!

(And yes, we are aware the ceiling above the window is a bit crooked...we could have shimmed the living daylights out of it, but we decided it adds "character").

At least that's what we like to call it!

Reno Day 8

We slogged away again today.

I tore down more of the ceiling. This involves wearing a mask, eye protectors and head covering, and still managing to get sawdust into every orifice. Literally. Quelle fun!

Today I found a layer of plaster board underneath the knotty pine. This does not please me simply because I am the poor slob who will ultimately shoulder the responsibility for getting this stuff out of the house. Plaster board does not a happy camper make.

The good news: the temperature rose to a balmy -16C during the day. Even the cats went outside for about a minute or two, and both promptly came in and went straight to the litter box. Thanks, boys, for doing inside what you could have done outside just minutes earlier. With this weather, one of my prime occupations seems to be scooping out the litter box.

Also from the good news file: Eric got another beam into place:

The rafter on the far wall is cut to size, but hasn't been put into place properly yet. It is a 2x8 and isn't nearly as hard as the 4x8's to place; the only purpose this rafter will serve is to provide a place to screw in the boards that will cover the rafters once the Roxul is in place.

Here is a detail of the top of the rafters:

This is how the bottom of the rafter joins the the top-plate that runs the length of the house:

Eric gets an A+ for precision. I get an A+ for patience. We both get an A+ for perseverance. The 3 P's of home renovation.

These monster lag-bolts are 1/2" x 10" and Eric is using 6 per beam. For lighter-duty fastening, we both have one non-negotiable requirement: Spax screws with Torx heads. No use messing around, these are the best screws money can buy. They should be industry standard.

The floor upstairs turns into a veritable skating rink when covered with sawdust. It is amazing just how slippery it becomes. In the photo below, the little door that leads to the knee wall is open; you can see the knee wall is not that wide. Guess who will have the honour of insulating this space? You guessed it!

(It most certainly won't be the cats, although Bob and Howie are both obsessed with this space. The Howarnator jumps over the wall, makes his rounds, and then promptly sits down on the other side of the door and meows plaintively. Apparently he can get in, but can't get out. Or maybe it's just his passive/aggressive way of showing me who's the real boss.)

This also shows the state of disorder that reigns supreme as the work is going on. They don't show you this on home renovation shows. I remember watching "This Old House" as a kid and being obsessed with Bob Vila and Norm Abram's antics. All the houses I remember them doing were pristine and organized, not at all indicative of our reality. Nary a housewife in sight, ready to hurl herself from the scaffolding.

At the end of the day, all the tools are piled into one corner, the power-tool batteries get recharged, the floor gets vacuumed, and all's right with my world once again.

We put a zipper in the polyethylene sheet that serves as a dust/cold barrier. This cool product is called a Tarp Zip-Up and if you are into heavy-duty home renovation, this is a sanity-saver. The box is adorned with a photo of a housewife, happily ensconced on one side of the tarp (the "clean" side), while she looks on wistfully as her husband and son work on the other side (the "dirty" side).

Lucky her.

The Attic Face Lift

Where others have bats in the belfry, we had sawdust as insulation. We kept the fire department on speed dial, if you know what I mean! Both Eric and I watched as our child-hood homes went up in flames, so we err on the side of caution, edging so far as neurotic where fire prevention is concerned.

Our ancestors might have been frugal in their approach to creative uses for sawdust so we have to commend them on this, but it’s also a prime reason there are so few old houses standing today. Even our house caught fire at the turn of the century, and you can still see the scars on some of the trusses, but luckily the house wasn’t a total loss.

This is what we were faced with:

Eric drew the short straw and ended up doing the first phase of the dirty work: removing the pink fibreglass insulation and tar paper that was on top of the sawdust.

At this point, my job was clear: I was the lucky dog who simply stood below the hatch to the attic and carried the full garbage bags outside. We picked the right season, it wasn’t too hot in the attic, and it wasn’t too cold either. The winds weren’t howling, so that kept the dust to a minimum, but either way, there was enough of it, and it ended up ALL over the house by the time we were done. This kind of job requires steel-toed boots, a mask (preferably full-face), and safety glasses.

After the removal of the pink insulation and tar paper, we got out our weapon: our industrial shop vac. Thank you Sears, for making a product we can wholly recommend. We bought a longer hose from a pool supply company that we duct-taped to the original hose, and keeping the shop vac on the floor below, I became the official shop vac emptier. This involved emptying the canister into the garbage bags, a concept that sounded great in theory but crashed and burned in practice.

We were also overly optimistic with regards to how long this whole process would take. We figured a day and a bit. It ended up taking about 100 man-hours. Thanks to one of our friends who was voluntold, the job actually became memorable. Sometimes, there’s a thankless task to do, and someone steps up to the plate to help, and we remember those people fondly. They also get food and beer, lots of food and beer. This is the kind of job you have to experience, because words and pictures just don’t do it justice.

Since we only had one vacuum to remove the sawdust, and 2 people in the attic, my wheels got turning. I remembered we had a garbage bag holder-open thingie, for lack of a better technical term. I even managed to find it in one of the out-buildings. I gave this to the guys, along with a plastic dust pan, and this effectively doubled our sawdust output. In fact, it was even faster than the vacuuming method, since it saved me from having to turn off and empty the vacuum every couple of minutes. Less downtime. It was also cleaner, since the bags could be closed upstairs in the attic, and all I needed to do was hump them down the ladder. I could even wait until several bags had to be removed from the attic, giving me ample time in between to act as a gofer. Really, the only downside is that it was less entertaining, since I missed watching the mummified mice whizzing through the clear plastic hose.

Each bag was schlepped down stairs and onto the front lawn, and it soon became clear that the garbage truck was NOT going to be taking this load. I don’t even think we could have bribed them with a flat of beer. Even if we put out 2 bags a week, the removal would have taken well over a year! When all was tallied, we used 140 industrial garbage bags that weighed 50 pounds on average (yes, I got the scale out and randomly weighed). That’s nearly 7,000 pounds weighing our old lady down.

At the end of the first day, people were slowing down, wondering what kind of a hovel we lived in to merit so many garbage bags on our lawn. What could we possibly be doing in there?

Since the attic wiring was now totally visible, it was time to re-wire the entire upstairs and put BX cable in the attic. We saw a few mice too many to cheap out on wiring for this space. Once that task was completed, the attic was reinsulated with R40 pink fibreglass. Our conscience is clear, our heat loss little.

This is also one of those discouraging, back-breaking chores that remains completely unseen. After coughing up dust-balls and itching all over for days, people ask, “So, what were you up to this weekend?”, and nothing you can say can adequately describe the task. So much of the work with an old house is hidden, and so many details remain unnoticed to outsiders. And emptying the attic of sawdust was one of those thankless tasks.