Some Good News
Greetings once again, gentle reader!
It’s time for yet another update on the insanity that is my life. Well, technically it’s also the insanity that is the life of Anne and Tinkerbelle, but it gets complicated to write that out every time, and if I say “our,” no one has a clue what I mean. So it’s “my” life.
But, on to the good news. First up…
The House
As I write this, the first bit of actual construction is beginning. Demolition isn’t done yet, but it’s getting closer, and it’s finally time to start putting some things together.
Our contractor is starting to frame in for the new ceiling insulation downstairs. A refresher for those not following the details (which is totally understandable):
The original house was built in 1960 as a single-floor bungalow. It’s post & beam construction and was heavily renovated multiple times, most recently in 1994 when a second floor was added onto part of the structure. But much of the old first floor roof remains in place, and it is completely uninsulated. That roof consists of 2x8 tongue & groove cedar planks over heavy cedar beams, with a torch-on membrane on top. No insulation of any kind, which we want to fix. The problem is that most types of insulation require ventilation, and that is difficult to accomplish in this case for technical reasons, so we’ve been considering spray foam. But there’s something of a panic going on in the UK about houses with spray foam insulation not qualifying for mortgages due to issues like water penetration and rotting rafters. We wanted reassurance that sort of thing would not affect us.
We had a visit from the insulation contractor to learn about spray foam insulation for this job. It all sounded good, but in the process we learned that any job like this needs a specialist engineer to sign off on it, and he has an engineer that we could talk to. Our contractor reached out to the engineer and heard back quickly that our use was just fine. There is a better way to do it, but that would require removing the existing roof, framing above it, adding the insulation there, then putting down an entirely new roof. That’s not really practical in our case. Assuming there is no water getting through the existing roof, he says we’re good with spray foam on the interior as we are planning. And he has to sign off on it as part of the permitting process, putting his license on the line, so to speak. So that’s decided.
And as I say, the first round of new construction is our contractor framing down between the beams to make space for the spray foam. It will be some time before we actually apply the foam itself, but it’s beginning. I’ll share photos next week.
Next up, we’ve heard from the roofer, who will be here on Monday to plan for the various jobs we have, including patching over the removed chimney, a removed skylight (more on that below), various roof vents that will come out, and fixing some bubbles in the upper roof that shouldn’t be there.
We also spoke with an HVAC contractor because we want to install an ERV (Energy Recovery Ventilator). ERVs provide a constant exchange of stale interior air with fresh air from outside. In the process they keep the temperature the same as it was and can dehumidify the air as well. Our home has humidity issues in the winter, and we’d like to solve that if possible. We’d been looking into ERVs as a way to do that. The HVAC contractor told us not only that we could do that, we actually must. Code now requires an ERV unless a furnace is in place. But the code goes on to require the ERV to extract air from the kitchen and every bathroom, and to push fresh air into every bedroom in the house. That might be possible in new construction, but it’s much more difficult in a post & beam home that’s been renovated within an inch of its life. It might barely be possible, but it would not be easy, and I doubt that any air would actually get to the remote rooms through the long duct runs we’d have to install.
Thankfully, our contractor emailed the building inspector about the situation, and it turns out he appears to be OK with us installing an ERV and getting it where we can, rather than requiring it to go to every room.
And it’s the ERV that is forcing the removal of the skylight mentioned above. The house has six skylights, scattered over various rooms. One is in the ceiling above the combined downstairs bathrooms, but that space is the only location available for the ERV. It will be framed as a small attic, and it provides easy access to the kitchen and two bathrooms, as well as three bedrooms. A fourth bedroom is possible without too much effort, but the final two are far away over the garage, and the third bathroom is similarly out of reach. Hopefully we’re doing enough to make the inspector happy, and his email certainly makes it sound like that is the case.
Finally, the photo above shows the results of an afternoon with a concrete saw and a jackhammer. They’re exposing the old plumbing below the slab so that we can rework it as needed for the new kitchen and bathroom. That was a noisy day! The plumber will be here next week to get a look at that and figure out the next steps.
Oh, and the electricians are planning to come back in a while to start working on the new service connection. That’s either next week or the week after.
Anyway, it’s been seven weeks of living upstairs in three tiny rooms, and all of that time has been demolition or holiday. To finally get some construction happening is a big deal, and we’re thrilled.
The Dog
The big news here is that Tinkerbelle is doing well!
Last Friday saw her hematocrit higher than it has been since this craziness started. The cyclosporine finally seems to be kicking in, and she’s clearly feeling better. She’s demanding longer walks and seems quite content. Well, just as long as the electrician isn’t using his tone generator to look for wires in the walls. She did not approve of those noises.
It’s good to have her on the mend, but we have to keep in mind the fact that she’s relatively old (she’s nearly nine, and big dogs just don’t live that long) and she’s now had two serious illnesses in her life. She will be on the cyclosporine for the rest of her life, and that means she will be at greater risk of infection as well. And of course things could change at any point. So while things are definitely better, I won’t claim we’re entirely out of the woods. But we cherish her time with us, and we’ll do our best to keep her happy and healthy, or at least as healthy as possible.
In Other News
As I think I mentioned last week, Anne and I have both been sick, but I (at least) am on the mend now. It will be another week or so before I am back to 100%, but I can tell that the disease is on the wane.
Anne has been working, and I have been puttering with the community association website, which is kicking my butt. But I will prevail in the end. It will probably just take a whole lot of manual effort.
That wraps it up for this week. May all your demolition eventually come to an end!