Progress and problems

Tom and I spent yesterday doing finishing-up projects in the bathroom while our hired help worked upstairs. As long as it took to do things before, it takes even longer now. I can't squeeze places I used to fit into easily, I can't climb up and down into the attic as readily, and bending from the waist causes more than a fair amount of discomfort. Despite that, we got a bit done. We hung 4 pieces of backerboard in the shower:

It's kinda dark in there now.

Now we can cut the greenboard to hang above those pieces and finish the mudding.

Then we had to cut nailer blocks for this outside corner of the shower. We had to rip a 45 degree angle off the corner of a 2x4. Our battery-operated circular required a fresh battery every 6 inches or so. Luckily our hired help had a corded saw that made short work of it, and we were able to install it without issue. That 2x4 nailer was the only reason we had not previously installed greenboard on the tub wall. Now that it's there, we cut and hung a piece to fit:

My pretty faucet is hidden away from the dust for the time being. I think this is also the tub's first appearance without the blue protective film along the edges!

We also installed a piece of drywall on the toilet half-wall and cut out the spaces for shelving and the access panel:


I bought the necessary escutcheon and valve for the toilet supply line, so I can probably install that soon and turn the water back on.

Meanwhile, one story above us...

Walls and slope all insulated.

"Are you done taking pictures for your blog yet?"

The un-insulated spacing is for an access door to storage space behind the knee walls.

There are a couple of issues we're going to have to address in the attic before drywalling can begin up there. I marked on the sole plate where I wanted to put outlets and communication (cable, ethernet, telephone, etc) boxes, but they only paid attention to the outlet marks. We need to take out a few batts of insulation and hang boxes for the missing communications receptacles. Also relating to that, we planned on running all of our communications for the whole house up to the cavity behind the attic knee wall (the left wall in the photo above) for a central hub. They isolated one of the sections we've already run for that (behind the wall on the right side of the above photo), so we'll have to connect those areas somehow. Seeing that this will be probably the next space to be finished, we might have to scrap the attic hub and put it in the basement instead. That would probably be better for protecting the equipment from heat, anyway.

The rafters that form the ceiling of the room also do not have insulation between them. We still have to run the dryer duct up to the roof vent (a 10-minute job if Lowe's would ever restock the materials I need to finish it) and hang and wire the recessed lights for the room. Tom and I will probably at least mark locations for the lights today, if not hang them and start wiring.

The last issue is the location of the second access door. For some reason, Donny thought it should go behind the area cut out for the spiral staircase. The slope of the roofline prevents an access door from swinging into the access area, so it must swing out. However, there will be a railing around the hole for the staircase. You'd barely be able to crack the door open, much less put anything back there or crawl back there yourself. So we'll just take out one batt of insulation and swap places with the space he left open. There's a lot of miscommunication that can happen when you don't have a drafted set of plans for workers to refer to. Until a few weeks ago, that wasn't really an issue because we were doing it all ourselves, and I could accommodate for issues as I went along. Having to coordinate what I'm working on with what they're working on and answering questions and picking up necessary materials and equipment and trying to explain that the junction box has to be accessible is enough to wear a pregnant lady out completely.

Attic, revisited

This is what our attic room looked like a few days ago:

And this is what it looks like today:


And the other side:


We decided to have the hired help do this work since I'm unable to haul heavy OSB upstairs, and my ability to climb into the attic is diminishing daily. While they were measuring and marking and cutting and attaching the studs, I worked on hanging insulation and attaching metal plates between the new studs and the old roof framing.

The dark wooden post in the last picture could not be removed, so we had to angle the wall to avoid it. (If we had been able to take it out, we would have built a bench seat over the ductwork.) From there, it goes straight back to meet the other wall at 90 degrees. It'll be a trick to frame that angled portion (attaching it to the roof framing, specifically), but fortunately it's not going to be my brain cells grinding together to figure it out.

Back to work

Now that the hectic holidays are over, we're back to working on the house. Yesterday we finally got the master bathroom plumbing vented. We had to connect these two existing pipes:

You might not recognize the pipe on the right without the dead chicken beside it.

to each other and also to another vent for the sinks, and then run that all the way up through a hole in the roof. By the end of the day, the pipes looked like this:

The shower bone's connected to the...

Toilet bone. The toilet bone's connected to the...

Sink bone. The sink bone's connected to the...

Uh, I dunno. Roof bone?

It wouldn't have taken the whole day if we hadn't forgotten to get a couple of things from Lowe's the last time we were out there. While Tom was getting those few items, Paul and I prepared for the 4' knee wall we are going to build. Since nothing in the house is square or dimensional, every 2x4 had to be measured and cut individually.

I wanted the height of the wall to be slightly more than 4', so that a single piece of drywall could fit horizontally without cutting it. This accounts for the depth of the drywall on the sloping part of the wall as well as a small gap at the base. We tediously leveled, marked, labeled, and cut all the studs. With all the prep we did for it yesterday, I was able to pretty much finish it by myself after I got off work this afternoon. Here it is:

No top plate. We're connecting the studs right to the joists.

I still have to put a few more metal plates on the sides of the studs to connect them to the joists (you can see some installed on the right hand side of the previous picture), only because all our drill bits are just about worn out. I'll be hanging insulation on the sloping part of the wall in the next few days, since I can do that more or less by myself in the afternoons. It is kind of a pain to do alone, but it can certainly be done. I think that next weekend, when I have strong man-help, we'll be doing something about:


We're replacing the old cross-pieces with new 2x8s higher up. They'll be stronger, and the new placement will give a full 8' of headroom. Once we have those in, I'll be able to put insulation all the way up the slope to the peak. And that will be the end of my $500+/month utility bills.

Sticker shock

We got our first electric bill in the mail since we've had the HVAC installed. It totaled somewhere in the vicinity of $275. Ouch! Needless to say, we're spending New Years and the subsequent 3 days installing lots and lots of insulation in the attic and anywhere else we can find to stuff it.

Ghosts in the attic

When we first started cleaning out the attic in anticipation of sistering the joists, we found a bunch of hay and chicken wire stuffed into the eaves. We just figured the hay was being used as old-school insulation, and the chicken wire was simply keeping it in place. Now that we have some floor decking down, and I can easily reach the eaves without risking death by falling, I began a more thorough cleaning of the area via ShopVac. The first time one of these:

It's a bat, in case my photography skills don't do the discovery justice.

got stuck on the end of the hose, I was startled. But I hit the hose on a piece of wood and down the bat carcass fell. I resumed my work, picking up at least 4 more bats and 1 small bird. Bats and little birds happen in attics sometimes, especially in really old houses. Keep in mind that I was alone in the semi-dark, working by the light of a single bulb.

Then this happened:

Oh, yes. That's a chicken. Or, it *was* a chicken at some point in the past 140 years. Notice how I didn't even bother to take the ShopVac hose away. I switched off the vacuum, got my camera, and called it a night. Here's a glimpse into my thought process:

1. Ack! A chicken!
2. Why is there a chicken in my attic?
3. How did a chicken get up here?
4. I'm pretty sure it didn't fly up here.
5. I don't know of any chicken-sized holes in the house it could've walked through.
6. Somebody put the chicken up here on purpose?
7. Well, that explains the hay.
8. I've never heard of people keeping chickens in their attic.
9. Why is there a chicken in my attic?
10. Fresh eggs?
11. There aren't any stairs or steps leading up to the attic, so getting eggs would be a huge hassle (especially with a 10' ceiling height upstairs).
12. WHY is there a CHICKEN in my ATTIC?
13. Forget it. I'm going home.
14. Really, though. Why is there a chicken in my attic?

Any ideas?