Insulation and paint

The front of the house is painted so now you can see what it’s kinda going to look like…only the porch isn’t in yet. I think he’s waiting for all the tromping in and out from workers to stop, and for the wood to dry out enough to not warp once it’s down. He’s using treated to make the porch, and I’ll paint it…something.

The front is painted! Yes, that’s the color. I don’t know the name- some sort of Historically Significant thing from Sherwin-Williams.

All the exterior walls and the ceiling have dense foam insulation, that was put in this last week as well. Under the house there is a plastic membrane covering the ground, and foam insulation on top of that, up the concrete block walls and footings, and the underside of the floor (of the house), so it is (essentially) completely sealed (except for the access doors). There was a degree of…shall we say…”disagreement” (that is, everyone thinking a Certain Bureaucrat they call Inspector Clouseau is an idiot) over the method of insulating the underside of the house. A certain insulation contractor, who’d been doing this job ofr many years, was accused by the Inspector, who was about 12 and fresh out of whatever school it is that housing code inspectors attend, of not knowing his stuff and how dare he, etc.  Dad, who ain’t afraid of 12 year olds, and the contractor, who Knows What He’s Doing, went over the child’s head and read the code, which was essentially the opposite of what he (Clouseau) had said, as he (Clouseau) had obviously misread it. Clouseau refuses to back down still. Because…y’know…Housing Inspection School and Youth obviously trump 78 year old men who’ve built stuff since they were 3 and know how to read. Dad and the contractor are refusing to back down, and since Dad has been convincing children he was right since he started teaching in (hm….) 1970, I’m pretty sure he’s going to win this fight. My only concern is that in pissing off Inspector Clouseau, there will be Multiple Difficulties in the future. However, I also know for a fact that all the contractors know this child, and how to deal with him. They tend to leave one glaringly obvious (yet easily remedied) code violation for him to find, so he can be satisfied with a Job Well Done and flex his cute little muscles.

There is a stack of about 150 4×12 sheets of drywall, to be installed now that the insulation is in. Theoretically, in the interest of economy, I could do it, but I won’t. That is a heckalotta drywall and I’ve done individual rooms (25 years ago when we renovated our first house) and it was…tedious, and really, really hard on the skin (the mud is pretty alkaline). Plus, in order to be really good at it (which I wasn’t) and able to get it done quickly (which I DEFINITELY wasn’t), one has to do it all the time (which I haven’t). So, there’s a couple of people who know what they’re doing who are going to do it. (THANK YOU!) That should take a few days…I guess.

Once that is done, the floors will go in (red oak throughout, except the bathrooms) and they will get a single coat of varnish. Then I’ll paint (with friends- I have several who want to help. We’ll make a big ol’ party of it! Box wine and music!), the floor guy, upon reservations of the flooring going in before the painting, was reassuring, he’ll buff the floors before putting the next coats of finish one, and that will deal with splatters. I’m still going to use dropcloths thos.  I’ve requested marine varnish for the main room- it’s nearly indestructible- and standard floor varnish for the bedrooms.  All clear- no stain. I like light wood floors and if there’s no stain they should age in a lovely way over the years.

When the floors are done, I’ll start moving stuff over, a truckload at a time, as I go over to work on the bathrooms and kitchen. Dad and I have decided to build the cabinetry. He built the stuff in their library and it is (essentially) exactly what I’m wanting, style-wise. There isn’t a single standard size spot for commercially made cabinets *anywhere* in that kitchen. So either we build them ourselves or hire a custom cabinetmaker and I’m not really wanting to spend $20K. The guest bathroom will need a custom vanity as well, but I’ll put those all in another post, when I get around to them.