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!

Reno Day 21 thru 35

Having been sufficiently mocked by both my laptop and digital camera this morning, here I am posting a few photos of our recent work and trying to compile all into a logical sequence.

We have been hard at it, and nearly the entire north wall, all 32 feet of it, is now complete. We still have to insulate 4 sections (nearly half the wall), but things are progressing admirably.

I took down the dividing wall between the tool room so we have access to the entire north wall. We were working our way backwards to the little access door, which in the end proved to be a futile endeavour since we ended up tearing down all the wood of the knee wall anyhow. It was all too rotten and brittle. This being the North West corner of the house, we found a lot more rot and damage from water infiltration over the decades.

In essence, tearing down the knee wall proved to be beneficial, since having access to the entire space for insulation and wiring purposes did speed things up considerably. The downside, of course, is having to buy more wood to rebuild the entire wall up again, and the time it takes to put everything up again.

In the above photo, you can see the new rafter in place, and how we start to insulate this space. Here we have 2 thickness' of Roxul for a total height of 11", placed up to the outside wall.

Eric places a stay (yes, rigging from a nautical supplier!) at each beam. Since the roof line of our house has become saddle-backed, and the outside walls are bulging in somewhat of a bombé fashion, he thought the most practical solution would be to place these stays at regular intervals. Having the entire wall open, he is able to tighten each stay in sequence, and as each one is torqued tighter, the one next to it slackens slightly. By having all these exposed, Eric is able fine-tune the tension on each stay to create maximum hold. Each stay is rated to withstand 2,000 lbs. of tension. This will not correct the fact that the walls have bulged outwards, but it will prevent any further settling from occurring.

In the above photo, Eric has started to replace the wood of the knee wall with 1" thick pine boards.

Above you can see more reconstruction of the knee wall; in the back, there is a little wall of plywood. This plywood serves 2 purposes: it is hollow, i.e. there is no insulation behind it, this way we are ensuring proper air circulation to prevent condensation, and it also holds the insulation in place that we are putting behind the knee wall.

We now have 2 sections completed on each end of the house, and 4 sections in between.

Here is a detail of the furring strips that prevent the insulation from touching the roof. These furring strips encourage the air flow from behind the knee wall, right up to the attic. This is a necessary step to ensure that air circulates properly, and prevents the formation of condensation. As we tore down part of the ceiling, we noticed that where the fibre glass insulation in the attic was in direct contact with the roof, there was a lot of condensation. With our repeated freeze/thaw cycles, this contributed to a lot of the mildew we found in the ceiling. These little details make the difference between a healthy versus unhealthy house and cannot be overlooked.

All the rafters have been put into place on this northern wall, so now we need to get busy insulating the remaining sections.

Since the drill press is conveniently (not!) located in our living room (remember my nomination for the Patient Wife of 2009 Award?), every time Eric pre-drills the large hemlock beams he uses as rafters, it creates masses of sawdust in our living space which I furiously try to beat back with my trusty Kenmore vacuum.

It's all part of the deal, renovating a farm house without an attached garage or a basement. Call it growing pains, or call it inconvenience, I have learned to simply turn the other cheek (after I finish vacuuming, that is!)

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.