A Very Long and Cold Week

As we started this blog, we separated our entries by weekend and weekday activities.  The weekends usually involved Matt, Mike and myself, until Matt went to school, and then the weekdays were mostly contractor tasks.  For the past month or so, the contractors have been done and we have just had weekend entries, until now.  The past two years we have traveled to Houston to visit my sister's family for Thanksgiving and to see Matt.  This year we decided to use the Holiday to get as much work done as possible at our new place.  So this entry is going to be quite lengthy as we got a lot accomplished this past week.

It was a cold week and we decided to try out the new central heater that was installed in September.  We removed all the vent covers and flipped the breakers.  The house started to warm up and it became very comfortable, even at 68 degrees.  However, we did find, as it got colder, that it was running almost all the time.  It had been awhile since the installation and Mike was not around to receive instructions (I don't do too well with all that tech speak), therefore we really did not know much about the unit, apart from the fact that it was a heat pump system with an electric furnace backup which is supposed to kick in when the temperature gets below freezing.  The next morning we contacted the company we bought it from and they scheduled a service call for Monday.  We ended up having multiple service calls to get the proper configuration setup and have tests run to make sure the units were both operating correctly, something they assured us is usual with a new install.  The unit was running better after the extra work they did, but the technician told us they would order another part that would do a better job of switching to the electric furnace when the outside temperature got too cold.  Until that part comes in, there is a button on the thermostat that allows us to switch to the furnace at night when it is colder.

On Saturday, our good friends, Doug and Ursi, made a day trip to Payson on their motorcycle to visit us and see the house.  We gave them the grand tour, had some coffee and hot chocolate and visited for awhile.  We ran into town for a late lunch at Pizza Hut and then drove around the area near the airport on our way back.  The houses there have airplane garages and the streets are wide to accommodate airplane traffic.  Even the streets signs have been modified to be close to the ground to go under the airplane wings.  Doug loves big garages and enjoyed the sightseeing.



House with attached hangar (NOTE: low street sign)

 There were other events that happened this week that did not have anything to do with fixing up the house.  I have been needing to get my hair cut and found someone in town whose hairstyle I liked.  She gave me the name of her stylist and I had my hair done there.  I really liked the girl who did my hair and, though it was a little darker than I expected, I liked the look.  Then, the neighbor that lives to our west told me she was going into the hospital for a procedure the day before Thanksgiving.  She said she had a ride, but I offered to be her backup.  The day before she was supposed to go in, she came over and said she did need a ride and she had to be there at 6 in the morning. I spent most of the morning with her, then went to my hair appointment and then back to the hospital to take her home.  I checked on her once later in the day, but then her brother arrived that night to take care of her and drive her to the valley for Thanksgiving.  Mike and I were originally going to cook steaks for our Thanksgiving dinner, but my new hairstylist told me that she had heard the Mazatzal Casino had a great buffet and we decided to try it out.  We arrived around 7pm and it was not at all crowded and it was one of the best meals we have had.  They had turkey, ham, and roast beef, along with a salad bar, all the sides dishes and dessert.  It was a good and filling meal, with no work or clean up on our part.

Now for the work part of the week.  We had quite an intense schedule planned for ourselves and hoped we could complete all the activities before our nine days were up.  Before we could start putting in the insulation, we had to complete the framing work in the kitchen.  On a previous weekend, we had cut about half of the 2x4s needed for the ceiling roll bars and cabinet supports, so we finished that project first.  Once that was done, Mike and I placed all the supports into the correct locations (I had everything laid out on paper) and then used our new nail gun to secure them.  We found some great deals at Home Depot and Lowes on an air tank and a gun set (framing nailer, brad nailer, pin nailer and palm nailer).  In the past, we had used Craig's equipment, but he cleared all that out after he finished up the electrical trim work.  It was a big time saver over hammering by hand, plus kept Mike from hitting his thumb (as he does quite frequently).

2x4s between new ceiling studs to keep new wood from rolling

2x4 pieces added to use as kitchen cabinet supports

We had plumbing in the kitchen for our future sink and we set up our camp table above the pipes as a place to do dishes (which allowed me to look out our new kitchen window).  In order to do the dishes, I had to bring in water by bucket from the hall bathroom.  I asked Mike if he could rig up something that would attach to the new plumbing in the kitchen.  He salvaged the kitchen faucet from the old sink and attached it to the plumbing outlets, then secured the faucet to a couple of 2x4s and set it up next to the sink.  I now have running water, but I still have to drain the sink into a bucket and dump it in the tub.  Still, much better than the previous setup.

Recycled kitchen faucet on our camp sink table

Connections to kitchen plumbing

After the roll bars and cabinet supports were in place, we were ready to insulate the kitchen ceiling.  We did the ceiling first because most of the cold air was coming in through the soffit holes that Bob put in when he replaced the roof.  Because of the way the ceiling was originally installed, we did not have a lot of room for insulation.  The joists were 4" near the north wall of the kitchen and only got to the necessary 6 1/2" inches required for R19 about 3 feet out.  We did not want to block the soffit ventilation, so we got agreement from the town inspector to install both R13 and R19 (R19 is code so this was a pretty big concession).  We put up the R13 with kraft paper and then installed the R19 without paper backing in the rest of the ceiling using a 6mil plastic sheet for the vapor block.  From everything we've read, the can lights we installed are a major source of air leaks (wish we knew this before putting them in), though we did learn we had the kind of cans that would allow us to pack insulation around them to help with this problem.  We felt we did a great job, for our first time insulating, and found it reduced the air flow in the room.  Mike discovered that we were still getting drafts coming through the back door, which has not been insulated as we are waiting until we put in the front door and replace the outside trim.  Mike stuffed some insulation in the cracks and replaced one of the weather strips at the top of the jam and that seems to have solved the problem.

Another picture of me working with insulation

I did all the measuring and cutting

Working around the can lights

R13 is a tight fit

Finished insulation in the kitchen ceiling

Over three days in the week, we installed the final three new windows.  We waited to put these windows in until this week because they each required extra framing to complete the installation.  Now that we had the nail gun, it made the task much simpler, but it still was very difficult.  The opening for our bedroom window was not big enough and had to be expanded.  It also had no header so we had to add the header, new supports and a new sill board after removing the old window, which was a task in itself.  This was the only original window which had actually been installed correctly.  All the other ones had been attached to the outside of the siding, but this one was under it.  We had to cut the siding before we could get to the window to remove it, then cut the siding again to the right size for our new window.  Mike loves cutting the siding as he gets saw dust all over him.  The next window replaced was in the dining room and there we had to add a header and replace the sill and one other framing board.  This window install was much easier than the bedroom, in fact Mike did most of the work himself as this was the morning I was at the hospital with the neighbor and got my hair cut.  I arrived home in time to help lift the new window in place.   The last window was on the west wall of the great room.  This window only required a new sill board, but we also needed to replace two of the siding pieces as they had a large hole left from the removal of the swamp cooler.  Since it was cold outside, I decided to set up the saw horses in the house and paint the panels before we installed them.  This worked much better than painting them after they were up as I was able to get better coverage this way (basically dumped a bunch of paint on the board and pushed it around, and into all the cracks, with the roller).  I also painted all the trim for the three windows.  After getting the siding off and replacing the sill, we had to lift a 6'x 4' dual paned window (approx. 100 lbs) up about 10' to fit into the opening.  We had to do this twice: the first time to mark the opening once we had it leveled and squared and then again after the opening was cut.  It was very scary and we were thankful that we brought our ladder from the valley so we could make a scaffold.  It was nice to have all our windows installed and they really make a difference in the appearance of the house.

New master bedroom window with framing

Master bedroom window from the outside

Mike on scaffold cutting opening

Getting sawdust all over him

The new dining room window and framing

Holding the new window in place for photo op

The new window and siding - no more hole

The two new windows all trimmed up

Now that all the framing and windows were complete, we started on the exterior wall insulation.  The first part of the process was to fill in all the holes in the floor and ceiling studs and siding.  This was where all the wires, pipes and outlets created gaps that went into the crawlspace, attic or outside.  We used the spray expanding foam for these areas.  It took two cans to fill them all in, including the gaps between the new floor and the walls in the kitchen.  Next we decided to start putting up the batting insulation in the master bedroom so that we could reduce our use of the central heat at night and still be cozy in our room.  Although it was quite messy, though not as bad as doing insulation above your head, the install went fairly smoothly.  It took us a little over two days to complete the whole house.  The worst room was the kitchen with all the extra cabinet supports.  We had to stuff insulation behind the supports and make quite a few more cuts than the full floor to ceiling sheets we used in most of rest of the house.  After completing the west wall of the kitchen, We decided to use unfaced insulation on the remaining wall so we had to peel the insulation off the paper facing and then we covered the wall with leftover plastic from the ceiling.  This allowed us to cover the entire wall with a vapor barrier which gave us less breaks and less possible leaks.  As the west wall of the kitchen will eventually become an interior wall (after the bedroom expansion), we decided the extra breaks in the vapor barrier were not a big issue (at least not big enough for us to redo the insulation).  To complete the insulation, Mike used two more cans of the expanding foam (these were for large gaps) to fill in the space between the block foundation and the wood supports around the outside of the house.  This will help to keep critters out of our crawlspace and reduce the flow of air down there.

Master bedroom insulated

Matt's room insulated

The den only needed one wall insulated

Insulation on one of the great room walls

The dining room insulation completed

Progress on the kitchen wall insulation

Kitchen insulation completed

Expanding foam to fill around foundation

When we woke up around 7:30am on our last day (Sunday after Thanksgiving), we found it had started snowing.  The snow that was falling was more like ice pellets and was very crunchy when you walked on it.  Zena did not seem to mind the snow and continued to play as normal outside.  It snowed off and on until almost 10am but the later snow was more like the flakes we are used to seeing.  All in all it dropped about 2 inches.  It was fun to see while it lasted, but by the time we left for the valley later in the day, luckily for us most of the snow had melted.

Snow pellets

The backyard after it stopped snowing

A nice layer of snow in the front yard

Our car's first taste of snow

The last change we made was to add a faucet connection to the main plumbing line to help with winterizing the house.  After trying to blow out the pipes the last time we winterized it, Mike decided he could install a Shark Bite connection with a faucet attachment into the line that comes from the street into the crawlspace.  This would make this faucet the lowest point in the line and, after opening all the valves in the house, he could drain the water left in the pipes through this spigot into a bucket.  He cut the pipe, after shutting the water off at the street and running the house faucets, and got about 1/4 of a bucket full of water.  The new attachment installed very easily but we will need to wait until our next trip to see if there were any leaks.  After draining the hot water tank and adding RV antifreeze to the toilets and traps, we were wrapped up and ready to go home.

We had decided earlier in the week to track our electric usage to see how much the new system was costing us and found that it was right around $100 for the week.  The was not quite an accurate representation of what future costs would be as we had no insulation at the beginning of the week and also had heat pump/furnace issues.  We did notice that the system did not cycle as much as more insulation was put up in the house.  We will have to see how we do on future visits.  This week did confirm that we will need to install a wood stove or fireplace sometime in the future, not just for extra heating, but also because there is nothing like a nice warm fire.

Stats:  6 Home Depot trips; 5 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 11/13-11/28: $641
Remodeling expense to date: $25,446