Progress on the House

July 31, 2021

Once our rough-in inspection was complete, we started our list and began purchasing supplies for the next steps. After several trips to Menards (our favorite home improvement store), we were ready to get working.

We replaced 2 more windows in the bedrooms since the old windows did not open. They were probably installed in the 70’s when that part of the house was renovated. There are 2 more large windows on the front that still need to be replaced, but we are putting that off a while. They can be changed after everything else is done, so we’re moving on to other tasks.

As we were getting ready to insulate the guest bathroom, we became aware that the exterior wall was not in good shape! The wall is only 6’ wide, so we decided to go ahead and replace it (even though it passed inspection, we knew we would not be happy leaving it in the condition it was in). After we took the wall down, we noticed how much light was in the bathroom, so we did the most logical thing – we completely changed our plans and installed a small window in the bathroom. It added a day to that task, but we are so happy we made that change.

It was all-hands-on-deck to get the insulation batting hung in the walls. We opted to go with a thicker insulation than the minimum requirement, so it was a little bulkier than we expected. And, because the studs were not at all standard, almost every piece had to be cut – I think there were only a few spots with standard stud distance!

As soon as the walls were insulated, the spray foam people came out to apply insulation to our ceiling. Originally, we were only going to put the spray foam insulation on the ceiling of the great room, since there was no space for standard insulation. When they gave us the quote for the whole ceiling, we thought it was a good enough deal, so we went with that. We know we will be happier in the long-run. I should give you a warning, however, if you choose to have your ceiling spray foamed – the foam dust covers EVERYTHING! We thought the installers were going to cover all our things, but they didn’t. We had foam dust on our floor fans, our hand-truck, our work tables, the hardwood floor in the master bedroom and even our toilet! We were very disappointed in the company in that aspect.

A few days after the spray foam was applied, we had a hard rain and we noticed several leaks in our roof! We thought we had fixed that! Argh! We called our friendly roofing guys out and they fixed the leaks the next day. Unfortunately, we know this is just a band-aid and we’ll have to get a new roof in another year or so – hopefully we can put it off for 2 years.

Our next focus was on the floor. We had one layer of subfloor on most of the great room area. There was still tile along one wall. We planned to remove the tile and then add our underlayment over everything. But did that happen? Of course not! Once we started pulling up tile, we realized the tile was installed over the original exterior front porch of the house when the previous owner renovated it to make it part of the interior! The wood floor was not even close to level and there was quite a bit of termite damage. We added to our To DO list and removed the wood floor, shored up the floor joists and installed subfloor. We even found an old saw blade under the wood!