Snug as a bug in a...

CELLULOSE-WRAPPED HOUSE!

No? Not how the saying goes? Hmmm, I coulda sworn...

Anyway, as you may have guessed, the insulation is done! Our house now looks like it's been wrapped in a cozy cozy snuggly blanket of... dryer lint. Actually, I think the texture of it is really neat, and the inside of the house looks so different now because the insulation has basically hidden every last vestige of non-new-ness. All to say, I was psyched to take a bunch of photos to share with you. I got to the house and, as usual, did the requisite jumping up and down while making high-pitched sounds involving lots of vowels. I turned on my camera, and almost simultaneously: (a) the lens, which had gone from an air-conditioned 70°F to an is-this-really-September-in-Michigan 97°F, promptly fogged up; and (b) the battery died. Sooooo. What's a girl to do? I snapped a few lame-o cell phone pictures, and I promise I'll update this post later this weekend with some better shots.

Bring on the drywall!


UPDATE 9/5: I promised I'd be back with some more cellulose-photo goodness, so here it is! Here is the entryway and dining room from the living room:

The living room looking east (top pic) and west (bottom pic):

And the upstairs loft and extra bedroom:

Drywall starts tomorrow!

Insulation installation

The dogs and I arrived at the house close to 6 p.m. today, and were surprised to find the insulation crew still there. I just snapped a few photos outside since I didn't see anyone to talk to, and I didn't want to surprise them/get in the way/end up looking like the Abominable Cellulosewoman.

I can't even express how excited I am to live in a non-drafty house. This will probably be the first year since we started dating that Brandon won't have to put that plastic stuff up over the windows to keep me from shivering and whimpering (OK, OK... whining) all winter!

Insuuulate good times (come on!)

OK, we're not quite insulated, but we will be in the next couple days! Today there was evidence of some preparation for the blown-in cellulose insulation that will be going in later this week.

It's tricky to see in these photos, but the upstairs (top) and guest room (bottom) ceilings have been covered with a fine mesh netting, which will hold the loose insulation in place. Here's what it looks up close:

And if you're quite observant, you may have noticed a little critter in that top photo. Not sure what he/she is (some kind of stick insect?), but it's definitely not in a great spot... hopefully it'll squeak out of the netting before the insulation arrives!

In other news, there was some more wiring downstairs for our AV setup. We decided that since we have the opportunity, we should wire the living room for a built-in speaker system (of course, we don't own the speakers yet, but we'll get there eventually!).

This set-up should allow us a lot of flexibility with our AV/entertainment stuff... We will probably end up getting an all-in-one receiver plus 5.1 speaker set-up, so if you're an AV nerd buddy, let us know if you have recommendations! (We need it to be able to hook up to the computer, since we stream everything through the computer/projector, but we also want to be able to hook up Brandon's turntable - so those are the major requirements.)

Also, apparently this happened yesterday, but I failed to photograph it... the porch roof is done!

Hooray! Can't wait to hang out on that porch next summer. The house is looking so good that I wanted to get a photo of us with it in the background... yup, we're big nerds.

Simon was more interested in the giant log he found to gnaw on, but we think he'll be more impressed with the house once there are kibbles in it.

Up on the rooooof

Long day today for the roofing crew! I think they were at the house first thing this morning, and they were still there when Brandon and I left after 6pm (he was chopping firewood while I finished up a manuscript - the river is a great antidote to writer's block!). I zipped back over there around 7:30 to snap these pictures after everything was done... and I do mean DONE!

I can't believe how fast they did all this!! Here's the north side of the house...

...and the little roof over the new entryway:

And an up-close shot of the garage roof from the master bedroom:

They had some help from this neat truck that lifted supplies up - I have to admit I was a bit startled when I looked up the hill and saw this giant mechanical arm looming over the house!

It all looks so great - it was getting kind of dark when I took these photos, so you can't see the color too well, but it is a subtle brown that I think will look terrific with the red siding. Now all we need are doors and windows, and I can stop getting nervous about rainstorms!

There were a couple changes inside as well. The formerly-exterior wall between the new bedroom addition and the loft landing came down...

...so now you can see straight from the landing to the stairwell, and you no longer have to step through one of the openings of the giant asymmetrical windows.

I'll be so excited when the ghosts of all those ugly windows are gone for good!

There is also a new silver pipe for the dryer vent...

...which goes all the way up and out the roof:

And if you peek into that circular opening at the top left of the photo above, you can see some grayish material... it is the first round of our insulation! As I mentioned in this post, we spent a lot of time thinking about insulation, and how to prioritize r-value (insulating power) versus using natural materials that are for-sure safe. After all was said and done, we decided to go with blown-in cellulose insulation. I am not sure exactly what I was picturing it to look like (clumps of grass?), but it wasn't this:

It honestly looks like something that would come out of your pocket after you wash your favorite old pair of jeans... or out of your belly button, if you don't shower frequently enough. Ha! Of course I brought a sample back to show Brandon when he gets home, but I could have just wiped the dryer screen and showed him that instead!



P.S... you guys... I CAN'T STOP WATCHING THE SLIDESHOW.  It's a sickness. I've created this small schematic to illustrate what happens to my face over the last few slides. Yes my eyes do bug out and I'm pretty sure I've pulled a muscle in my cheek. Someone help me.

Raise the roof

A couple big days of progress at Turtle House yesterday and today! We didn't make it out yesterday to take photos due to the Michigan Beerfest (an event which doesn't lend itself to driving afterward...). However, we went out this morning with my college roommate Jen and her hubby Mike (in town for another weekend event, the Blue Angels' Thunder Over Michigan show). It was super fun to see them and to show them our future abode.

The framers made a lot of progress yesterday on the east side of the house - check out the bones of our garage!

They'd also started the roof over the new entry.

Here is the view from the back yard (north side):

While we were there today, the roofers were finishing up removing all of the old shingles from the roof (on a Saturday!). I didn't have my camera on me, so I went back later in the day to snap these shots.

From some angles it seems that 75% of our house is made of tarps right now.

Before all the tarps were up we could see that they'd removed all the shingles as well as the underlying plywood. The existing roof actually wasn't in terrible shape, but we are replacing all of the fiberglass insulation in the house with more eco-friendly (and health-friendly) blown-in cellulose. The original plan was to add insulation to the inside of the roof (i.e., the ceiling), but we decided this wouldn't work because we really wanted to keep the existing visual aesthetic of the ceiling.

Insulating from the inside would have meant covering the beams and decking with drywall, which would have been a huge bummer. And since the roof was going to need to be replaced in the not-too-distant future anyway, we decided that doing it now and insulating above the decking was the way to go. We originally considered spray foam insulation, which does have a higher r-value than cellulose (in other words, it prevents heat exchange better). However, I got spooked after doing some research and finding a number of accounts of it off-gassing nasty smells and chemicals, sometimes for years (!). It has been really interesting to learn and think about what "green building" means, and how it can mean different things to different people. Some would opt to maximize r-value, which is a totally legitimate choice, but we decided to take a bit of a hit there to go with a natural product that we knew was completely safe.