turtle + mole

happy 2008! this is how we spent our new year’s eve and new year’s day. (not a big surprise…)

i did office work in the morning while mathew made the cover for the attic opening (finished photo coming soon!) he also installed a new light switch. the previous owners had accidentally cut the wire that lead to the bedroom light switch so they had a pull-chain in the middle of the bedroom. not cool. and mathew also rewired the bathroom.

on new year’s eve i knit and we watched 2 episodes of “project runway.” we got an early start on new year’s day by finishing the attic insulation. (right) mathew cut open more of the garage ceiling to do more rewiring. it was similar to the plumbing where the wires (unnecessarily) stretched the length of the house and went outside then came back in. notice the white wire that has been notched into the bottom of all the joists: bad. mathew drilled holes at the middle of the joists and installed new wire for the bathroom circuit.

we’re finally getting all the open walls closed off. here i’m applying insulation to the last open side of the bathroom. (right) mathew exposed the final bathroom wall down to the studs.

and here he had a real sense of accomplishment as drywall went up and a doorway was cut.

hope everyone has a _______ (peaceful, relaxing, productive, fun, etc.) new year’s.

the attic needed insulation…

(left) …so mathew cut a hole in the ceiling. (right) mathew has been getting a lot of use out of the right angle drill he borrowed from uncle ken. since the attic is now accessible he did some electrical work too.

we returned the u-haul van and purchased the remainder of home depot pro’s supply of green fiber insulation. (right) the attic before the insulation. possibly the first time it’s been seen in 93 years!

i carried 21 packages of insulation up 2 flights of stairs. each one weighs 21.4 pounds… (mathew says the photo is too big but i say it’s not big enough!)

(left) ready to apply the snow. (right) after the insulation was added.

(left) the christmas gift (from my parents) that mathew picked out today. it’s sooo shiny. (right) now, what to do about that big attic hole..?

this morning we rented a van and went to the home depot pro store.

this pro store is aimed at contractors and there seemed to be only a dozen people shopping and maybe twice as many employees. to our surprise, they were extremely friendly, helpful AND knowledgeable. (??!!) i rented the van so i was the one driving it. you can’t tell from the photos but it’s BIG and the only way to view behind it is through the mirrors. plus it was raining. scary.

we bought 4 sheets of drywall, 12 sheets of hardie backerboard (mold resistant concrete board for the bathroom) and 32 packages of green fiber recycled cellulose blow-in insulation. we also rented the blower to install it.

we feel good about using this insulation, it’s 85% recycled material (paper and other stuff) and uses 10 times less energy to produce it. it’s also not itchy like fiberglass so you don’t have to worry about it getting it on your skin. but it sure is messy! i was putting the material into the machine; turtle was upstairs installing it. each time he came down to check on me, he was wearing a thicker coat. (that was partially the machine’s fault; it kept getting blocked, so i was only putting a small amount of insulation in it at a time. if you don’t keep a steady stream of material flowing it will just blow and then dust fills the air. tip: there are different types of machines. apparently the one we got does not have the power to blow the insulation through 100 feet of hose up two levels. it started working okay once we took it up to the top floor and reduced the hose to 50 feet.)

but he said applying it was really peaceful, like shooting grey snow. unfortunately i was too busy to take photos of him in action.

note to bubba: sorry, there will be lots of posts to catch up on from this weekend! mathew has monday and tuesday off, hopefully we’ll get a lot done.

(these are photos from wednesday that i never posted…)

the bathroom door is getting a makeover, it’s moving to the left and getting reduced in size from 34″ to 26″ wide. it involved adding new studs, cutting some drywall and moving and rewiring an electrical outlet. we still need to buy the new door but at least now it will be a standard interior door size.

happy friday, happy weekend everyone.

mathew and i took today off. i had sushi with my grandmother and helped her finish up some christmas stuff. mathew worked on the house.

he installed the 2nd window in the upstairs bathroom. (right) the old window. does that even count as a window??

after dinner we organized and cleaned up the “workshop.” it was so covered in wood, sawdust, pipes and tools; just a few hours ago you could hardly tell the carpet was blue. (right) time to install more insulation!

before and after, one side of the bedroom. tomorrow night we’ll do the other side.

and we must not forget the bathroom! it sure is satisfying to get stuff done before the weekend. hope you all have a good one!

on saturday mathew worked on the house while i visited my grandmother and helped with holiday stuff.

but turtle wasn’t completely alone, he got a visit from daniel (his dad) and younger brother elijah (visiting from santa barbara.) they had a short ben & jerry’s break together. my parents and older brother also dropped by to check out the progress.

we’re both happy to say the upstairs plumbing is almost done! (above) some late night pipe soldering (looking turtle-y on the right.) i wanted to watch a movie but i helped with framing, pipe cutting and prep instead.

daniel brought us a housewarming carrot cake! yummmm… and it was made by my client: just desserts (i do their labels.)

and another housewarming gift: a beautiful, japanese, hand-blown glass pod (bud vase) a gift from midori and andy during thanksgiving weekend.

i’d better get to work now…