The focus moves back inside

Now that I have my outside refuge, the effort has moved back inside to the living space.  On deck (no pun intended) is preparing the exterior walls for foam insulation.  It is a more expensive means of insulating but it is better at plugging the leaks and keeping critters out so we have decided to go this route on the exterior walls where we have torn out down to the studs.  In doing so we found a LOT of places where the exterior foam has been eaten by squirrels and birds and where cracks exists probably created when the house was re-sided by the previous owners.  The foam insulation will prevent so much leakage in these areas.  An it should really help in the winter when Mark doesn't let us turn the heat on!

To get ready we had to remove lots of insulation in the living room, kitchen, office (now Matt's bedroom), and lower level. In some places we had to take more sheetrock off as well to make putting up the new sheetrock easier (ie. we will be able to put up full sheets and minimize seams).

Mark and Matt taking down sheetrock in the Living Room

This sheetrock all came off in a really big piece so it was really quick.

Then we took the plastic off and took out all the old insulation.  We left the new stuff that we put up last winter as we will re-purpose it into interior walls for noise reduction and "fire blocking".

Fire Blocking is a new term that I learned.  It is part of the code that helps prevent the spreading of fires. In cases where electricians drill holes through the wood framing to run wires and the wires go up into the ceiling, insulation needs to be put in to slow the spread of fire between one floor and the next.  So there you have it you now know what Fire Blocking is too!

Insulation removed from TV wall

We also had a little framing work to complete in Matt's lower level bedroom.  We needed to build out around the block foundation so that the foam insulation can be applied.

Framing the top 

We will have a sheet-rocked ledge with a wooden shelf on the top when it's all done

Front view of the finished framing

Side view.  The cement slab will be hidden and the space turned into a useable shelf

We spent the rest of the afternoon tearing icky insulation out of what used to be the master bathroom and re-doing the electrical system as we have a light that was in the closet and an outlet that was on a wall that doesn't exist anymore that we don't need.  Of course, those two items are the power into the bathroom area that we will eventually remodel.  We need to do this wiring now because it is a lot easier to drill holes and run wire when the foam insulation is not in place.

While Mark figured out where all the wires went and how he would re-run them, I took out the insulation and then scrubbed the nasty mold that I found.  I am convinced that we will have the cleanest inner cavities of any house around once I get done with them!

This fun work will continue the next couple of days then the contractors will be here on Monday and Tuesday of next week.  I will write another update and show you all the exciting final results after they have finished their work.  Have a great weekend, everyone and thanks for reading.