It's been a busy week since the last update and we've been at the house pretty much every day, either tearing things apart or meeting with contractors for quotes. We're currently still in our apartment and will only be officially moving to the house at the end of March. This will give us a bit of time to get a few key things fixed up before moving in, namely the bathroom and upgrading the electrical from the existing knob and tube wiring. Thankfully, the apartment is less than a 5 minute drive from the house so it's an easy trip to make.
We had our first ecoENERGY evaluation on Wednesday evening and are waiting for the report back from that. Timelines are tight to get work done in time for the March 31 federal grant deadline but it is useful just to understand how the existing insulation (UFFI in the first and second floor walls) is performing and what small changes we can make to improve the energy efficiency of the house. (See lengthy UFFI digression below.)
During the evaluation, we found the strangest thing yet in the house. Garrett pulled open a board in attic to check out the wall insulation (not UFFI in the attic) and found this:
Garrett and the energy advisor exclaimed that it's the Dionne quintuplets. I don't know whether I was showing my age or immigrant-ness when I stared blankly back at them. Now thoroughly more educated on the subject (as much as Wikipedia can provide "education"), I'm quite disturbed about the whole thing. It's definitely upped the creep factor of the attic since the photo sits at the top of the stairs, greeting anyone who opens the door.
We've changed focus from the upstairs flooring (two rooms are still have the vinyl tile) to the basement. We've started tearing down the weird pressed paper panels lining the ceiling in the basement to get a better look at the plumbing and electrical and open up access for the knob and tube rewire. The utility room also got a facelift when Garrett tore down the useless shelf shrinking the room size in half and stripped the wall of some lovely, crumbly "wood-textured" Homasote panels:
Apparently Homasote Company has been around for a while and homasote, made of post-consumer paper and newspaper, is now marketed as a green building product. Not really sure how and where this stuff is used these days but kudos to the company for their 100% water recycling - YAY closed-loop production systems!
It turns out the room used to be a coal storage spot and he ended the evening looking like a coal miner. With barely enough space for one in there, I spent the a few hours getting some hammer practice de-nailing all the boards he pulled out. You would think it's tedious work but it's actually quite therapeutic and will make it easy to reuse and recycle the nail, screws, and boards. Let's hope this feeling sticks around because something tells me there is much, much, much more de-nailing to come...
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| Weatherproof? Maybe if we're talking clear blue skies. They now claim "weather-resistance." |
Apparently Homasote Company has been around for a while and homasote, made of post-consumer paper and newspaper, is now marketed as a green building product. Not really sure how and where this stuff is used these days but kudos to the company for their 100% water recycling - YAY closed-loop production systems!
It turns out the room used to be a coal storage spot and he ended the evening looking like a coal miner. With barely enough space for one in there, I spent the a few hours getting some hammer practice de-nailing all the boards he pulled out. You would think it's tedious work but it's actually quite therapeutic and will make it easy to reuse and recycle the nail, screws, and boards. Let's hope this feeling sticks around because something tells me there is much, much, much more de-nailing to come...
UFFI Digression
On the topic of UFFI, there is a lot of negative perception about urea-formaldehyde foam insulation and its impact on health. Here's a quick version patched together from what we've read and been told by various sources - pardon any inaccuracies. In the 70s, the government offered grants for people to insulate their homes (in light of the energy crisis) using UFFI, a product that was widely used in Europe. The insulation was made from two parts that were mixed on site and sprayed into walls. One of those parts, a stabilizer, was relatively pricey and fly-by-night insulators stared skimping on this key component. Without the stabilizer, the UFFI won't insulate as it should. Add to that the fact that people were now sealing their homes but not ventilating properly. The UFFI off gasses urea-formaldehyde when it first put in and, without enough fresh air circulating through and around the house, people got sick. UFFI was banned in Canada in 1980 and air exchangers had to be installed in UFFI houses to help circulate air. The product is no longer banned in the US and never was in Europe, where the proper precautions were taken. To bring this all back home, it's hard to know if the UFFI is still perfectly intact without tearing open walls but it's safe to say that… well, it's safe.
On the topic of UFFI, there is a lot of negative perception about urea-formaldehyde foam insulation and its impact on health. Here's a quick version patched together from what we've read and been told by various sources - pardon any inaccuracies. In the 70s, the government offered grants for people to insulate their homes (in light of the energy crisis) using UFFI, a product that was widely used in Europe. The insulation was made from two parts that were mixed on site and sprayed into walls. One of those parts, a stabilizer, was relatively pricey and fly-by-night insulators stared skimping on this key component. Without the stabilizer, the UFFI won't insulate as it should. Add to that the fact that people were now sealing their homes but not ventilating properly. The UFFI off gasses urea-formaldehyde when it first put in and, without enough fresh air circulating through and around the house, people got sick. UFFI was banned in Canada in 1980 and air exchangers had to be installed in UFFI houses to help circulate air. The product is no longer banned in the US and never was in Europe, where the proper precautions were taken. To bring this all back home, it's hard to know if the UFFI is still perfectly intact without tearing open walls but it's safe to say that… well, it's safe.
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