Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Keeping warm

I haven't had much time to read lately, mainly because I have been doing stuff on the house. Over the weekend I laid down an "attic blanket" in the attic crawlspace. We have two attic rooms and a 5.5 foot crawlspace on each side. There was only about 1 inch of insulation in the crawlspace, so all our heat from the house was going right outside. Not anymore! I laid down 8 inches of insulation, and it really made a difference. Of course laying it down was interesting. I never realized how much junk people put in crawlspaces and just leave. I took 3 garbage bags full of stuff out of it! But it is worth it. Winter decided to return this week, but on Monday morning, based on how warm the house felt, I thought it was at least 40 degrees fahrenheit—it was only 20!

After I finished the attic blanket I started working on my study. It is one of the attic rooms and had an ugly yellow shag that looked like something out of the 1970's. Impossible to roll a desk chair on, impossible to vacuum, ugly. Three strikes—outta here. I ripped that up, thinking there was a hardwood floor underneath. There wasn't, it was 2 x 8 pine boards with paint and drywall mud all over them. Plan B, indoor/outdoor carpet. Wrong dimensions, it would cost double what I wanted to spend. Plan C, carpet most of it, sand the remaining down and hope. Three days later, carpet down, remainder of floor sanded, books, bookcases and desk moved back in, but the door isn't painted yet. The sanded floor looks very nice, not hardwood, but nice. The carpet is a commercial grade charcoal that lets my desk chair roll nicely to the bookcases. Sleep? Who needs sleep? :)

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