it's not HOT, it's downright chilly!

earlier this week, Dave and the boys finished with the house wrap, and it did make a difference in the warmth factor of the house. that is, until the temperature dropped to below 20 degrees.

then we quickly found out that with the heat not hooked up in the laundry room and utility room, those unheated areas were sucking out alot of heat from the main living areas of the house. more than you would think, actually. it's a brisk 62 degrees in here as i type.

Dave has been working tirelessly on the heat in the back rooms, it's just that there are often so many steps to be completed before he can do whatever project he has in mind. today it was ripping out, at least partially, the wall between the kitchen and utility room. we are moving that wall over 24", to make the kitchen a bit bigger, which will be a good thing, as the kitchen is quite small, given the size of the rest of the house. (but I'm not complaining!) the wall needs to be moved now, as Dave will be running the baseboard heat along that wall. but first, G was given the job of ripping out the plaster and lath on that small wall, and the ceiling above. of course, that has created a LARGE mess in the kitchen, with a fine layer of plaster dust all over everything. (and pretty much all over the whole downstairs. again.) i need to clean that up, and in fact, should really be doing that right now. after the plaster and lath was off, Dave discovered that there is no insulation in the kitchen ceiling, which would help explain why the kitchen is always so cold. so off he dashed to Lowe's, and came home with an insulation blower, and many bags of the insulation, which is basically just shredded up newspaper. which we just paid $10 a bag for. but i digress.... so i helped him do the insulation, and G finished the little bit of ceiling in the utility room with fiber glass insulation, and maybe we are officially, almost all done.

maybe.

dumping in the insulation. kind of fun, actually.

the huge grinder just whirls it around and around, and it gets sucked through the hose, and blown where ever you want it. also many places that you don't want it. and don't even think about sticking your arm down there!

Dave is blowing the insulation in between the joists in the kitchen ceiling. now it even says LOWE'S LOWE'S LOWE'S LOWE'S LOWE'S LOWE'S on the inside of my house. these people should really be paying us some serious money, i tell you! big, mucho money.

i digress again. so now, instead of just plaster dust all over, there is also a layer of shredded newspaper dust. all over. but i should be glad that i had not finished started cleaning up the plaster, since i can just do it all at once now. yippee. because i just really LOVE to clean.

so I'm off. and I'll be busy for awhile. it's not looking good for my list in the utility room. but at least i have a good excuse...