Insulation and drywall

Things keep on moving along, in the last two weeks we had spray foam insulation installed in the house. We actually did a sealed option where the attic becomes a semi-conditioned space and is not vented. It's a little different than the "standard" way of doing things, but there are some advantages to it and I think it will work out. 

Here is the picture of the underside of the roof after being sprayed:

So then because I had some time (not a lot, but some), my spray foam insulator told me that since I have 2x6 exterior walls, I still had room for fiberglass insulation in addition to the spray foam. When it comes to insulation, more is better! So we took a weekend and our amazing friend Jared came and helped us hang insulation.

We didn't get the whole house done before the drywall, but we got the full exposed portion of the basement, the whole west and south walls (the north wall is the garage, so was less crucial because the garage serves as a buffer), and the east wall of the master bedroom. 

I will tell you that hanging fiberglass insulation sucks. It is itchy, and cutting it is a pain in the keyster. But I'm hoping it makes our home just that much warmer.

So the next step was drywall, which is currently in process. In the category of "things I'm learning about building a house", drywall mud has to be kept warm while drying. I did find a somewhat interesting chart poking around the internet, so it means it does take a while for the mud to dry as it is colder and wetter. Luckily our humidity seems to be hovering around 50% here, and the temps haven't been terrible at night. Either way, our geothermal is going to have to go in very soon (like the end of this week). 

I didn't take many pictures of the drywall when I went to check on the house yesterday, but here is Z's room. I knew what the house would look like, and it does, but it still surprised me how different it looks with drywall in it. 

Sorry I haven't taken many pictures of the kids in the last couple of weeks, but Z has really started to reach the age where he can manipulate Duplo blocks. You can't see it in this picture, but trust me his little tongue is sticking out just slightly in concentration.

Roofing and butterfly rainbow quilt

Well the world (aka my family) is asking for more house pictures and kid pictures and whatnot, so I know I'm overdue (again) for a blog post. Here is the latest pic of our house that I took on Thursday afternoon:

The funny looking dome chimney type things are our sky tubes, which are like round skylights. It helps with leaking and some of the other issues skylights often have to make them round instead of square. So the roofing is all on, that is a steel shake shingle Metro Metal roof in Oak. It really looks like "regular" shingles, I'm happy with it. 

Here's an inside pic, we're rapidly getting to the point where the inside is more interesting than the outside as things start to happen here.

You can see the sun tube in the upper left corner (and the box in the center), there are a total of three of them. As you can kind of see, we have HVAC, plumbing, and electrical rough-ins about done. Next is spray foam insulation on this coming Thursday, and then drywall on the Wednesday after that. 

Previous pics of the house between blog posts, in chronological order:

Siding about done

Roofing about done

The octagon window on the north wall of the garage. This window has a bit of a story, it is one of the (many) windows I bought when I was an intern at Pella Corp. We've moved it, and all of the other windows, together all over the place and it's come to symbolize the whole window experience. I like it, it's quirky, and I know it's not that unusual to have an octagon window. But my framer didn't want to put it in, and the rafters didn't have the spot for it in the gable where it was supposed to be. Our siding contractor actually put it in for me because I insisted it go in. It doesn't sound like drama now, but trust me, it was. :-)

In sewing and quilting news, I ended up having to redo H's slippers because the previous ones didn't stay on her feet. These have some elastic in them, so they're working better. 

I also had a quilt retreat, so I was able to make some progress on some projects. I finished a quilt for H's bed, which is very much to her taste. 

I actually like how it turned out, it's not as garish as I might have feared. It's very 4-year-old girl, but you're only a little girl once, right?

I quilted in spirals of butterflies, which was pretty fun to quilt and I think will wear well.

I also finished a smaller art quilt, but I'm not sure if it's really done yet. Here it is in progress without binding and without some lining enhancement I added because some of the colors in the flowers bled when I soaked it to block it:

I'll post a pic when I decide it's finished as well, the blue you see in the picture washed out because it was just there to mark the design.

On a more personal note, I drove by our old house today and was surprised to see the house still standing, actually. I suspect it will soon be torn down, and all other buildings (and a lot of the trees between them) are already down.

I also received the diploma for my MBA in the mail, which feels good to be done.

The kids are doing well, both growing all the time.
H at the butterfly garden:

Z looking fabulous (note the shoes):

Z building a tower (I seem to have more pictures of Z than H this month):

Z playing with trains:

Four generation picture with Ryan's grandpa and dad (yes, it's an iPhone in Z's hand. Please don't judge me, visiting a nursing home with a two-year-old is a challenge I am happy to use modern technology to alleviate):

Ryan and I also went ballroom dancing last Friday night for a date night and had a fabulous time.

And here's what happens when the kids work their way into the picture:

So until next time, I'm glad it's getting warmer out, and good luck with your own happy chaos!