Sunday, June 7, 2009

I is for Insulation

Our house is really old and there's no insulation in the walls (although we did put a lot in the attic) and we have balloon construction and the price of heating oil is unpredictable at best. So last summer, Mr. Truck decided we were going to insulate our walls. After much internet research, he decided on this blown in insulation. It's made of recycled paper fiber with some sort of fire retardant in it. I totally approved of his choice.



But then he took me to Lowe's and showed me this blowing machine. Apparently, he thought we could do this ourselves. He'd be up in the attic and I'd be running the machine. It would all work out just fine. Now he knows I'm really afraid of machines. I can run the snowblower because I have to but it always scares me and I stay away from all the other power tools. And, as I reminded him, I'm little and old and not very strong. And did he not remember when we carried the stove down to the cellar and it got stuck half way and we spent a long time yelling at each other because I couldn't pick up a stove? So finally he agreed that maybe that was not the best idea and did more research on the internet. It turns out that there are people who come and do this for you. And they're very nice. They promised us that they could do the whole job from outside, just move the vinyl siding a bit and blow the stuff in, we would never know. Then they got here. It turns out that the siding on the top of the house, which we picked because it kept the house looking original, would not cooperate. So the had to poke holes in the walls upstairs, about every 16 inches, and blow the insulation in from the inside. In every room. They did fill in the holes but it still looked like this when they left.




And that's why we're still painting. One room left. Now I'm not complaining too much, we probably were due to repaint anyway. And the insulation is wonderful. The house was much warmer this winter, no breezes at all and the best part is we used a little less than half the amount of heating oil this winter than we did last winter. And we're being green. Oh, and Mr. Truck admitted that we could not have done this ourselves, they blew in 75 bags with a big machine.

8 comments:

sara said...

Seems to me that the holes and painting are worth it if Mr. Truck admitted it couldn't be done by the two of you.

SimplyMe said...

Okay, I'll be the first to go for painting sucks...but running that machine and the result that would have been had here = worth the painting pain...but wow. My muscles feel for you!

Anna said...

Gosh, that sounds like a lot of painting to do, but it sounds like it's worth it for a warmer (and cheaper, and greener) house.

Henya said...

Did you got that admission on tape? Your DH sounds so much like mine.

Kimberly said...

Giggling to myself as I had a similar conversation with Husband when we decided to insulate our 'new to us' home.
Fortunately, they were able to blow from the outside but it sure did take a lot of time and material.
Enjoy the comfort and savings. I know that not only did our heating costs go down, the electric bill went down in the summer - we run window A/C units.

The Big Burbs said...

Your home is so well cared for... and it sounds like your home is loving you back, too!

Marie said...

Thank goodness you talked some sense into that husband of yours. You would have been stuffing installation into your house for months! Have fun painting.

Stacie said...

I too recognize some of the predicaments you describe getting into because DH wants you to be a man like himself--and good for you that you insisted this was not a job you could truly help out with. Now painting on the other hand . . . Your WWKIP day sounded great just the way it turned out, even if no one was out on the street knitting in the heat. ;^)