The Attic: One Room Challenge Week 3

This week in the One Room Challenge was all about catching up on what I had planned to do last week.  With a cool head, and even cooler weather, I worked hard on finally getting Phase Two of the insulation up in the attic ceiling.  Phase One was installing baffles and rockwool, all the details are here. 

Getting this going in the One Room Challenge has been really helpful for us to get this project wrapped before winter.  With a huge hole in the dining room wall where the door will be, we definitely needed to get it going!  There are a ton of other projects happening through the One Room Challenge.  Be sure to check them all out here!

Insulation

There is a lot of insulation going in to improve the efficiency of our entire house.  While I can't get the R-49 in our ceiling typical for our zone, we were able to get up to R-30 as recommended in our energy audit.  I also worked on the air sealing with taping all the seams and any penetrations in the attic sheathing, which will help us manage moisture through the attic as well.  

The other major benefit to using the sheathing is to limit thermal bridging through the roof.  While rockwool or fiberglass are great insulators, the wood framing is not.  So, by attaching an insulation that overlaps the wood frame, we are also installing a thermal break, helping us even more than if we were to get the same insulation value with thicker joist cavities. 

The process to install the sheathing was simple, but difficult.  While I could fairly easily lift the panels, the low clearance made moving them -especially with the remaining storage- tricky.  There was a lot of moving them over toward the stairs where I could use the gap in the floor to my advantage.  

As far as holding them up while I screwed them into the ceiling, I devised a system with some scrap lumber that lined up where the screws needed to go and jacked the boards against the ceiling.  It was definitely an exercise in using what we had.

Insulation: Phase Three

I'm still procuring supplies for the final phase of insulation in the attic, and I'm really looking forward to completing the system that should help us with our heating and cooling more than anything else.  While it's great to have the ceilings fully insulated, until the eaves and the walls are in, its impact will be minimal.  

Phase Three will include around five holes in our gable walls to install some inconspicuous vents, so I'm still a little wary about it.  But without soffits, I know it's a hugely important part of completing the system.  

The Door

I had hoped to catch up this week and also get the door installed at the bottom of the stairs, but we had a problem with our new door glass.  Unfortunately, it came broken.  The reorder was supposed to take two weeks to come in, but it looks like we may be picking it up today instead!  Here's hoping that arrives quickly and we can focus on the door this coming week.  It's getting a little precarious leaning it over the door-hole, and I'd like to have a little side-quest to clean up our dining room soon too.

I'm so close to working on all the pretty things!  I'm so happy to have the functionality that these new systems will bring, but I'm really looking forward to how this is all going to work together as the weeks keep going.