Crawl space updated

Crawl space project/vacation day 5

Ahh, the last day of my vacation. It's been nice knowing you. I did no work on the house. It was going to be 85 degrees today, so I knew this day would need to be spent on other topics like family. We went to the zoo in the morning which was great. After Amanda woke from her nap, I took off on the moto to visit my newborn nephew William. He's so tiny, but weighed in at an astounding 9 pounds, 6 ounces. That's a big boy. He's gonna be a linebacker.

On my way home I picked up dinner from Paul's and tucked it into the saddle bags. They have the best Italian beef sammies. I get it with cheese and on toasted garlic bread. It's the only way to fly. It really hit the spot.

Shortly after we finished with dinner, we received a call from my cousin Brian and his wife Jen who were out walking around the neighborhood. They stopped over, we had some drinks and a great time. Always nice to have drop-ins.

Crawl space project/vacation day 4

I wasn't so productive today. I did work on getting some electrical planning staged. Once our contractor comes over to seal up the opening to the outside world, I can finish off the insulation and drywall. Then I'll hit the electrical. After that, I need to seal the concrete slab and paint (??). I feel this project will never end. I know why people hire professionals. I'm not one of those people, but I do realize they exist and what their motivations are.

Otherwise, I started to get burnt out (yeah, I know only after a few days) so I took it easy and watched some TV that I had saved up on the TiVo and stopped by my mother's to have Amanda visit with her more.

Crawl space project/vacation day 3

I'm not too excited to blog today. Here is what I accomplished in the morning:
Breakfast
Safe deposit box
Beverage
Work support call

In the afternoon, I monkeyed more with the crawlspace and then picked Amanda up from daycare and headed over to my mother's for a visit. It was a good day.

Crawl space project/vacation day 2

Day two was great. I started out by wishing Katie a fun day at work (ha ha) and then taking Amanda to day care. It was still cold outside, I didn't want to get to work just yet. I decided to spend some time watching morning news programs such as the Today Show. I'm so out of touch with current events. After that, I took a walk to 7-Eleven for a 32 oz soft drink to kick start my day. I talked to a buddy on the phone and then called my cousin to make plans to meet up for lunch. By this time, it was already 9:45; time was flying by and I hadn't really accomplished anything yet - what's a guy to do?!

Once I had my day set, I headed up into the attic and poked around a bit. Our bathroom ceiling exhaust fan really does not do a very good job at keeping the humidity level down so it warranted a little investigation. In the end, all I did was determine the make/model/capacity (cubic feet per minute), clean the intake grill and shake out the exhaust hose that is in the attic. It seems to be running smoother now. We'll see as the week continues.

Once I was done in the attic, I headed into my dungeon better known as the crawl space. I was in the middle of indecision. You see, there is only one piece of conduit that enters the space that provides all the power. It's in a particular spot that won't be accessible once I put in the insulation and drywall. Why is this a big deal? Well, should something go wrong or I need to change out the wiring, it won't be accessible and I'll need to tear out the drywall to get at it. That's no good; why not make it accessible before going forward? I hate it how some companies or individuals put more emphasis on ease of installation over ease of maintenance. I digress.

Now that I have my direction on that particular topic, I could move on. I installed more insulation on the ceiling and walls where I could and also used Great Stuff to seal up some openings around the seal where the crawl meets the house/foundation. That will keep out any small animals or rodents in the future.

By this time, It was lunch and I headed out to meet Brian at Palmer Place for a nice burger; hadn't had one of those in a long time. Even though I just saw him on Saturday, it was nice to actually meet someone for lunch instead of just eating a sandwich in your own kitchen. We had a nice, long lunch and I got up to speed on his current schooling efforts so he can get into Chiropractor school. I wish him all the best with his studies and hope I don't need his services any time soon.

Lunch lasted 90 minutes. I hit up 7-Eleven again for a refill on my way home. I relaxed a bit before getting back to work. I only had about two hours to accomplish anything before I would have to head out to pick up Amanda from daycare. I measured up some drywall and placed one full sheet on a side wall which is no small task when the sheet is exactly the dimensions of the space you are working within. I got that into place and devised just how I am going to drywall the ceiling of this space. That's not easy to do alone.

Each sheet of 4'x8'x1/2" drywall weighs 55 pounds and is very difficult to maneuver inside the crawl. I determined that the smartest thing to do was to cut the 4'x8' sheets into two pieces of 2'x8' sections and then cut them to the 7'2" that is required by the dimensions of the ceiling. That's less than 25 pounds and I can manage that with much less effort. In order to get the piece up and on the ceiling, I am going to attach a small ledge on one side for it to rest on while I attach it on the other side. I think I just might fashion an inclined plane like the Egyptians to get this crap on the ceiling. I don't know, but it's worth a shot. More to come.

Crawl space project/vacation day 1

Today was a good day. It was the first day of my week off. I plan to stay home, no jet-setting this time around. I want to spend time with family and accomplish some projects around the house that just cannot get done with the 90 minutes of free time I have during the week. Weekends tend to turn into family gatherings where I cannot simply check things off a list. That said, this week will be different. I'm off to a good start; good balance.

I started out the morning as usual, but felt sluggish getting out of bed. Amanda was ever so gracious and let us sleep in. She woke up at 7:00 AM (!!!) which is 60-90 minutes later than usual. That was nice. After waking and spending a typical family morning together (getting dressed, breakfast, cleanup, etc.) we all went for a walk to the bank to have a look at our safe deposit box. It's already 9:00...

I had this feeling that we were not backing up our important family photos onto DVDs frequently enough. I was right. In all that, I determined that it would just be easier to keep a portable hard drive in the box and take it out once a month to freshen up the files that are on there. And so starts yet another item to keep track of on a monthly basis.

After visiting the bank, I can home and started preparing for my day in the bunker; better known as the crawl space. I have such lofty goals. I want to insulate, drywall, electrify and light the space all this week. If I'm efficient, it will happen. If I get sidetracked; it won't. What happens to me is that I'm so afraid to make a mistake (some can be fixed, others...not-so-much) that I get paralyzed. I call it "paralysis through analysis" and it happens to me all the time when I'm in over my head.

That said, I was able to make progress today. Since I will be enclosing this entire space on all 6 surfaces and I won't necessarily have access to all the wiring after the fact, I want to make sure I get everything lined up. Case in point: the doorbell.

Months ago, our front-door doorbell quit working. Having no time to evaluate what happened or really care since no one comes in through our front door these days, I have put off the investigation. I took this on as one of my to-do's since the wiring for the front doorbell runs right through the ceiling of the crawl. I took apart the doorbell and ran all new wiring. Good news: that fixed our front doorbell issue and I could move on. Bad news: it took me about three hours to get it all done from start to finish.

Other progress, I installed several more feet of insulation bats in the ceiling and side walls today. The space is getting larger as I start using some of the materials that are stored in there. I am starting to see progress.

Additionally, I found time to play with Amanda and help Katie feed her lunch and dinner. It's nice when she behaves and not so nice when she misbehaves and throws her food on the floor. Today was a mixed bag. Considering she is getting over pink eye (oh yeah, she hooked herself up with that yesterday, sending us on a trip to a "Take Care Clinic" inisde Walgreens) she is doing quite well.

16 months

Amanda turned 16 months old today. Good times. She has enhanced her skill set to include:
-hide and seek
-high-five
-blowing kisses, gives kisses
-completely lost her morning nap
-no words just yet

Crawl space

A few months ago, Katie and I decided that we needed more storage space. We always knew that we had storage space under our front porch; there is a crawl space under there about 18'Lx8W'x4'H. The issue is that it was simply a dirt floor and had no weatherseals preventing small animals and debris from coming into it. That was a big problem.

We decided to hire a contractor to install a concrete slab for us. It was finished last week. We are happy with the results. Our next task is to insulate and drywall the exterior walls. See below for before/after photos.