Week 17: Insulation
If the first eight days of 2017 are any indication, this is going to be one heck of a year in the Johnston household! Progress on the house is moving full steam ahead with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. It's amazing how each step makes the house feel more and more like home. The accomplishments this week? We passed our inspection! The metal roof was completed on the house and garage. Siding and trim work started on the garage and continued on the house. Insulation is complete! Well, at least for the walls. That's a huge step because we are officially ready for drywall. Eek!
The metal roof looks awesome and should be a wonderful long-term investment. I was concerned about the color for a little while (ash gray), but I think once the house and garage are painted white, the gray will really shine through. It's the perfect mix of clean and modern we envisioned.
Siding and trim work on the garage and house is really coming together. As I've said before, the garage will feature lap siding (horizontal Hardie Board) while the house will be board and batten (vertical Hardie Board). Everything will be painted the same shade of white, but the differing textures help bring some nice texture to the overall design. The garage looks AWESOME. The small details really shine through.
Possibly the most exciting accomplishment this week, however? INSULATION! Our house was built using 2"x6" construction instead of 2"x4" construction. While that may not mean much to most folks, it's actually really important when it comes to insulation because we get an extra 2" of insulation in our walls. While a bit more expensive, we're hoping the energy efficiency gains more than make up for the cost over the life of the home.
We are using blown-in cellulose insulation. There is a lot of debate around the environmental hazards of insulation, and I am by no means an expert, but we decided this was the best route for us. Cellulose is composed of 75-85% recycled paper fiber, usually post-consumer waste newsprint. The other 15% is a fire retardant such as boric acid or ammonium sulphate. Cellulose has the highest recycled content of any insulation available.
Insulated board was also installed in the basement. While we aren't planning to "finish" the basement anytime soon, this space is one I'm really excited we decided to add at the last minute. Tyler and I have a lot of fun ideas for this space.
We couldn't be happier with the progress. In all honesty, it's moving even faster than we imagined. Drywall is scheduled to be delivered on Wednesday with installation on Thursday. All drywall is expected to be hung in ONE DAY. This place is about to look like a real home in no time!
Tyler and I are now waist deep in final decisions about paint, flooring, tile - the list goes on and on. It's a darn good thing we love this sort of stuff!
It's bound to be another exciting week of progress ahead, so check back next week for (hopefully!) some dry wall and more siding progress.