The morning's excitement was speed repeats around town. They hurt. They are supposed to hurt - if they don't hurt it means they need to be faster or longer or both. Then I got to cutting some boards to continue with the insulation project. I cut the strip to fit between the two sections from before, another strip to go between a corner and the window, and more pieces to go above and below the window. That was a bit of a pain, given nothing is exactly the shape you'd hope for so I was endlessly cutting something a little oversized and then trimming it in place to make it fit as snugly as possible. Now I've got one wall completely done with all the seams taped, and the difficult part of another wall done. I stopped because I've got a couple of small air gaps between the room and the attic, and I didn't want the lights to represent an invitation for every bug in town to come and pay a visit. Tomorrow I can put the last piece along the second wall and get the floor bar put back into place, then move the pile of remaining panels and start the third and final wall. Once it's all done I can start ripping studs and getting those put in place. Who knows, I might actually get some of this space finished the rate I'm going lately.
Got a bit more panelleing done. Annoyingly the screws I bought to secure them to the walls are just a little too short, which means I have to wait until Monday to get the right ones. In the meantime I can cobble something together to kinda-sorta-work. I've got most of the space in the room lined now, but I've got the panels so I might as well finish the entire wall into the adjacent room while I'm at it. Then I can take whatever is left over up to the attic and cover it to keep it safe. It's tricky working in the last part of the space because there are no floorboards, so I need to put enough down so I can use my ladder, but it can't be permanent because that space is a bathroom and I need to be able to rejig the plumbing under the floor. I also have a honking great stack of wood that I've saved, that I'll need to move out of the way. This could be interesting. Hopefully I won't find myself downstairs in a huge cloud of dust... Edit: For good measure I'll need to take down the last remaining piece of drywall on the ceiling. I had been avoiding it because of access issues but having had to clear the space to put the panels on the walls I might as well hit it all at once. It looks like I'll have at least two panels left over, and maybe some or all of a third panel. I also have fiberglass that I can put in the corner of the attic that is currently uninsulated because I pulled everything down. I can get that done before it starts to get properly cold.
Not much time to work on the house today with church this morning and then a session with the youth this afternoon. I got some insulation put in over the soundproofing. That means it shouldn't get as cold in the room, and also the small gaps between the sheets of soundproofing and the (unfinished) edges of the room won't let light from the room into the attic, and therefore won't invite every bug in town to pay me a visit. Having put the fiberglass between the joists in an outrageously confined space I went for a run, which turned out to be faster than I expected. It could have been a personal best setting run, although I took one of the hills a bit too hard and had to ease off to recover, which lost me some time. It was still pretty close to PB territory.
Today was mostly about shifting stuff around and making some more repairs to the wall. I had hoped to get some more panels but noticed some bad sections of mortar. I'd figured I'd address them when I fix up that space but since I want to put the panels across the entire wall I figured I need to do that first. One of the gaps was a hole easily big enough to put my fist in, that I'd plugged with a wad of fiberglass. That took quite a lot of cement to fill, but now it is filled and drying. Hopefully tomorrow I can make some serious progress with the rest of the panels. I'll also need to pull down the last section of ceiling that I'd expected to be able to leave for later, and get the last of the top and bottom bars for what will be the new wall. Then I can finish up the panelling work and think about studding out my nice new wall. I expect the nice new wall will take up most of the rest of my thicker insulation panels. I just hope I have enough of them left to go all the way around the outside wall, even if only the part in the room I'm ready to finish first. It was interesting working in the very corner, over the hole in the floor where I can't put the ladder because I don't have anything stable enough to put the weight on it. I ended up with one foot on the ladder and the other foot on a piece of wood that bridged two wall studs so I could reach across and press the mortar into the hole and the crack above the hole. It felt less precarious than I imagine it looked. Maybe my friend will drive me to get the next set of panels when I need them...
Went to my Medicare account experts because I needed to review my access plan. The good news, the plan I have is the best plan there is. The bad news, in order to complete the paperwork I need a copy of my assignment of benefits letter. If I received one it's hopelessly lost. So I need to get a copy. Unfortunately, I can’t log into their website. So that means a trip to the SSA office. Not a visit I was looking forward to. The last one took me all day. Went to the office, which is in the next town over. It's closed, permanently. Fortunately, there was an address for where the new office was. Went. Signed in. Received the number they would "call" and was just settling down to wait when I saw my number on the screen. In essence, I walked in, was handed the document I needed, and walked right out again.
they messed up and thought you were somebody else six years from now you will find out that SEA thinks you have been dead for 8 years
I've often thought about the potential benefits of spending some time dead as a tax avoidance scheme.
On a more mundane note I got some more of my insulation panels fitted today. I need to cut a piece of soundproofing to cover the space where the last piece of drywall is currently attached to the ceiling, but I can't do that because my spare insulation panels are taking up all the space. So when I have a bit more time I can stand them up on their edges, then cut the soundproofing, then put everything back again. Rather annoyingly it looks like I will need to cut a 27" strip and a 29" strip, using panels that are 48" wide. So I'll end up with a 21" offcut and a 19" offcut, and I think the section I need to fill under the last window needs to be about 32x31". I'd rather not have excess joins but for that one I think I'd use up my offcuts rather than cutting a piece out of a whole board.
Got the last major strip of soundproofing material screwed to the ceiling joists. This part was awkward because it needed access to a corner of the room where I lifted the floor, so there's not much to stand my ladder on. And even a small piece of this stuff is heavy and unwieldy, so positioning it to within less than an inch takes a bit of fussing around. But it's done, the precarious ways I had to balance myself on two ladders to get access to the space didn't result in a catastrophically rapid movement from upstairs to downstairs, and now I can put the final insulation panel in that space. And the section under the window is 31x21.5, so I might be able to get away with a 26" wide strip instead of 27, which will give me enough to make a single piece to fill that last chunk. I had hoped to get the final insulation panel into place in the corner this evening but it's quite dusty as I cut it approximately to size, offer it up to the space and then trim it once it's in position. That uses a hacksaw blade for the fine teeth, and creates a reasonable amount of dust. Not a huge amount, but enough that I'd rather not deal with it this evening. Maybe tomorrow....
Woot! The first layer of insulation panels is now complete. I did a slight botch at the very end, using two pieces rather than cutting a single piece. It's not quite as clean but does mean I now have three complete spare panels, which will come in handy when I do the room below. That means I'll probably only need to buy six more panels, although I'll probably still end up with a spare one. I'd rather have one too many than one too few, given what a headache it is to go and get even one panel. Now I can set to ripping a big pile of 2x10s into thinner pieces I can use as studs and get those screwed into place.
Just got back from rehearsal for our church's drama ministry's latest production. We are recreating Jesus and the women caught in adultery. In just under 2 hours we "wrote" and put together a production that promises to not leave a dry eye in the place.
Building walls. I've got a pile of ripped studs and am trimming them to length and building a wall inside my insulation panels. I got as far as I can without removing some window trim, so that can wait until tomorrow. Then I can trim out the window, replace the trim holding the blind, and hopefully fiinsh the rest of that wall if not adjacent walls as well. Then I can start cutting thicker insulation panels to go between the nice new studs, and prepare some cable runs for power sockets.