Following Through

I finally managed to finish a project or two in A’s room, and they were only on hold for about a year. The first was to try and address the cold in her room. Her bedroom, like ours, faces north, so it doesn’t get much in the way of direct sunlight. Her room is also furthest from the wood stove, but what I think also contributes to the cold is exposure to the roof. Her room has a doghouse dormer, so it abuts the front roof. There is a small knee wall with a bookshelf, and the bottom shelf is exposed to the roof.

Now the roof is vented so that the cold air can circulate to the ridge vent, so it stands to reason that the wall will get cold. There is some fiberglass insulation there, but let’s face it, it can only so much when ice cold air is passing through it. We have the same situation in our room, and I’ve noticed that when I put on a shirt from that shelf in the winter, it’s like putting on a cold pack. It’s that cold.

My feeling was that it might help to seal that bottom shelf up, ideally with some rigid foam insulation. In a perfect world, I’d some how insulate the entire back wall of the shelf, but the crawl space back there is big, so I decided to just seal it up. It wasn’t easy because first I had to cut the wood to size, then fill in some gaps before securing the wood. This was difficult because it’s such a small space to work in, but I managed. I ended up caulking the seams, and now I’m interested to see how winter will be.

The other project was to build another shelf for her room. She really needed a shelf to put her clock and other projects and knick knacks, of which she has plenty. She was using various containers and surfaces, and it looked rather sloppy. Plus, it took up a lot of space. I had the wood to build her shelf, it just took some time and motivation to build it and paint it. Going to Europe also set me back, but when we got home, I was motivated to finish it.

She likes the final product, and I have to say, it makes the room feel roomier and more personal. As long as she’s happy with it, that’s all that matters.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.