Making the Call

I reached a bit of an impasse on the barn and was in dire need of some guidance, but it was one of those situations where it was difficult to explain without actually showing the person what needed to be done. With my Mentor still in the wilds of great northeast, I was hoping to get a contractor friend to have a look and advise me accordingly, but at some point I decided to man-up and just deal with it. We're not talking rocket science, after all, and while there is always a right way to do things, there are usually good alternatives, as well.

The problem in question involved the insulation on the second floor. I set a goal of finishing it by the end of the month and felt like I had achieved this about a week ago, but there was a small section of the roof that extended within a crawl space in the dormers. Again, it's hard to explain, but I sort of figured I could ignore it and just cover it with fiberglass and rigid board. That would have probably sufficed, but my OCD kicked in and I felt like I had to do it right. This meant attaching two inches of rigid board against the plywood, sealing it with foam, then putting fiberglass and rigid board over that. This task was greatly complicated by the fact that there's a knee-wall in the way and I had to work within a cramped crawl space. Total bummer.

It took me a couple of days just to get the rigid board glued in, then another couple to foam it in. I benefitted from the fact that the kids were away at camp, but was hampered by the scorching hot weather that we've been having. You just can't have it all, can you? Yesterday I managed to get phase 1 and 2 done, now all I have to do is secure the fiberglass and I believe the 2nd floor is done, in a manner of speaking. The next job will be to finish putting the fiberglass in the kitchen, then install the rigid board, which will once again require the insight of my Mentor, but I believe by that time he'll be back in town. We shall see.

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Satjiwan for the pic.