Progress

Our house has a barn-style roof (technically, it's a "gambrel" roof), which means that we've got all kinds of attic space. Long ago, someone put down oak flooring up there in the center, where you can stand upright. They also added a drop down stairway, which is very nice to have. Several years ago my neighbor and I wired the entire attic with electricity - switches, outlets, lights, the whole shebang.

Another thing that's been added are many, many boxes o' stuff. The Christmas decorations are right near the doorway, but the rest of the space was only semi-organized.

One thing that nobody ever added up in the attic was more insulation. There's about three inches of the cellulose fluff, which has settled from the probably original six or so inches.

This weekend's project was the attic. Rachael was summoned home, and her and her brother were both told to bring money for bins. Boxes bad, bins - with labels - good. Since the kids all got my pack-rat gene, I was fairly sure that there was plenty that could be donated or tossed. So the plan was to empty the attic in phases and, while Rachael and Liz went through boxes (ruthless, ever ruthless), TJ and I would lay new insulation up topside.

We actually started last night, emptying perhaps 60% of the attic. Most of it was the kid's stuff, and Rachael did indeed find much to toss. Today around noon we started again, bringing down more boxes and then hauling up rolls of insulation. TJ and I were dressed as you do for insulating jobs; long sleeves, long pants, gloves, respirators, goggles, and we sweated like pigs while we laid out the rolls. We finished half of the attic, and even took some stuff back up that had been looked through and consolidated.

Tomorrow we'll finish up with the last two piles o' boxes and lay the other half of the insulation, and the peasants will rejoice. The HOA won't, because there are eight large black plastic bags of trash out in front of the house, under the overhang to protect them from the intermittent rain. Those are the overflow, because the basement has several more, plus boxes, and there's a huge pile of boxes to go out near the front door too.

Everyone has worked hard this weekend. I love it when a plan comes together.