![\"IMAG0595\"](\"http:\/\/jcremin.com\/house\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMAG0595.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe weather continued to get colder and snow kept falling, so we moved inside again. While we were out of the wind, the only problem with working inside was that there was not ceiling or attic installed, and all of our heat was going right up and out the attic.\u00a0 The pile of firewood was disappearing at an astonishing rate, so we needed to come up with a plan to stop the bleeding of our wood supply, and make it more comfortable to work inside.\u00a0\u00a0 If you’ve been following the progress of the house, you’ll know that we put 4 inches of foam (two 2″ layers) on the outside of the exterior walls.\u00a0 Somehow the amount of foam was miscalculated by about 60 sheets, so we still had quite a bit of foam sitting unused in our carport.\u00a0 The plan was to return the foam, but we would have to deal with the cost and time of hauling it back to Rice Lake, and suffering a restocking fee of around 20%, greatly reducing what we’d get back for it.<\/p>\n
After some discussion, we decided to install the foam on the ceiling, nailing it to the underside of the trusses.\u00a0 Since we have 9 foot walls, the ceilings are already a foot higher than most houses, so losing a couple inches was no big deal.\u00a0 It went up surprisingly fast and easy, and our leftover pile was only 3 1\/2 sheets short of having enough to finish the whole ceiling.\u00a0 Instantly the temp became very comfortable and the wood supply stopped vanishing so quickly.\u00a0 Putting the foam on the ceiling isn’t without a few challenges, though.\u00a0 First of all, we’re almost certain that the inspector will be less than impressed with the extra work involved with having to inspect that attic.\u00a0 Also, we had to cut all of the studs 2 inches shorter to accommodate the foam.\u00a0 Lastly, wiring, duct work, and installing the sheetrock will be harder, but certainly not hard enough to justify not having the foam there.<\/p>\n
One final advantage of the foam is that it will save us nearly $1,000 in what we had budgeted for insulation in the attic.\u00a0 We still plan on blowing in around 20 inches of fiberglass for a total R-value of around R60, but our original plan was to use an inch or two of spray foam in the attic on top of the sheetrock.\u00a0 The foam boards cost less per square foot for a similar R-value, and we get the benefit of a full thermal break from the trusses, plus we are able to work inside all winter with at least some insulation keeping our heat in.<\/p>\n That’s when productivity hit the first speed bump.\u00a0 The death of a close friend meant that our focus was taken away from the house, and put on spending time with the family.\u00a0 The loss hit Sara especially hard since they spent so much time together, and it becomes very difficult to have the energy to continue building.\u00a0 After about a week, things started returning to normal, and we began working on the house again.\u00a0 With the foam installed, the rest of the interior walls could be built.\u00a0 They went up quickly and really helped the building take some shape now that it wasn’t a huge open area.\u00a0 Each room finally some definition and it became much easier to get a sense of how big each room was and made the space feel more like a house.<\/p>\n Just as suddenly as we began building again, everything suddenly came to a screeching halt.\u00a0 Sara’s dad had been helping us with a lot of the construction so far, and he had just shown up to help us put the top plates on the interior walls.\u00a0 He is a volunteer firefighter for Grantsburg and had already been on one fire call earlier that morning.\u00a0 His pager went off and the call came across as a house fire in Grantsburg.\u00a0 Moments later, his own address came across the pager, and he was out the door in a flash.\u00a0 We were shortly behind, and upon arriving, it was obvious that the fire had been burning for quite some time.\u00a0 The garage was gone along with the breezeway which attached the garage to the house, and one end of the house was in flames with the flames quickly burning through the entire attic, eventually destroying the whole house (from smoke and water damage, if not directly from the fire).\u00a0 To make a long story short, he now had much bigger things to worry about (like losing all of his stuff and finding a place to live) than helping us with our house.<\/p>\n The following picture is NOT of his house fire, but shows a house with major damage from a fire that started in an attached garage.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n