Insulation Completed

How do you insulate an old house? Very carefully with many, many holes.  Please do not notice the Christmas wreaths which remained up way past the holiday.  We put plastic up in the windows to help keep the heat in and couldn't remove the wreaths.  Well, they're gone now!  No more plastic going up in the fall. YaaHooooooooooo!

Now way down deep into the bowels of the house. Otherwise known as the basement.  I never knew how much heat was lost through the concrete above ground. Evidently, cement blocks have only an R value of 1.  The guys spent 2 days spraying a 2 part insulation foam on the basement walls. After this was completed there was a noticeable difference in the house.

Please notice the beautiful plumbing.  This goes to our new bathroom.  No frozen pipes in the winter. What a novel concept.

Beautiful insulation aaaaa.......

Next came attic insulation.  We have two attics. 

Please don't fall through! Nice and deep with plenty loft.  When we first moved into the house the attics were slap full of junk.  The house was owned by a hoarder and boy was it full.

They removed the top portion of the window at each end and put in a vent to allow moisture to escape. There is old wallpaper from who knows when.  I can't imagine being a kid and staying up here.

They spent about 4 full days insulating the house.  In the past if the temp in the kitchen was 68 we had a rip roaring fire in the woodstove.  Now with the fire banked it will reach 70 with very little effort.  The big test will be when we drop back to the negatives.  Today the high is suppose to be 60.  If this keeps up we should get 3 cuttings of hay this summer.  That will be a blessing in itself.

Much Love and Prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm

Yes We Have No Insulation

I will admit it, I'm a bit slow at times.  It took Lucy wearing Teds' hat to get her point across.  Okay, we live in a 160 year old farmhouse with little to no insulation in MAINE. It gets cold here and the cost of propane is steadily rising with no help in sight.  We did use fuel oil but the furnace just couldn't even help warm the house.  We heat mostly with wood from the farm.  Still, the temperature in the house rarely gets above 68.  When the outside temp drops below 0 we can wake up to temps in the 50's.  Brrrrrrrr..... Even in my granny gown that is cold.  I was watching a commercial from Efficiency Maine about a loan available of up to $15,000 with a rate of 4.99% and a term of up to 15 years for repayment. 

A Maine PACE loan is a loan taken by a property owner to finance the cost of making a qualified whole house energy upgrade with eligible energy savings improvements to their property. What makes a Maine PACE loan different from other loans is that it stays with the property. If a homeowner sells his or her home before the loan is paid off, the loan can either be paid off at the time of sale or can be transferred with the property to become the responsibility of the new owner.- taken from their website.

I didn't see how this could be a bad thing.  I filled out the online application and they called me the next day with an approval. The second step was an Energy Audit.  I chose a company that had an excellent record and references from the provided list.  Penobscot Home Performance came out and  this is what they did. They used a thermal gun which showed that we had NO insulation in most of the house.  Then they hooked up this reverse fan in the door to detect that we live in a SIEVE! No joke. There was more air going through windows and cracks that we didn't know were even there. 

It looked like everything was a go.  Well hold your horses there. Nothing and I mean nothing in my life works that easy.  Our little town of Bradford was not on the list of participating municipalities.  In small town politics talk that means that I had to present the program at a town meeting to our selectmen.  Then they had to vote to put the ordinance before the town in a special meeting.  Oh woe is me. I just knew that it would not work.  But living in a small town worked to our advantage.  With the help of our Town Manager and a dear selectman it went through without a hitch.  We have a Pace Ordinance.  Everyone can sleep easier now.  Now everything was a go.  Materials started arriving.

This......Cell-Pak, cellulose insulation.

More Cell-Pak, some insulation board and lumber....

Boxes of spray foam insulation.....

This is looking like fun.....I consider anything that someone else has to work at FUN! 

Next, men arrive and WORK!

More to follow. I'm in insulation heaven.

Much Love and Prayers from a WARM Mainely Ewes Farm.

Thank you President Obama and the State of Maine for these funds that will be used wisely and for the good of the common folk. I.E. Stimulus funds.