So much progress!

Well, I haven't been doing updates because I haven't been bothering to process the pictures that I've been taking (you know I've been taking tons of pictures) but figured at least a text-only update is better than nothing at all.

This past weekend was *very* productive. I took Friday and Monday as work-from-home days because we had contractors onsite to do some work. Friday, we had the heating folks in to pull our nasty old oil tank and install a nice, new one. The old tank was 270 gallons and standing on rusting legs. The new one is 230 gallons, and standing on shorter legs, so visually takes over the basement far less. We had discussed converting to a gas boiler, but when we had the heating folks out to maintain the boiler, they checked it and said it tested at 85% efficiency... which is very high for an oil boiler, so there wasn't as much reason to go to gas. We did, however, need to replace the tank.

Saturday and Sunday, we cleaned up the first floor in preparation for the spray foam insulation, and did even more demo, clearing plaster and drywall off of the walls on the stairs going up to the second floor. Although it's a dusty, nasty mess, it seemed to be not as bad as in the past, I guess I'm getting used to it. Don't know what I'll do when all of the old plaster and drywall is gone -- beyond be VERY, VERY HAPPY.

Monday, the spray foam folks showed up. Now, we had already insulated with fiberglass insulation, but in discussions with John Gemmi, decided to pull that down and go with spray foam. If you don't know, spray foam is a rigid foam, much like the stuff that comes out of a can of Great Stuff, which seals everything up and actually lends structural rigidity to the house. It doesn't compact like fiberglass can, all in all, aside from the price (2-4x fiberglass) it's really, really good stuff.

However, it's a bit messy to apply, so the first thing the contractors did was mask off the entire first floor and the stairs going to the second floor. Made the house look like it was the set of E.T. (who remembers that movie?) with everything covered in semi-clear plastic. Then, they sprayed the foam on the walls with a spray guy which mixed the two parts as it blew it on the wall. The foam then expands, and dries in a couple of minutes.

As for the siding, we removed all the siding from the second floor wall outside the guest room, and stripped the good pieces. The idea being, the original boards were never back primed, and this way, they were easier to strip and sand, and we can back prime and paint them, fully sealing them against the elements. A little more work in some ways, a little less in others, and ultimately it'll be a better job. However, we last worked on that before we went to San Diego three weeks ago. Maybe this week we'll get back to that and finish it up. After that, it's only the front of the second floor and the bumpout of the master bedroom which need attention, and we'll be effectively DONE with the repainting outside! We'll still have a patch on the office (that we don't see) and the third floor, but for now that'll be good enough.