Baby, It's Cold Inside (Dec 3 - 13, 2019)

We passed another major milestone last week and are getting very close to moving into the house which is a great relief because it is getting pretty cold inside the RV. A more apt description would be inside our tin can. There was one day in particular this week with a -17 degree windchill, on which it was very hard to keep the RV warm. I was working in the motorhome and took breaks to go into the house for warmth. We could keep the RV warmer but it takes a lot of propane.

Happily, the major milestone is spray foam insulation and it worked a charm. I'll start at the beginning though to keep track of all that's gone on.

Something I've been putting off since September is filling the holes around the concrete footings. They will eventually support the screen room. It was just one of those jobs, I'd pass the holes everyday, think about it. Honestly, I was hoping Scott would do it since it involved a shovel. Of course, there was no reason for me not to do it and he is busy enough. With the ground freezing up off and on I finally picked up the shovel and got it done.... in less than 20 minutes.
Ahh!! why did I even torment myself by putting such a quick a easy job off for so long.

Six holes, 2 already filled, easy peasy once I did it

Done and Dusted

We opted for spray foam as it would be impossible to properly insulate all the various size cavities any other way. Tri-County Insulfoam were able to come a few days ahead of their original plan and got the job done within a day and a half. They spray foamed the main floor and upstairs then blew insulation into the attic. What a difference. The place is sealed up so nicely and even with only one wall heater on low downstairs is very comfortable. We find ourselves working in t-shirts when the sun is streaming into the kitchen and living room area.

Upstairs Kneewall and slope

Foam, even in the smallest spaces

All foamed in - What a wonderful sight.... and feeling

Veda (Scott's mom) had some more surgery on her nose to ensure clean margins around the cancer she had removed in the summer and to remove an additional growth on her face. This time it was in Charlottetown and I was home with her the same day. She is recovering nicely.

Feeling restless after having a couple of days off during the spray foaming Scott wanted to get something done. We needed to make space on the main floor for the drywall so we worked through the our floor boards (I'd taken them up from the bedrooms in the summer), cutting off the tongue and groove from each side as that wasn't reusable and moved them back upstairs. Luckily we haven't done any drywall upstairs yet. The boards range between 11 and 16 feet long. If we'd close it in we may not have managed to get them back upstairs. 

The plan is to put them down and sand them before putting the drywall up.

T-shirt weather inside cutting the boards

Done and back upstairs

Who doesn't love a beautiful sunset or two :-)

Panorama of Living Room (right) through to Kitchen (left)

Kitchen without floorboards - Nice space until the next day when we filled it up with drywall

Boxing in the edges of the ceilling

Scott got started on boxing in the edges of the kitchen and living rooms. We'd planned this in order to cover some of the plumbing hanging down but also to add some interest by varying the ceiling height. 

Kitchen edge boxed in and drywall covered

Various ceiling heights to integrate what we couldn't change and add interest

Scott cutting plywood shims for the ceiling - nothing is straight or level

Meanwhile I've been working in the colder RV.. sometimes under a duvet and blanket. 

LOL! so strange that's this is true. 

I've been keeping track of the bills, planning out the tiles we'll need and getting Christmas arranged.

Our neighbours called to say they had extra tickets to see a group called Atlantic String Machine perform a concert at a church in Charlottetown. We had fun going out for dinner and the show on a "school" night, getting to know the neighbours a bit more.

We are getting low on propane and despite saying last time was the last time, will likely get the tank filled again. Thursday night, the waterways froze up solid. We couldn't dump or pump water until later in the day with the help of a heater and hair dryer. It's supposed to warm up a bit today and staying not to crazy cold this week but we'll need to winterize soon so planning to finish putting up drywall on the main floor, getting a couple of coats of mud on and sanded before moving in to a makeshift home downstairs.  

Fingers crossed.