Adam and Heather Hayes

Well, now that we've got Clara paid for (or at least her doctor bills, hospital bills, etc.) we're starting to get some money so we can do things I should have done earlier. The first project on the list was to insulate above the new office.

 

I ran into Home Depot and got 10 bags of "natural" cellulose insulation and rented a insulation blower. I also saw a slide while I was there that I got for the upcoming swingset project. Unfortunately, my eyes were bigger than my car. It took a bit of pushing, shoving, and manhandling to get the insulation, blower, 8' slide, and all the other stuff that was still in the car (3 car seats, a playpen, and a stroller) to fit. I'll just say it was a very very very tight fit and I'm really glad I didn't buy two extra bags of insulation or I would have been up a creek.

Well, I got home with all of the said stuff just in time to run off to softball. I got back home around 9:30, got the kids in bed by about 10:10 and then we decided to blow the insulation. It took both Heather and I to do it. I took the hose up in the attic and Heather manned the blower. After fiddling around with the machine, we finally found how to open the trap door at the bottom to actually let the insulation go through the machine. After we figured that out, it was just a matter of trying to navigate around in a attic that is not lit and fairly short.

 

We finished up right before midnight. I came out of the attic very hot, sweaty, and covered from head to toe in dust, dirt, and insulation (good thing it wasn't the fiberglass kind). I think it worked because the office is MUCH cooler today than yesterday so I hope that it was money well spent.

 

 

Well my latest project has come to a close, (for now at least). We finished off the main components for the swingset recently. It was quite the project. It went through a couple of revisions as we worked on it and we added a number of features as we saw just how large a 12 foot swingset can be. 

 

We will be adding a rockclimbing wall on one side and possibly another slide and a zip line. (I mistakenly joked with Heather that all it was missing was a zip line... and next thing I know she wants one added.)

 

Anyway, we figured we should get it done before it snowed. Unfortunately it snowed on it the day we were planning on staining the whole thing. So it got snowed on once before the stain was on.

 

As to other projects, I hung two lights and replaced a ceiling fan that Heather got for our 8th anniversary. Unfortunately it included some crawling through the attic and digging through insulation so I could put in some extra supports for the heavier ceiling fan. All in all it went quite smoothly and it is giving the house a more modern feel compared to the older "brassy" lights we had up.

My next project will probably come around Jan/Feb as we tackle the master bathroom. Heather wants to completely redo it.

• New tile flooring/walls
• New deeper tub
• New cabinets
• New sink/toilet

So it will be interesting to see how well that goes. I'm hoping we'll have the money by then to do it.