Home Renovations (yay…)

It’s January in Michigan. Windy, frigid cold, and at times, quite snowy. Sounds like a great time to start busting out the gypsum, right? It’s not exactly the best time of year to start tearing down a wall, but a leaky upstairs shower forced the issue. My father, our go-to guy for repairs when Ryan’s too busy to do them, came over yesterday morning to patch the damaged ceiling left behind by the leak. He quickly realized that he was patching a patch.  My dad is no slouch – he’d rather gut it and “do it right” than patch a patched patch. (Say that three times fast!)

What took place next should come to no surprise to me.  We bought this 50 year old colonial a year ago, knowing that the house was insulated with enough fiberglass to fill a thimble. We spent a few dusty days with a rental blower filling the attic spaces over the house and garage with shredded blue jeans.  It helped, but it’s still teeth-chatteringly cold when the mercury takes a nosedive.  We have suspected for some time that the walls are insulated to the bare minimum, if not at all.  My dad’s curiosity mixed with my desire to tear down the white-washed paneling in that room gave us just the push we needed to go from a quick fix to a major renovation. I’m now looking at the bare studs and yes, just a sneeze of insulation between.

Three boards of drywall and a roll of insulation will fill up a good chunk of my day. It may not be what I planned for this week, but I know we’re just a little closer to making our house more energy efficient. We are also in the process of ordering a low-e window to replace the big window that loves to fog up, or ice over, for the entire winter.  A few hours of work and we’ll be able to cross off four projects on our mental to-do list.

What little projects can you imagine that would make your dwelling more energy efficient? It could be something as simple as spraying some foam into your electrical outlet boxes or replacing your old light bulbs. I am committed to improving our efficiency month by month. We still have three walls of paneling that are calling to me!