Moving into the 1795 cape (maybe 1830?)

[KristenS]

I have 4 lights

Yes. I heard about them from this guy:

[jharkin]

I know My last post about lights and electric I promise!!! Back to real old house topics next time... We are thinking about taking all the original doors down from the garage next summer and starting to restore them

[melissakd]

I vividly remember last winter at your house. Let us know how your newly insulated roof comes through the blizzard!

MelissaKD

[lavender_bush]

Jeremy

Do you have power? Apparently 40% of Franklin is without electricity, our home is part of that percentage.
Luckily the Purple House still has power so we're staying here until the electric's back - It could be a few days

LB

[Don M]

Our power went out Saturday at noon & didn't come back on until 7PM Sunday evening. Watering horses with no well pump is a bit exciting. Haul water from the run; haul wood for the stove made us feel like we were living in the late 19th century rather than the early 21st!

[jharkin]

We lost power for 8 hours yesterday. Odd thing is it went out mid-day Sunday when the sun was out and the piddly 3 inches of snow we had was already melting. Maybe some idiot dropped a tree or they had to shut us down to fix another break.

House was toasty warm with the stove AND it gave me an excuse to test out my new transfer switch setup (I know, breaking my no electric topics pledge already)




With the situation under control I let the Mrs get a well deserved ladies day out with her mom while I spent the day with these two



To Mellissa's question I think the insulation and caulking is working. The temperature in the house is a lot more uniform with the wood stove going, no more 80F living room and 65F den... now its more like 75F/70F. Also didn't need to crank it up as much as before and I got it to burn all night on less wood. Wont know if it helps the ice damming until we get a good long freeze however but fingers crossed!

[melissakd]

ooooooh, adorable!!!!!!!!

[jharkin]

Bad news on my insulation job. the MassSave QC inspector came for the post inspection and was unimpressed. Turns out that the insulation contractors:

#1 Didn't dense pack anything. In fact some of the joist bays were empty.

#2 Missed about half of the air sealing at the transitions from the rigid foam on the kneewalls to the slopes. So that insulation is doing nothing.

#3 (this I disagree with) He was really upset that they insulation over my IC-rated recessed lights. Apparently the state is afraid of being sued and treats any can light as a 30 year old can light. I explained they are brand new, IC rated, installed to spec and even massively UNDER lamped (10w vs fire safe rating of 65w). But still they insist its a no go. They want to take the insulation out.

So now they are sending the contractors back to redo everything!


Even more annoying, this guy had the IR camera, and found that many of of my "insulated" walls have a lot of voids and probably should have been worked on. It would have helped if the initial auditor had that tool rather than the drill and coat hanger guess method he used

[melissakd]

Just so you don't have to PAY those guys to come back and do what they should have done....

MKD

[jharkin]

We had a MAJOR scare today. The insulation guys came back and the inspector was hovering over them. they kept telling him that the ceilings and walls were filled as much as was safe and were afraid of blowouts. The inspector kept pushing them to add more because that s what the "spec" says to do.

Then this happened. What you cant see is that also the ceiling bucked over my sons crib while he was sleeping! Thank the lord their room is plaster and the lath held.


$)(#$*&(#%

They kept pushing back but the inspector from the weatherization program (Conservation Services Group) pushed it. The insulation company has been great, bending over backwards to apologize make it right but the quality inspectors are giving me the "oh well"

The insulation guys cleaned my entire house, patched it and are sending a drywall crew at 7am on Saturday. But the Conservation Services people say "oh well"

We are livid. My wife had a meltdown. Our kids could have been really hurt.

Turns out the contractor knew what they were doing all along. I really learned a lesson today.



UGH!!!!!!!!