Insulation Without The Itch

A friend recently told me I needed to update this blog, so here it is.  Steve and I have been going up to The Drunken Bear on a somewhat regular basis except for the first three weeks of March.  In that time period, Steve went to Hawaii and I wondered across the border to Canada.  Although I love my Canadian friends and Canada itself, I would have loved to have been in Hawaii...just to be away from the miserable weather we had been having.  Thankfully the work we were doing on the cabin had been on the inside and when we had to do some work outside, there were breaks in the weather to do that.  We finished putting in the rigid insulation as described in the last post.  Next came the rolled insulation.  Now you would think that if the requirement for insulation is now R49, there would be an R49 insulation.  Wrong!  First we would cut and hang R30 kraft faced insulation.  Following the R30, we would then add the R19 non-kraft faced insulation bringing it to the required R49.  Once we got that finished, it was time for the insulation under the floor.  Steve went under and I would cut the insulation into the required length and hand it to him.  Needless to say, Steve had the more difficult portion of this work...as he usually does.  But, at least with him doing it, we know it is being done right!  Our weather improved and we had some nice days to work around the property after our little vacations.  We got the property cleaned up from the winter, burning a lot of the downed branches and throwing other branches in a ditch that runs through a portion of the property.  We never have figured out what that ditch was for but it has come in handy when discarding the many fern fronds, wild blackberry vines, weeds, and so on.  We had some extra time this week while we were waiting for the inspector to show up to tell us if we had passed the insulation inspection.  For those that have been to The Drunken Bear, you will notice the disappearance of a couple of eye sores.  For one, the ugly fire wood pile is now gone and nicely stacked in the woodshed.  And for the other, the blackberry vines have been cleaned up across the path.  Unfortunately, with the disappearance of the vines, comes the disappearance of the very tasty blackberries...but having the vines gone really opens the property.

 

In the last post I stated we were behind in our snowfall for the

year. Well, I spoke too soon.  After that last post we have had

more than enough snowfall. Looking back at the cabin, you

can see a lot of the downed branches from the storms.

Looking up at Gunn's Peak, you can see all the new snow.

Embiggen this picture to see the snow covered trees.

There is one bad thing about Highway 2...the high incidence of
traffic accidents. So much so, that this sign is along the highway
near Zeke's Restaurant.  I don't think we have ever seen
the number go higher than 80 days!

Fortunately, the church, turned art studio and gallery in Startup,
did not get totally destroyed. The front part was removed and the
owners have fixed up the back part.  Here they are just starting the work.

On the next trip up to Index, it was a nice day, but the wind was
really blowing. In this picture, you can see the snow
swirling around Mt. Index...brrrrr!

Closer view of the swirling snow on Mt. Index

Looking up at Mt. Index as we turned off Highway 2.

Close-up of Gunn's Peak

When I first looked up, I thought more snow was swirling around the
mountains up the Skykomish River, but then saw it was the moon
coming up. I love those days when you can see the moon
during the daylight hours.

I thought I had better provide the evidence that we really are
working.  Here you can see the R30 insulation on the bottom

and the R19 lying atop it.

As we were leaving on this day, Gunn's Peak was being lit by

the early evening moonlight...quite spectacular!

On our next trip up, we saw this bald eagle sitting in a tree
across fromThe Drunken Bear...
just waiting for that unlucky salmon to swim by.

Our friends, Dave and Micky, dropped by on their way home
from celebrating their anniversary in Leavenworth.
Hope to have them back when the cabin is finished.

The insulation on the inside was finally completed!

And the insulation in the crawl space under the house is completed.

Which brings us to the end of the insulation process and I am happy to say, "We passed!"  We still need to cover the insulation in the crawl space with visqueen.  Next we take on the daunting task of installing the sheetrock.  I am so not looking forward to that, but at the same time, it will be so nice to have it done.  Hopefully we will be getting some help with this process.