And you were right - all the dampers to almost the entire house were shut off, not just at the heat registers in the rooms, but downstairs at the ductwork. But even after we opened them all up, the upstairs was still cold. That's okay ... after taking a look at the insulation (or should I say lack thereof) in the attic cubbies up there, I'm fairly certain that had a lot to do with it. I'm cautiously optimistic that by next winter I'll feel a huge difference up there, with new and rearranged insulation. Fortunately - very fortunately - we're now heading well into spring, which means I have at least six good months of not having to worry about it. Well, other than the fact that I need to do that insulation work before next winter. ;o)
There's an advantage to doing it sooner rather than later, actually. Good, properly installed insulation doesn't just keep heat in in winter, it also keeps heat out in summer. So if I get the insulation project underway before the hottest part of summer, it'll help alleviate the Imaganarium being too hot in the summer time. And I know this could be a potential problem. The upstairs at the old house - which was similar to this house in structure if not in size - was unbearably hot in the summertime. So much so that during the hottest part of the day you could barely even stand to be up there. Candles I had stored up there melted.
But, there were only two small windows, one on each end - the ends that were right next to other houses, so little to no cross-breeze. In this house, there are windows and/or a door in all four walls, so plenty of cross-ventilation. Also, here, there are two huge trees out front which will shade the entire south-facing roof all day. I suspect that will go a long, long way towards keeping the upstairs of the new house cooler than the old one (where there were no trees at all and the summer sun just beat on the roof all day long).
In other news, we made real progress today at the old house. No, we're still not done. Five weeks and counting. (*&^%$$^*)
But, we got the inside of the house really emptied out now. There is nothing left now except about 4 boxes of clothes upstairs that I intend to donate to charity, but couldn't take today because we had the truck stuffed too full. But that's it!
On March 7th ...
Today ...
The other rooms are cleaned out as well ...
This is - was - our bedroom. That dark mess in the corner over there (the part that's not shadow) is, in fact, mold. We didn't know it was there because there was a very heavy dresser sitting there, which we could not move to clean behind before. I tried to clean it with bleach water, but it was pretty well in the wall plaster. Well, another good reason to have moved out of that house. I'm horribly allergic to mold, and that particular bedroom had a serious problem with it, in other places besides that corner, which I could not get rid of.
Here's a picture of the kitchen laundry area sometime during the last month ...
and today ...
I forgot to take any pictures of the garage though. That' still a disaster. We piled all the garbage from the house there, to get it out of the way, and there's a pile about the size of a small car. Despite my last post, I changed my mind ... I don't want to get a dumpster. It's an expense I just don't want to incur after all the other expense incurred with moving. Fortunately we have access to a good-sized dumpster, except it's just about a half hour drive away, and we can't get all this stuff in one load. So over the next two weeks or so we're going to have to be making some random trips to this place to unload this stuff.
Okay, 'nuff of that. Now for the good news. I've been working in the Imaginarium, and have made some progress!
But first, the un-progress - the kitchen / craft area hasn't gotten put together yet.
Holy cow, right now that area looks uncannily similar to the upstairs hobby area at the old house in the last few months! But, I'm not worried about this, because I know exactly what I'm doing. Really. (ahem) First, there's a large dresser down in the living room we have to get up here, which is going along that right-side wall. In there is going all the material I have (which is a large part of the jumbled pile that exists there now). A bunch more of that jumbled pile is Christmas decorations, which are going in one of the two storage cubbies upstairs.
I also want to paint the inside and outside of those cabinets, and once I do that, I'll be much more motivated about putting my craft stuff away in them. They're just so dark and drab right now.
Moving on, I've done this ...
I have this nice 'living area' in the Imaginarium, which I've been rearranging and tweaking around to my heart's desire. It's not "done" yet of course, but it's finding it's shape and flavor pretty nicely. I'm happy with this. In fact, I'm sitting up here now, doing my blog.
I've also managed to find some time to putter around the rest of the house. The dining room, which was once full to almost the ceiling and almost wall to wall with boxes, is now only about half full. I put up some pictures tonight. A small thing, but important. I realized after I did that, and saw what a difference it made, that up till now we'd only put the place together enough to live in, nothing really personal. It was like going to a vacation home for a week ... you unpack your clothes, but none of the decor is yours. That's how it felt here.
Finally having the time and energy to put up some of my own personal touches is just really making the place feel like home! It's fantastic! The longer we're here, and the more little things I get done, the more I love this place. Without a doubt, it is the perfect house for us.
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