Our guy came out this week to look over the insulation work we wanted done in the Imaginarium. I really was concerned we wouldn't be able to afford it this year, and I'd either have to resort to doing it myself (crawling around in cubbies installing fiberglass insulation was not something I was looking forward to), or endure another freezing winter and try to do it next year.
He called back today with the estimate. To insulate all the walls, plus do blown-in insulation up in the ceiling / peak area, plus do the mold remediation work we need done - total, $1,800.
I was ecstatic. I thought the insulation alone would cost well over $2,000. The previous mold remediation job was estimated at $400, so we knew we'd be spending at least that. $1,400 for all that insulation sounds like a deal to me.
The mold remediation - when we bought the house, we knew this - there was a spot on the underside of the roof, accessible through a panel in the cedar closet, that had some mold. It wasn't that big, and it wasn't out in the main room. We had this same guy come in to look at it before we ever made an offer on the house - we wanted to know if it was dangerous, or fixable. Turned out it wasn't dangerous (not that 'toxic' mold) and was very treatable. That's why we didn't worry about it and went ahead and bought the house.
We just hadn't gotten around to having him come in and fix it yet, till now. When we did finally call him about it, we decided to talk to him about the insulation at the same time. So that's how all this came about.
I'm pretty happy ... hopefully this new insulation will make a huge difference in the Imaginarium this winter, and I can be comfortable up here without having to crank the heat up ... all part of our plan to save energy, and money. I have no intention of paying $300 a month to heat this place in the winter, but it is a very large house, so it will take a lot of shoring up, insulating, and blocking drafts to reach that goal, but this is a big first step. And I think it's going to be very successful. We only lived here for about 6 weeks of bad, cold weather last year, but we were able to keep the thermostat down really low, and the main rooms of the house - especially the bedroom - were toasty warm. I mean, toasty. The basement was only mildly chilly - nothing that couldn't be dealt with by wearing a sweatshirt instead of a t-shirt. So as long as I can get the Imaginarium warmed up, we'll be well on our way.
The next room that needs help is the kitchen, which was consistently cold. But, there are two outside doors into the kitchen, both of which have major air leaks (you can see daylight through these cracks when the door is closed), plus it was right off the dining room which had the broken mail slot in the door that didn't close all the way - another major air leak. We plan to deal with the small problems in the two kitchen doors, and if we don't get around to replacing the dining room door this winter, at least we can permanently seal the mail slot, since we now have a mail box.
Looking forward to an inexpensively toasty winter!
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