We are well past the point of no return now. The power has been disconnected and Hazmat guy was back with the plumber and builder to sort out removing the vent stacks so plumbing is gone too. The house is a bit of a lifeless shell at this point.
With it being a long weekend we got a fair bit done. We put in a few evenings sorting out the container because we need to get the basement cleaned out and the can out of the yard. We have extension cords rigged up from the electrical box on the post and a few lamps that we move around strategically from basement to container as needed. One of my big concerns with the BigSteelBox is how much it tips when it gets loaded on to the truck. Because we got such a big box, it isn’t packed very tightly and i have visions of things cartwheeling down the box when it gets tipped up. I have some good strapping holding the fridge in place but for the rest i am weaving a web of rope that will hopefully trap, or at least slow down the shifting and protect our stuff. Setting all this up requires some acrobatics and a bit of repacking and i should have had a plan from the start which would have made it easier. The basement is basically empty now and we just have to sort out the pickup of the can.
My big weekend chore was finishing up the kitchen. I had been planning on leaving the ceiling lathe in place and just getting the builder to throw a layer of drywall over it because of all of the blown insulation in the attic but he convinced me that we should take it all down and then just reinsulate the attic properly. This will make the electrical much easier and give us a better final product. Wow. I wish i hadn’t listened to him.
The first half of the ceiling under the finished part of upstairs came down fine. There was very little insulation that had drifted in and except for a bit of mouse shit it was pretty uneventful except for the usual mess. Things got ugly though as i moved into the portion under the attic proper and all of the insulation started coming down. There were batts of old paperbacked fiberglass as the first layer topped with inches of blown cellulose. It got everywhere. I was covered head to toe and the air was thick with dust and insulation. I lost count of the number of bags i filled.
I also did more trips to the dump to try and clear out the yard. One of my trips was made up entirely of bags of blown insulation and plaster and i learned that they don’t take blown insulation at the North Shore Transfer Station. This makes sense because they scoop it all up with a front end loader and if the bags break there will be cellulose floating around until the end of time. With no other choice i headed out to Delta in the trusty Jetta hauling the decaying trailer. Luckily it made it with no disasters. I was worried about the tarp coming off or having a break down as my trips until now have been limited to a short stretch across the Second Narrows where i just drive slowly and annoy people for a few minutes, or residential roads. The freeway and the tunnel were nerve wracking.
We also took more plants out to Burnaby and i started stripping the electrical wires we no longer need
Leave a Reply