Insulation Installation

We have the best friends. Today Fabian and Brian joined us in putting in the insulation in a portion of our house. This is something our contractor has allowed us to do ourselves to save some time and money. He's still going to take care of most of the rear of the house, but there was plenty for us to do.

We recently expanded the scope of the renovation somewhat to include opening up the walls in the Studio, Guest Bedroom, Office, and hallway, putting in new insulation and drywall to replace the old plaster. This was going to be a necessity at some point, and even though our budget for this phase is strained, it just makes too much sense to do this now versus later. Demo-ing all of our bedrooms (after we've finished them and made them livable, no less!) while we're living in the house would be almost unthinkably disruptive, and a waste.

Our wall construction was mostly plaster over wood slats, and our contractor had told us that we could pretty easily stuff the insulation up and down behind the slats, removing a few to make it easier. This turned out to be difficult, so we decided to just tear out most of the slats so the insulation could be just placed in. It was a bit more demolition than we expected, but nothing we couldn't handle.

The insulation itself went into an empty cavity quite readily; the only tricky thing was working in odd-shaped areas where there were slanted studs, or in tight corners or spaces above windows and doors. Thankfully, we could actually tear the insulation by hand without much fuss, so the work went pretty fast.

Overall, this project took under 4 hours to do half of the top floor, and saved us over $1000. The results look great, and just being in the newly insulated rooms you can tell a difference in sound absorption and how "solid" the place feels.

Insulation

Since our home is essentially stripped down to the studs, this is our opportunity to replace the insulation. After having seen the utter lack of insulation in the walls when they were opened up (it was old loose fill that had settled and deteriorated over the decades), basically anything would be an improvement.

But we're not going with just anything. Another advantage of a home renovation is it's an exciting opportunity to outfit our home with more eco-friendly, healthy and renewable alternatives. In a later post we'll try to recap the various green approaches we've taken, but one example for us is insulation. We've chosen to avoid fiberglass for a few reasons: it's bound with formaldehyde, which slowly evaporates into the air to toxic effect; handling it causes it to shed tiny particles that can dangerously irritate the skin and lungs; and there are cost-effective alternatives, which the 30% federal income tax credit helps make even more attractive.

Our insulation of choice is Bonded Logic's UltraTouch Recycled Cotton Fiber Batts for the walls, and their Recycled Cellulose as a dry blown-in insulation for the ceilings. It has similar insulating, accoustical, and fireproofing qualities as fiberglass but without the downsides. Note, it really is made of recycled jeans, as evidenced by the photo to the left.

Our walls are mostly 4" thick, so filling them requires R-13 insulation. Because the roof above the dining room is completely open, we're putting 6" thick batt insulation there. The cellulose is useful to blow in above existing ceilings that are not torn out. All in all, we purchased:

• 15 bags (1590 sq ft) R-13 cotton - $838
• 5 bags (316 sq ft) R-19 cotton - $273
• 7 bags (280 sq ft at R-19, depth 6") cellulose - $76

One very interesting upside to the type of insulation that we're using is that we can install it ourselves, because it's completely safe and requires no special protective gear or equipment (though a mask is recommended just because cutting up lots of cotton fiber can get pretty dusty). And this weekend we attempted to do just that - the next post will be about how that went.

Beams

All of the beams on the upper level are up! The main beam that runs the length of the dining room was the last to go in - it has special hidden fasteners that secure it to the other beams.

So the scaffolding is down and the whole space is now completely open (though still full of tools), as it will be when construction is finished. The result is pretty awesome.

Cabling and insulation is going in next, and should be done within a few days.

Cables

With all the rain recently, it's been a good time to focus on some really nerdy details of the home. As mentioned in a previous post about our media closet, we're having various cables run within the walls. Our cable needs became very real over the last few days as our contractor and I have had to scrutinize the schematic and figure out what lengths of which cable I actually need to buy.

It turns out this took me a fair amount of research to get right, since even though I'm a techie I'm not an A/V or home networking expert. Here are the highlights of my research.

General Information

First, there is a great discussion board for A/V enthusiasts full of expert information, called avsforum. I've found so much helpful information there over the years.

For all in-wall wiring, I wanted cables rated CL2. Such cables are certified to retard fires and not give off toxic fumes on combustion, so they're appropriate to put within the walls, and in my opinion are worth the slight premium.

Also, in general, I went with medium-to-high quality on most of the cables. Paying extra for super-premium just doesn't make sense to me, but for long lines with lots of potential interference and degradation I'd like the peace of mind knowing I'm getting better than minimum performance. Thicker conductors (that's a lower gauge wire, such as 22 AWG for HDMI or 14 for speaker wire) are generally better.

Jacks

The cable itself is only part of the package; I still have to find wall plates with jacks for each of the cables we're running. It turns out that the vast majority of wall jacks have a built-in F/F component. That is, they present a female port to plug in to the face, and accept a male connection as well on the back side, which is ideal because cords are available mostly in M/M configurations.

Ethernet

I thought I knew most of what I needed to know about Ethernet cables, but I was wrong.

First, I had to choose between Cat5e and Cat6, which is significantly pricier. Most wires in use today are Cat5e, which theoretically can do 1Gb/s but is not officially rated for it. Cat6 is rated at that speed, so people make arguments that Cat6 is more "future-proof," but those claims are dubious since Cat6 will not actually support the next tier of network bandwidth (10Gb/s). Working with Cat6 is generally more expensive and annoying, enough so that it just doesn't seem worth it for some weak assurance of slightly more bandwidth way in the future. Right now, home networks still typically don't come close to using a gigabit per second.

Ethernet cables can be either "stranded" or "solid." Solid is definitely the way to go for in-wall; it's better shielded and easier to thread around. Stranded cable is more flexible and better for patch cables, like the myriad ones we'll have connecting components within our media closet.

Phone

It turns out we can use Ethernet for our phone jack. I learned this at my brother/sister-in-law's place when I was investigating their townhome's network setup. This is nice as for the few RJ11 connections we need, we can just use more of the bulk cable I'm already buying and it makes things simpler.

HDMI

Runs 40-50 feet and longer can be dicey, but if the quality of the components on either end are high then things might just work fine. The data over HDMI at full 1080p resolution actually approaches the bandwidth of the cable, so cable quality over long runs is really important.

Shopping List

After all this, I just finished putting in a second order for cables at monoprice.com. Monoprice is easily the best value in cables of all sorts. By paying attention to the cable specs, reading reviews and choosing carefully, it's possible to get cables of perfectly good quality for a fraction of the price of the next cheapest competitor.

Here's a breakdown of what I had to order:

• Ethernet (in-wall). Cat5e Solid UTP Riser-Rated - 1000ft.
• Ethernet (patch). Two dozen or so different lengths of patch cables for the media closet and connecting around the house.
• Speaker Wire. 2-conductor 14 AWG - 750ft.
• Cable. RG-6 coax - 250ft.
• HDMI. 22 AWG tin-plated - 12ft, 35ft, and 50ft.
• RGB+Audio. 5x 18 AWG RCA with component video and stereo audio - 12ft, 35ft and 50ft.
• RCA Stereo. 18 AWG - 35ft and 45ft.
  

Total cost: $543 including tax and shipping.

So Close

The wall has been completely built - all that's remaining is for it to pass building inspection, which is scheduled for Monday.

And yet, the drama continues. There is apparently a disagreement between our general contractor and the concrete subcontractor about whether or not the estimate for the work included the cost of permitting and inspection for the plumbing and electrical components of the wall. This is a sizable discrepancy, as the permits are several hundred dollars themselves and there are a number of hours of labor involved in waiting to acquire the permits and then receiving the inspectors at the job site. These permits have not yet been pulled, so we think it is unlikely that the wall will actually pass inspection this time around.

There are "legitimate" reasons why such a discrepancy could arise - we believe this to be the result of verbal agreements that were improperly communicated within their organization. Not all contractors spell out every little thing the estimate includes or doesn't include - this is one example of how that can be a big problem! Suffice it to say this is not the first issue we've had with the concrete subcontractor. There have been enough problems that the relationship between the general and sub has soured and so it's been difficult to broker some kind of agreement.

Ultimately we stand by our general contractor because we've found him to be very honest, communicative, and consistently concerned about the well-being of the project. And we've withheld enough payment that if the issue becomes irreconcilable, we can just have him take care of the final permitting and reimburse him instead.

The construction of the wall itself is great, and we're very happy with it (well - as happy as we can be about something we hope to never see again). Pictured are the finished wall and the well which houses the sump pump. This had its own little micro-drama: the plumbing inspector did not like that, while the well is 12" thick on a side, it's not a solid material (it's a mixture of poured and concrete block). He actually required that they build a well within the well by pouring another 4" of concrete inside of it. It's so ridiculously reinforced now I'm contemplating putting a few cans of soup down there and calling it a fallout shelter.

The plumbing inspector has made our lives miserable in more ways than this, but more on that later. For now, we're happy that the saga of the wall will soon be drawing to a close.

Kitchen Finishes

I spent two hours yesterday morning convincing the kitchen appliance deliverymen that our range and fridge would fit up our stairway. They wanted me to take responsibility for any accidents... I would not, so their manager came by and four large men carried these beasts up our stairs. (I tipped them well considering the alternative was having our contractor build a ramp up to our second story or hiring a crane.) They broke through a few stairs and are probably taking ice baths right now but it’s done!

So, I thought this was a good time to post some visuals for our kitchen.


Our kitchen will be open to our living and dining rooms and consist of two work areas: wall cabinets centered around our 48" range with a 36" fridge at the end, and a 10' island with our large stainless sink and two (yes, two) dishwashers. We'll also have a large walk-in pantry that is bigger than my first kitchen in New York. This will house all of our counter-top appliances including the microwave, blender and toaster.

Here’s what we’ve purchased so far: (prices include tax, shipping and delivery)
•Sub-Zero BI-36U Refrigerator/Freezer $8115 - $250 in rebates
•Wolf RT486C Range with six burners and a charbroiler $9339 - $250 in rebates
•Wolf 5" Range Riser $295
•VentAHood PRHI8 Wall Mount Stainless Steel Hood 18"h x 27"d x 48"w $2152
•2x Bosch SHX45L05UC Dishwashers (with a dual dishwasher air gap!) $927 ea. - $125 in rebates
•Waste King Legend Series 9980 Waste Disposer $146
•Grohe Concetto 32665 Dual Spray Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet $207
•Dawn DSU3017 Stainless Steel Undermount Sink $437
•Hansgrohe Talis S Pot Filler, Wall-Mounted (over the range with filtered water) $380
•E3 Shaker-Style Cabinets in Chocolate for the island $964
•4x LED Recessed Lighting $173 ea.
•GE Profile 48-Bottle Wine Fridge in pantry already owned

Finishes to be purchased just prior to installation:
•Hardwood Floors to match our existing oak
•Back-Painted Glass Backsplash in a natural blue/green glass color or light gray
•E3 Shaker-Style Cabinets in White along the wall
•Old-Fashioned Bin Pulls in chrome
•Quartz or Granite slab counter tops in white for the island with mitred edges and “waterfall” overhangs to the floor
•Quartz or Granite slab counter tops in charcoal along the wall
•3x Pendant Lighting over island TBD
•2x Under-Cabinet Lighting TBD
•3x Bertoia Counter Stools in white
•NatureMill Indoor Composter XE Series
•Sliding Barn Door to pantry

We have electricity.

We passed our Electrical Inspection today... finally some good news.

The follow-up Plumbing Inspection is scheduled for Monday. If we pass, we have the Rough Framing Inspection and then we can put up insulation and drywall. Maybe it will start to look like a house again after that.