Five Points Renovation and Renewal: Christmas Break?

Who said anything about taking a break!! Last year about this time, I was hunkered down in the dirt under the house. I was able to get a jump start on the huge foundation project during that years break. The dungeon project took me a long long time to almost complete.... yes, there is still more that needs to be done down there. Now, lets not waste time on renovation memory lane fretting about what is in the past, under the house, and in the dark. Lets look ahead to new possibilities and, most importantly, the aftermath of the current "Christmas no-break."

This is the look we are always going for...
Very Dilapidated Crack House -ish

As you may have guessed... my beyond-DIY prowess was focused totally on upstairs. I haven't blogged about it lately, but stuff has been going down up there. Remodel plumbing/framing is no joke folks. Remodel anything in a turn of the century home is no joke either. I'll just leave you with pictures and picture comments until I can find something to rant/obsess about in another post. Oh! Major shout out to the folks who made this project even more possible with their contributions of Home Depot gift cards! Every ounce of monetary value was drained from the cards over a few short days of crazy construction madness. Seriously, if we didn't have to work and had a constant supply of those amazing gift cards, these renovation projects would scream by!

Hopefully, this original bead board can be salvaged.
...Definitely lots of work...

Tearing down plaster is no fun job

Tearing down plaster is no clean job

Cast Iron Window Weights

There is more work in this floor than you think...
...And that is not including the plumbing

Yay for roughed in plumbing!
Plumbing seriously stresses me out

Yay for insulation!!

For the insulation curious....
I was initially planning on just foaming the entire stud bay, but I figured out that it is actually pretty costly. So, Plan B was to flash and batt.. 2" of closed cell foam and the rest fiberglass batts. The DIY foam kits are pretty neat, but they are still costly. Plan C, which turned out to be about 4 times cheaper than Plan B, was to cut foam board to size and foam it in place for an air tight seal and then fill the rest with fiberglass. You have to do this pretty methodically to get good results and a strong seal. All the plans achieve basically the same results and R value, so it just came down to cost.

Plan A- $$$ - Foam fill everything
Easy if you have the expensive equipment and chemicals...

Plan B - $$ - Foam flash and batt fill
Easy if you don't mind dealing with the expensive kits

Plan C - $ - Foam board/seal and batt fill
Easy if you have a foam gun and don't mind a little extra work

In the end, I am happy I went this route. The foam board is surprisingly rigid when in place and I should have around R-20 in the walls when I'm finished.