Insulated just in time for the snowstorm
Yesterday was the TripAdvisor/Smarter Travel Media holiday party so I didn’t have a chance to post. The best thing about yesterday was that the electrical and building inspections were crossed off the long list of visits required by the City of Somerville. That cleared the way for installation of insulation today and - hooray! - walls early next week.
The room looks very pink now:
Pink insulation in the outside wall
The insulation in the roof had to be replaced because the previous stuff didn’t meet building code for cathedral ceilings. Apparently what we needed was “R30″ insulation. That means nothing to me, but it’s there now.
R30 insulation in the upper ceiling
All of this happened just in time for the first big snowstorm of the season. It’s been pretty cold in the house lately, with the kitchen completely un-insulated. Now we should be warm and toasty like we were before.
Another new touch that was added today is a directional piece on the light fixture at the back of the room. Now the light points straight down, rather than into the room at the angle of the ceiling. It’s much brighter and (I think) means that we don’t have to move the light farther back in the ceiling. Here’s a closeup:
Pointed downward, not inward
Less glamorous but still exciting is that the gas line for the cooktop was installed yesterday. There’s a short back story on it: apparently the gas line that we had running to the old stove was too small to provide enough gas to the new cooktop. The plumber had to run a larger line off our furnace in the basement to fuel the five 15,000 BTU burners and one 9,000 BTU burner that are part of the one we’re having installed. I don’t know how much a BTU is, but that sounds like a lot of them.
Endless BTUs
Lastly, I couldn’t resist posting this picture of nasty red goop that’s sealing the base of each basement penetration along the wall:
Red goop
I’m assuming this is to keep cold air from the basement from flowing up into the kitchen walls. This in particular is around one of the drain vent pipes. Yuck!
The next thing to do is to put the walls up and plaster them. No more open walls!
Got take out from Cambridge Common for dinner tonight. I was there for a couple of beers after work. They have a southern fried chicken dish with biscuits and mashed potatoes that is really excellent, even after a short drive through the snow. Still very little momentum for cooking at home, though Anne’s been eating microwaveable macaroni and cheese this past week. That and coffee are just about it.