Insulation

And the house moves on. Last week we corrected some oversights in the roughs and sprayed the insulation. Here, I had the plumbing for the sink moved to the opposite side of the plumbing for the washing machine. This way, the dryer will be on the wall closest to the garage where you can see the insulation. This will allow for venting of the dryer (not yet installed at the time of this picture) thru the corner of the garage and out onto the patio as opposed to up and thru the roof, which I don't want to do because of the higher probability of a clogged dryer vent, not to mention that dryer lint is very flammable. For you campers out there, it makes a great starter for camp fires.



We are using Icynene instead of the normal cellulose insulation. It takes longer to place and costs about twice as much, however the AC units can be smaller due to the spray in insulation being a better barrier against drafts. With the upgraded windows and insulation, their utilities should be the same or better than their last house, which was smaller by about 700 square feet. I used a can of marking paint to point out the places in the insulation I wanted touched up before we hang drywall, which hung on Monday of this week. I'm taking a 1/2 day discresionary absence from work this Friday to check the progress, so I'll post pictures of the progress sometime next week. The outside will look the same since the brick work won't start until Monday, so I'll just have a couple interior pictures.


Also, since the attic is insulated as well, the attic space won't get near as hot (which is a big key in Texas) so the air ducts, which are in the attic, won't loose the cooled air to the attic space before it gets to the living space of the house. As a result, the AC units don't have to work as hard, the air is cooler when it reaches the living space, and the unit doesn't run as long, which saves energy.

This past weekend, we finally got a significant rain fall!!! Ah, rain in Texas. Too bad we need about 5 more days of this to bring the water levels in our lakes back into the normal range. Plano got almost 4 inches last weekend.