{Saving Energy and Our Attic}

With our low economy, we have to look UP for saving some money! Better insulating our attic as best as we can. That's exactly what we did; investing in the attic, in order to create a more energy efficient home and lowering our Carbon Footprint!

 On Monday, March 18, husband Pieter started with building a floor in our attic. That served two purposes: making it possible to walk on; without falling through the ceilings and also making it more energy efficient. We already did have Eco friendly white cellulose on our attic as an insulation.

Remember that in my post about {Our Hallway} I left the following note under the last photo: Looking up to the ceiling where a foldout staircase leads to the attic.

THAT will be another project...

Okay, here you will see what this was all about.

Behind the light you see the cord for pulling out the fold down staircase that leads up to the attic.

In the hallway you see two sheathing boards, that Pieter had cut in half at Home Depot in order to fit them through the opening, up to the attic.

Two by two, brought in through the front door; the shortest distance from the little trailer, behind our Toyota RAV4.

Wearing gloves, I did hand them up to Pieter, who grabbed them from the attic, reaching down.

Many Sheathing plates we handled...

Lots of dust we 'ate' for weeks!

For those of you, not familiar with the construction way in Georgia, USA as well as in many other states, this is under the roof. A very sturdy construction of solid red cedar beams. 

Pieter designed our home and he instructed the contractor to use more beams than usual, to protect the roof against tornados and hurricanes.

 

They just nailed plaster boards onto these red cedar wood beams and you could not WALK on them; only on the sections where the cedar wood beam is underneath!

So husband Pieter worked for weeks in order to hand cut those sheathing boards. 

Using no nails but screws as to not damage the ceilings and creating lots of dust downstairs...

Many trips up and down the foldout staircase!

Here you also see the outlet and switch that Pieter first installed in order to have working light up there!

Pieter also installed a railing on the pull out staircase!

Pieter did compact and egalize the Eco friendly white cellulose to work it neatly under those sheathing boards.

Literally 'cutting corners'; many corners that is! Using a mask for the bulk of the dust but no matter how, you still 'eat lots of dust'...

Pieter did tighten up all those red cedar beams, many of which were rather loose.

He used screws for doing so.

Heavy duty time for his equipment...

He also had to crawl underneath those air-conditioning ducts... 

Pieter did not go all the way under the shallow part of the roof but he did place an upright plank to keep the insulation material neatly behind.

All the above photos I've taken on March 29, and this one is taken on April 9, when he was about done with this mega job. It took longer than estimated due to so many different corners to be cut out.

This is the short end of the 'T' section, looking towards our front porch.

That pipe is from the ventilation hood above my cooktop in the kitchen...

Now looking the other way of the short end of the 'T' towards our gazebo.

On the sides under the shallow parts of the roof there are the open cellulose insulation material 'beds' with only a plank in front to keep the material from spilling over.

Now we are under the long side of the 'T' section (shape of our home), facing the driveway.

This attic fan, Pieter installed already two years ago in 2011. You can read my previous post below: {Going GREEN with Attic Fan}

Stepping back for a better over view.

Now the attic looks neat and ready even for storage if necessary!

Turning around towards the bay window area (in the back).

It was quite a job to manage working around all those wires that are all over the attic like spaghetti...

Stepping back towards the driveway side and you can see again the opening down with the foldout staircase.

Quite a difference or not?

You see the tile floor in our hallway  down the staircase opening...

There is also a light switch next to the staircase (r) and it is a hotel switch so it turns off automatically.

View from the other side towards the foldout staircase.

Pieter has changed the outlet and switch and installed better permanent light in all areas.

We were so glad to get rid of all the saw dust and I just managed to do a thorough cleaning down stairs, right before we left for our vacation in Curaçao! 

That was mission accomplished; quite a nasty job!

For sure such a floor makes a difference in insulation as well and it certainly will pay off.

Quite an accomplishment for my Pieter, right before his 84th Birthday...

Related link:

{Going GREEN with Attic Fan} | previous post by me