Huston, we have a floor!!

Hello again everyone!

Well, it is beginning to look like a new room in the attic. We have about 45% of the new floor in. This weekend we will finish putting in the rest of the insulation and then I can put in the rest of the floor.

At first it seemed like such an easy task to revamp the attic - boy was I wrong! We have had to deal with wiring problems; gas pipes we were not aware of; and then we had to deal with the original ceiling/floor joists – not to mention the 100 degree + temps!

At first they looked true and even but NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Turns out that parts of the second floor ceiling are sagging in spots. You can only see it if you use a laser level. When you add the new joists it becomes more obvious that they are uneven and sagging in spot too. So, I had to spend extra time shoring those up. Unfortunately, they are still not in perfect alignment with the new joists and with the new flooring. It is subtle, but noticeable, that there are lower spots. On top of that, none of the joists are plumb and true!

I have had to make part of the new flooring accessible so that we can get to the gas pipes. We need to trace them and cap-off the ones not needed and add a junction for the new line that will connect to the heater we'll install.

When we first re-wired the second floor Annette's father did it for us (I hate working with electricity). When I started to put the new joists in I found out he didn't do it the way we asked! We wanted the second floor to be done in 'zones' using J-boxes. By doing this we would be able to work on the wires easier. Well, it turns out he didn't add a single J-box!!! Everything was wired directly to the 2nd floor fuse-box. The only J-boxes were the ones the light fixtures were attached to. So, I snipped-snipped the wires and re-did them with J-boxes. Since the flooring is being attached with screws I have marked all the major areas the J-boxes are located in and if we need to work on one we can just unscrew one of the floor boards and work on it. BTW - yes, I know the J-box access should be exposed, but hey, that's one of the joys of living in a small town with no codes!!!!

Both of us lost our balance and fell off the original joists. Fortunately it was over the ceiling of the Master Bedroom; a couple of years ago I re-did this ceiling and reinforced it. After each of us fell I did run down stairs to check for damage – not even a crack or bulge!

All in all it is coming together. Doesn't look too bad so far. I will post an up-date and pics as we progress.

Mmmm....look at all that yummy pink stuff!

We think I'm allergic to it. If I even went near it I would break out and couldn't stop itching! So, the wife ended up doing this part.

And yes - I know it was installed up-side down, but you try to tell that to the wife.


More of the pink, fuzzy stuff!

WOOHOO!!! We have flooring!!!

What a difference a floor makes. We even noticed a slight drop in temp.

More of the new flooring.

The big black cable is THE main power cable that supplies the second floor. I will be dropping it to the basment in a couple of weeks.