Daily Dose Blogger Bios
a little progress
So maybe I was a bit harsh last time when I said that nothing had been done to the house since last we'd checked on it. I just downloaded my photos, and saw a few things worth mentioning.
They sealed up the western wall (which had huge gaps between the wall boards before. Now there's a nice plywood layer on the exterior and a Styrofoam layer on top of that (see below):
With all of these insulating layers, our heat should be free. Plus, though it's hard to see in the photo, a roof gutter has been installed on this side as well. Another step towards victory over the water in the basement.
A couple of questions for the world at large-- feel free to comment:
1) What's the difference between the Styrofoam and the Tyvek? I'm too damn tired to go searching the web for the answer... doesn't someone out there in blog land just know this?
2) Now that we have a white gutter, does that mean we have to have white trim? I kind of wanted to have a color since the rest of the exterior will be that gray Nantucket-looking cedar shingle, but I worry that it will look insane with the already white gutter. We saw a house with a similar color situation up the street, and their trim is black, which Josh loves, of course. He says it's really chic. I was hoping for something more cheerful, but I may lose out as cheerful might equal insane, in this instance. Any thoughts?
Properly installed:
Tyvek is an air barrier and moisture barrier. (but still allows the building to breathe since vapor can still transmit through it)
Extruded Styrofoam (the blue or pink stuff.. not the white expanded bead stuff) is an air barrier and a vapor barrier. (the vapor can still migrate out of the building through the joints in the panels)
Wow. Thanks. I should ask you guys more questions!
I don't think the gutter color should determine anything. If you are using a Nantucket Gray shingle I wouldn't recommend black trim. Although white trim would look nice- very clean and cute, I've seen a few houses done with a dark dark green, blue or even purple. The green looks especially nice.
Brooke, I know exactly how frustrated you are -- my husband and I bought an older home and have just finished renovating it. I don't know what kind of parallel world contractors live in that allow them to have such elastic schedules, but wherever it is, their time has no relation to ours. And we've run into so many problems caused by the original owners cutting corners that I started calling the house "the stop-loss order." But we're supposed to be moving in next weekend, so perhaps this will all end well -- as, I hope, will your and Josh's building saga.