Patching up the holes.

Putting insulation in the kitchen walls makes a big difference. Here's Adam in the process of insulating and also pulling out the duct from the old exhaust fan:


A close-up of just what was making our kitchen so cold:

This is where the exhaust fan...exhausted. A wee metal flap is all that was protecting us from the elements. Needless to say, this hole is now patched up and the vent will be removed and repaired when we do exterior work/paint in the spring/summer.
By the way, nice mortise and tenon joint to the right, huh?

We have also put up walls in the kitchen and will post those photos soon. Now THAT makes a difference in keeping the room warm.

A Warmer Kitchen.

I, yes I, Reagan, can actually write this entry in the first person. I did a lot of work - all by myself! Adam did give me some over-the-phone assistance, though, so that I wouldn't blow myself and the house to bits with the air compressor. But I'm pretty proud of myself.

Monday was a snow day. My boss called that morning to tell me to stay home, that the roads were bad (for Boston, that's saying something). So I stayed home and worked on the kitchen. All day. But what better time to add some insulation to the house?

In addition to putting in some insulation in the upper parts of the walls, where the old cellulose had settled and left empty space, I continued what we had started with the beadboard. I carefully (most of the time) took it off and then turned it around. (That's right - sing it with me: "Turn the bead around...love to hear per-cus-sion!" Or maybe "the nail gun.") But, since these walls are exterior walls, I put in some fiberglass insulation to try to chip away at our heating bill. One can dream, anyway...


All the boards off the back wall. There just seems to be a layer of plaster insulation between the room and the exterior clapboards. Well, at least there's something.


With insulation added, and some boards already in place. And let me tell you, by the way, that getting these boards out from behind the window sill and door moldings without destroying everything was no easy task. Thank God these are getting painted over.


All back on! Next...

This corner might not be necessary, since it's most likely going to be covered with cabinets, but it's a small area.


Done and insulated!


This is an old picture that you've seen before, but just to give you an idea of what the beadboard looked like before...


I decided to go only so far with this wall...the area behind the stove will be covered with cabinets, and, well, I was really tired by this point. Tired of battling the board.


And it's all done! I had to take a board from somewhere else to fill in that left side, but I did it. Now the kitchen has a rustic, cabin-like feel. And maybe it's just mental, but I feel like it's a little warmer in there now, too.

AND, now that our electrical roughing is in, we can put up sheetrock! Finally, we'll have some walls!

This Can't Be Good.

What good is a porch if it doesn't protect your head from deadly icicles?

An Unexpected Surprise.

Generally, with home improvement, you don't really want to know what's behind the walls. It just might make you question the laws of physics (again and again).

We decided that instead of spending hours upon goopy hours of stripping the beadboard in the kitchen, we'd simply turn them around. Yes, there aren't actually any "beads" on the back of beadboard, but it's reusing the material and maybe contributing to a more "modern" look in the kitchen. We decided to start with the short wall.

However, once we pulled all the boards off, we noticed something peculiar about the brick backing of the fireplace.

Yes, you might be able to notice that there are what seem to be holes in that brick wall, which is the back of the fireplace in the dining room.

Yep, there they are. This is looking in from the fireplace opening. This whole area of masonry was totally deteriorated. One wall of the fireplace, which holds up the chimney, was not holding up the chimney. So, we did what we had to do. We went to Home Depot and bought some bricks and mortar. And we fixed it.

We took out all the loose bricks and cleared away the old mortar.

And we patched it up.



Good as new! Now back to those boards...



Ta-da! They need to be sanded down, and we'll probably paint them, but not bad, huh?