Forty One Years Later....

I am absolutely sure that on May 12, 1972 neither Bobbie nor I had any thoughts what so ever about how we would be spending our 41st anniversary. And had we thought about it, I'm sure we would never have thought we'd be buying supplies for the cottage renovation and then getting dirty removing paneling and old insulation from the living room wall of the cottage.

Just about every room on the main floor of 3283 had seen some part of the renovation except the living room. Today we involved that room. Yesterday we selected a contractor to install heating and air conditioning in the cottage. Having a basement made running duct-work to the main floor simple. The challenge was to get lines run to the second floor. One of these vertical runs will be installed in the southeast corner of the living room. We will have to "box-out" a roughly 10 inch square raceway in that corner. This was not a problem since we had decided to make upgrades to the south wall anyway. The wall was covered by plywood paneling like all the living room walls. We will be installing closed cell spray foam insulation in the wall cavity and replacing the paneling with drywall.

Today we removed most of the paneling and pulled out the old insulation. It was a very dusty, dirty and time consuming effort.  We tried to save the paneling so it could be used to cover this heat run and possibly others.

The paneling was able to be removed but the nails 'pulled through.'
This shouldn't be a problem for the intended re-use of the material.

The insulation was old. It was from the 1920s and was a wood fiber product.
It was hard to remove and very dirty and dusty.

It's obvious that the paneling was installed well after the cottage was constructed, but I think the insulation is "original issue." I found a label on one piece. It is called Balsam Wool. A quick internet search showed that it was a state-of-the-art product in 1929. Below are pictures of the label I found and a 1929 advertisement for Balsam Wool.

The insulation was firmly stapled onto the studs and encased on both sides with a heavy waxy paper. When you tried to remove it, the paper tore easily and spilled the wood fiber "wool" all over me and the floor. Bobbie and I managed to gather up...and sweep up...all the insulation from about 2/3 of the wall today. We filled 5 or 6 large garbage bags with the stuff. It's a good thing I still have a dumpster outside.

It really was a messy job.
Bobbie helped pack the garbage bags and sweep up the loose wool.

At the end of the day paneling and insulation was removed from 2/3 of the wall.
The heating duct work will go up in the corner at the left.

It was a good weekend here in Holland. Bobbie made the trip over. She saw the new entry decks, we met with the heating contractor yesterday and contracted for the work to be done.  We changed the dividers in the addition windows to be in the right direction. They were sideways because we decided to install the square windows as casements [side opening] rather than awnings [top opening].

The place is progressing. There is still a lot of work to do. If Consumers Energy would hook us up things could move faster....and I could be living there.  That will hopefully happen soon. Next, I will finalize my selection of a roofer and get that part of the project underway.

Below are pictures of how both the west and east sides of 3283 looked this weekend.

The east side or back of 3283 on 5/11/13.

The west side or front of 3283 on 5/12/13