Take the Scenic Route

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

A Touch of Pink Frost...

Another sunny day, another frost in the valley.

And not so much Pink Frost, as Pink Warmth ...

Over the weekend, I started insulating the ceiling. I'd been getting frustrated that after a crisp sunny day, and arriving home to warm house, the heat would dissipate over the evening. Similarly, on wet or cloudy days, it seemed that the fire had to be set to at least "mild inferno" to maintain a reasonable sort of living temperature, and "high inferno" to get it up to temperature in the first place. Plus, being a greenie sort of scotsman type person, there's a part of me that dislikes spending too much money on electricity, or burning too much wood.

So anyway, installing Pink Batts is one of the single most unpleasant things I've ever done. Roof cavities generally suck, because they're cramped, dusty, and either too hot or too cold. In this case, too hot, especially when you're wearing a dust mask, long sleeves, and long pants, to keep the miserable little bits of fiberglass out of your person. I have bruised on my knees, hips, hip-joint, and on my bottom rib from sliding round enclosed spaces on hard pieces of wood, and aching muscles from being contorted into odd positions. It's probably also not an advisable past time if you're claustrophobic. At one point, I'd squeezed into a particularly tight space, and basically couldn't move most of my body in any direction, when I came face to face with a Rat. Fortunately, it was dead and dessicated, but still a little traumatizing. The other annoying thing, as you crawl in and out of funny spaces is the number of times that you hit your head/elbow/knee on something. Or, also pretty fun, when you have lots of bits of broken fibreglass inside your clothes, and you're then sliding round, rubbing it into your skin. Kind of like (surf)board rash, but glass is sharper than sand, and tends to get into your skin.

However, apart from being fabulously unpleasant, the living area seems to hold its heat a lot better. Now I just have to get psyched up to do the rest of the house.

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