Bungal Haus: Keeping It Cosy At The Midnight Block Party

We have a 90 year old haus. I was not surprised to discover it had zero insulation. If I could have, I would have bought this stuff to insulate with. As we would have had to go through a distributor in Iowa, husband thought it would take too long and be too expensive {probably}. We didn't want the blow-in stuff, so we compromised and got this instead. I insisted that it be formaldehyde-free, no FEMA-trailer type poisoning is going to happen in my haus. If you live in our area, you can find what we used at Lowe's and Menard's. At the time of purchase The Home D. didn't carry it.

Insulating was incredibly easy. Unless you are physically unable, never pay someone to do it for you. If you know how to use a utility knife and a stapler, you know how to insulate. If you are a perfectionist, instructions can be found on the previous links. Word of caution though, make sure you know the top from the bottom of your stapler. Steve had his upside down. He didn't think anything was coming out, checked it {like a man, facing him} and ended up stapling his stomach. He's skinny, he doesn't need his stomach stapled. The poor guy was in pain for days.

Also, you'll need to be on a ladder. After hearing horror stories about men literally breaking their necks from falling off ladders, I am super paranoid about their use. Even if you are a yoga master with insane balance skills, always have a buddy near by if you are going to be on one.

While you're insulating or framing, take this time to put in some blocking as necessary. We did this for Steve's magnetic knife strips and our hood. We had thought about the blocking for knives right away. Unfortunately, we did not have the same forethought for the hood. The night before the drywall guys came over we were discussing where the hardwiring need to be. We had the hood for a month and finally decided to open the box. Thankfully we did it then and not the next day because while reading the instructions we discovered we needed blocking to hang it. Duh.

It was now about 10:30pm and we are still discussing mounting heights . . .

Me: For gas heat it needs to be at least 30" from the top of the stove.

Husband: {shaking his head} Too low. I don't want to hit my head on it. I want it up here. {waves his hand above his head}

Me: This is not a commercial kitchen! {standing on a stool holding a tape measure to demonstrate} If you put it at 42" the top of it will be here. That will look dumb. You get 36" above the stove at the most.

Husband: Fine. 36 inches.

I did a little sketch and I told him where to put the blocking. Steve was tired but did it anyway knowing that it was insanely stupid to pay someone to put drywall in, only to remove it later. It was midnight when we finished.

Tip: Write down where you put your blocking and read the instructions of anything you'll be installing in advance so you can be prepared. The only midnight block parties I'll do from now on will involve some heavy drinking with neighbors on front porches.