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It is August 7 and last week marked 6 months since construction site work began.  From the start of site work to completing the foundation pour took 6 weeks.  After 6 months they are ready to start installing drywall.  It has been quite a journey with lots of significant life events since we purchased the property just over 3 years ago. This post catches us up to the current construction status.  Therefore, I plan to post about once a week as progress takes place.  Posts will probably be shorter since there is not a lot to cover in a single week.

The insulators finished all the foam, fiberglass, and sealant installation.  Just before insulation started, it dawned on me that the large TV and sound system in the great room is on the same wall as the “bunk room”.  The planned furniture arrangement puts the bunks up against that wall.  This could be a problem if we send grandkids to bed while other folks are watching movies.  I should have specified sound insulation for that wall.

As I mentioned in the last post, the insulators brought the wrong interior sound insulation material for the bathroom and utility room walls.  One day, I noticed a bunch of insulation sticking out of the roll off construction dumpster.  They had thrown out a complete bag of that insulation.  I grabbed it and decided to insulate the great room interior wall myself, with U.W.’s help of course.

U.W. and I went out early one morning after the insulators had finished and insulated that wall with the material they had discarded.  It may not be the perfect material, but it is better than nothing.  In under an hour, we had the wall insulated.  Hope it makes a little difference in the sound transmission between those rooms.

Friends from Katy were in the area this week and toured the house with us.  It was good to see them. They had provided some input to the GarageDominium design drawings and gave further good input during this visit.

I haven’t done any product testing or experimentation lately, but I found an opportunity. U.W. is always an eager assistant, so she could hardly wait. The builder and project manager told me many times about how much difference the insulation would make in the interior temperature.  The heat has been brutal, so any relief is welcome.  Of course, I had to do a test to prove out their claims.  I didn’t really expect much difference between inside and outside temperature because there are no garage doors, and all of the windows are open.  Workers keep the windows open to provide some breeze as they work.

We measured outdoor temperature along with temperature in a few interior locations before the insulation was installed.  Then last week we repeated the measurements since the insulation was complete.  We used a digital meat thermometer and an old mercury thermometer.  Uninsulated the difference between inside and outside was 5 to 7 degrees on the digital and 4 to 5 degrees on the mercury.  After insulation the difference between inside and outside was 3 to 6 degrees on the digital and 2 to 5 degrees on the mercury.

As I suspected, there is not a significant difference before and after insulation.  We did not measure the attic temperature before insulation but decided to check it after insulation.  Interestingly, the insulated attic was one of the cooler areas measured.  It was an interesting experiment and I’m sure the insulation will make a bigger difference when door and windows are closed.

Since we are nearing the drywall phase, the builder and I were discussing interior paint.  He mentioned that several clients had painted their garages light blue, Sherwin Williams Sky High to be exact.  They did this to reduce the spider webs and bugs in the garage.  I couldn’t let this go unresearched.  Come to find out, painting porch ceilings blue is a common thing in the South.  The color is called Haint Blue which is more of a blue green or teal.  The practice started about 200 years ago to repel ghosts.  Supposedly it does work to keep insects away, but there isn’t any scientific proof.

I’m all for repelling bugs and ghosts.  However, an additional color is a significant cost change order, so I’m not sure it is worth it.  But if it would keep Gremlins out of the GarageDominium, I might reconsider!