Matt with "hair"

The pressure held. ;) Both the gas line and Matt's final radiant tubing run passed their inspections, as did whatever it was up in the attic space that needed to be inspected before the cellulose could be blown in to insulate the attic.

Earlier this week Matt took all the seats out of our mini-van and made two trips to Menards to pick up as many of the 19 pound bags of cellulose insulation that he could fit. With 44 on the first run and 48 on the second, we figured we had plenty to do the attics. Those bags filled the office! And Owen and Leah had a blast building tunnels and forts with them in the day in between when we got them and when we got to use them.

Thursday was the big day. Our friend/pastor from church had offered a long time ago to fill the hopper for Matt while Matt did the actual placing of the insulation from the tube on the end of the blower.

Hi Joel!!

Joel's two children (same age as Leah and Reuben) came along with him and played with Owen and Leah. In between hefting the 19 pound bags up 3 half-flights of stairs to keep Joel supplied so he could keep Matt in business, the kids continued to build an ever-changing (and shrinking) fort. Seeing this made me want to be a kid again! The bags of cellulose are roughly block shaped, so are great for building, yet are light enough that the kids can move them themselves. They're slightly squishy, so have a bit of bounce to them, and yet the stuff is packed tightly enough inside that if a bag were to get a hole in it, it wouldn't make an instant mess. Besides, the whole addition (and creeping into the main house!) was a mess of dust from the job anyway...It's hard to imagine something better than this!

And in between the play, we tallied that Owen probably dragged well over 1000 pounds of insulation up those stairs, and Leah and Jamie (both age six) pulled their fair share as well.

Mid-way through the day, Matt popped in to ask me something.

"Hi, Matt! So that's what you look like with hair!" (Yes, gray hair, but still, it was funny seeing him with fuzz all over his head. I can joke about this because he knows that I really really like his bald head - I think it's because it reminds me of my dad whom I love and respect very much! Regardless, I much prefer the "no hair" look to the "gray fuzz" look!)

Turns out they were going through the insulation faster than he'd anticipated, and needed me to run to Menards to pick up more. Hmm. Okay - Reu's napping - I can put Leah on the video monitor to keep an eye on him, and if Matt only takes out the back seats of the van and leaves the middle seats, I can bring Rinnah and Krassi with me. So off we went, and picked up twenty bags, getting back to the house with only a five-minute lag in work time for the men. They sent me off again for another load, and I got 25 that time, and by the end of the day, they had 15 or so left unused (which will go in the main level inner walls eventually). Phew. We're still getting meals from people at church on a semi-regular schedule, and I was so glad that this was a day when I had a meal coming! That made spending nearly two hours running back and forth to Menards loading and unloading insulation that much more possible.

Yesterday (Friday), the mechanical contractor we've hired to handle the natural gas connections was back making a few more connections (running the line for the gas fireplace and installing the boiler for the radiant heat) which meant that today (Matt's birthday!) he could spend his day getting all of the tubing from the various radiant heating zones hooked up to the circulating panels and electrical connections run to the various thermostat locations. It's still possible that we'll have heat in the addition by Christmas if the mechanical contractor can make it back here early next week. When Matt came in today to get ready for supper I noticed he was still in his pajamas, which he'd worn underneath his Carhartt's all day. Not quite the same as actually lounging around in your pjs all day, but still not a bad way to spend your birthday. ;)

Matt's got a story from the insulating that I think I'll have him share in his own words. [Handing the keyboard off to Matt...]

When I was filling out the paperwork for the insulation blower, one of the questions was if I wanted to pay an additional $3.50 for a damage waiver.  Basically a form of insurance in case something were to break while I was using the equipment, I would not have to pay to have it repaired.  I thought momentarily..."$3.50 is not that bad," but then the next thought was "God is my damage waiver."  I don't need to put my confidence in an "insurance" scheme when I can trust that God will either take care of it or will provide what I need to cover it if something does get damaged.  So I declined the offer.

Driving back home with the blower on the trailer behind Chad's truck, I kept glancing in the mirror to make sure it was still there.  When we got back to the house, Joel and Kyle were both here waiting to help me carry the blower up the stairs.  Joel and I were able to get it down the stairs at the end of the day by ourselves, but it was nice having a third person to get it all the way up to the top floor.  After some wrestling with tangled cords, we had it ready to go and hit the switch and nothing happened.  Now what.  Oh yes, read the directions.  This must happen a lot because the first thing to do when it is not working is to make sure the emergency shut-off is not pushed in.  It was and as soon as we got it pulled out, we were ready to go.

I climbed into the attic and we got started.  It was going way slower than I remember it going other times I had done this.  We figured out it was because we had the blower motor going, but did not have the agitator going.  Once we got that figured out we were off and running.  Periodically Joel or I would stop the blower if we needed to move or grab another bag of insulation.  Not a big deal.  However, one time I heard a clank and then Joel muffled voice saying something as the blower cut out.  Turns out he had dropped the utility knife he had been using to slice open the bags into the hopper.  So with everything powered off, we start digging through the hopper feeling around for the knife.  No luck and the insulation was low enough in the hopper that in addition to feeling around we could also see that it was not there.  We pulled off the hose and checked to see if we could see it at the end of the hose or in the bottom of the blower...nothing.

There was a reason why I did not purchase the damage waiver and now I was going to find out how good my reasoning was.  I looked at Joel and said I guess we just have to turn it on and see what happens.  Either it will work or it is going to completely jam.  I turned it on and after about 5 seconds it was going fine, so I turned it back off so we could re-connect the hose.  When I looked in the hopper, there was the utility knife laying on the top of the fan cylinder in the bottom of the hopper.  I KNOW it was not there before we did the test run because both Joel and I had looked with our eyes and I had run my hands back and forth over the 3 sections of the fan cylinder that were accessible from the hopper.  Somehow it had been in the fan cylinder, but down instead of up and did get pushed toward the opening where it would have jammed, but just so happened to stop out in the open where we could retrieve it.  The rest of the day was uneventful except for having all of the attic spaces insulated!

Tonight I was reading in Psalms, just picking up where I had left off the day before, and I was in Psalm 33.  This is how the end reads (verses 18-22):

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
On those who hope for his lovingkindness,
To deliver their soul from death
And to keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waits for the Lord;
He is our help and our shield.
For our heart rejoices in Him,
Because we trust in His holy name.
Let Your lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us,
According as we have hoped in You.