Old House and the mysteries they contain

This summer one of the biggest jobs on the house we are doing is the renovation of our eldest son's bedroom. It has ALWAYS been the coldest room in the house and it is significant a job to repair.It is on the second floor....which makes re insulating it a question of doing it from the INSIDE... which entailed him to move out of his room temporarily.

So now the summer holiday's are here the job has begun. It is already turning up some interesting discoveries and as we thought .... the explanation for it being so much colder is revealed.

Packing up his equipment to take it out......

The tear down begins and the crowbars go into play........ Drew and Patrick attacking the sheet rock.

Well now..... isn't THAT interesting! Looks like a squirrel nest but one can never be really sure.... ewwww.

Not only evidence of rodents of some description but also BEE'S.... no creatures it was an abandoned hive... but we saved all the bee'swax to reuse for different projects in the future... there was quite a significant amount.

Behind the sheet rock and the decomposing insulation  there were holes to the outside vinyl siding!!!! Yeah that would DEFINITELY explain the lack of tightness in winter. Now it can be repaired.

The boards to the outside are wide - about two foot ..... amazing.

So with all the sheet rock removed..... then the internal insulation such that it was removed outside and bagged up..... the next stage was to remove all the old nails and staples and repair the external wood.

Once that was done..... it was time to insulate and we had some two part spray on insulation foam for the job.... not only does it insulate but it provides a barrier to animals and insects and..... it was free. So we used it.

Now we have an air tight and structurally sound external wall.... today we begin the second outside wall....