This blows

Insulation, that is....this machine does, I mean....

As you will see from the next photo, the insulation in our attic is next to nothing--and we are definitely starting to notice. Truthfully, I had never any reason to go up there, and I took the home-inspection goofball's word when he looked up there and said "oh yeah you have plenty of insulation." Perhaps he was on drugs, because this is what it looked like before Sally and I took care of business......

The stuff you are looking at is an old style of insulation called Vermiculite, which looks like ground up mica, glass, stone,, and other useless crap. I say useless, because it is. They dont use it anymore because a) it is not a good insulation and b) some of it may contain asbestos (I'm blowing in more insulation asbestos I can!!!) There was hardly any "R" value to this--you can even see how in some cases it wasnt even deep enough to cover the studs (that's what she said). Actually, they are rafters...but I couldnt make a joke unless I said studs. So yeah.

We were literally throwing money away by having this insulation like this--we were noticing the hosue wasnt holding heat very well, and we also noticed that each time it snowed we would immedately get "bare spots" on the roof--a telltale sign that heat was escaping.

Home Depot has a deal that if you buy ten bags of the loose filled insulation, you can use the ATTIC CAT (pictured above) machine for free. Other than sweating and being cramped and not being able to stand and sweating more and getting covered with pink stuff and having to vacuum for four years, this really was an enjoyable experience....and I mean that. Amanda brought the kids to Grenda's, and we thought of it as a "home improvement date," which was surprisingly a lot more hot than it sounds (pun). It was a great exercise in communication, teamwork, and camraderie, and every couple should insulate their home....haha

Here I am getting ready to blow (by the way, this loose filled stuff is great....not itchy or nuthin'....and supposedly it never "settles" and loses its R VALUE....

Amanda loaded the insulation into the machine, and inside the machine were these big propeller things that fluffed up the insulation....then it blew it out through a hose that I used up in the attic....it was actually kind of beautiful to watch--it looked like a big, pink blizzard, and only I was invited...


Kind of a tight area.....

And, finally, the finished product: I think we'll be well insulated now.