I'm not even quite sure where to start. The concept was simple enough..... rent a machine from Home Depot, dump the insulation into the machine and pump it up into your attic. Easy~ right? Should only take about 2 hours~ right? The hose seals off to prevent too much insulation from getting in the house~ right? If you answered yes to any of those questions then you didn't guess correctly where the story was going!
The professionals have hoses long enough to have the machine (I have no idea what it is called) outside the house~ Home Depot did not. Korby's plan B~ put the machine in the upstairs bathroom and run the hose from there. Now my my upstairs bathroom is decent size, but there definitely wasn't room for the machine, 30 bags of insulation and a person to dump bags of insulation into the machine. So they (Korby and my dad) had to pile the bags at the top of the stairs instead. So much for cleaning my house. Obviously they needed access to the attic, so there was a ladder in the middle of my upstairs hallway blocking both the boys bedroom door and my bedroom door. Korby tried to prepare for the mess by laying down tarps, blankets and taping off the bathroom door~ it didn't help.
Then of course the machine wasn't working. What was supposed to be a quick morning project quickly turned into an all day mess. Korby had to make multiple trips back to Home Depot and make multiple phone calls to Home Depot as well. It took them about 5 hours just to get the machine to work. Since no one was expecting it to take longer than a couple of hours I didn't think twice about not having access to my room or the boys room. My mistake! The boys ended up having a tv day downstairs since all their toys were nicely cleaned up (in their room), Jackson didn't get a nap (making for an extra long day!), and I had to spend the day in my grimy work out clothes with no access to any of my toiletries or even my purse! Needless to say it was a pretty frustrating day for everyone.
By the end of the day everyone was tired, frustrated and my entire upstairs had a layer of dust, dirt, insulation on it. The pictures below really don't do it justice as to just how dirty everything was. When my mom saw the bathroom her mouth dropped open and she was speechless. It looked worse than when we were in the middle of our remodel~ which was pretty bad.
I was feeling a little like the fish from "The Cat in the Hat" when he gets mad at the cat for the mess he made and tells him to leave. No~ I did not tell Korby to leave, but I was pretty upset about the mess he had made. However~ just like the cat~ my husband it the BEST at cleaning up the messes that he makes. He worked longer and harder than any of us to clean everything up. And he had a good attitude about it. Korby and I might not always agree on how to get things done, but he is amazing at following through with whatever he starts and he always puts 110% into everything he does. I'm still not sure if it was worth it. It was one miserable messy Saturday, but it did save us quite a bit of money and hopefully it will be beneficial in the long run to have this done. I love my hard working, determined, reliable, helpful and amazing husband!
The moral of the story~ NEVER let your husband blow in insulation himself unless he is a licensed contractor or you are going to be out of town!
Now I'm off to dust! (again)
4 comments:
Phew... I am so glad that day is over! I was having a hard time believing everything going on when we were talking on the phone. I'm so glad that even though it was a messy disaster that #1 it is done, #2 you saved some money and #3 you have a husband who not only learns new skills but is willing to clean up after himself when it doesn't go as planned.
ewwwww. Looks nasty. I'm glad Korby is good about cleanup because I know if I were in your situation and my husband wasn't good about it, I'd be crying buckets.
Glad it's OVER and hopefully that money saved will come in handy dandy one day.
Oooh, feeling your pain!! Bryce decided to do this, too!!! We didn't end up with the machine, though (not yet, at least), just rolls of insulation everywhere. I can vouch for how that stuff gets EVERYWHERE and you're walking around trying not to breathe, etc. etc.... But do you have a warmer house now?? :)
Oh, Dalen did that several years ago. But like most painful memories, I have tried hard to forget it. Glad it's over for you!
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