Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Home Improvement

Today I took a half-day and spent the afternoon ripping decaying sheetrock out of our attic. My intention is to re-insulate up there and then perhaps turn what's been a god-awful mess since we moved in into a nicely finished studio or meditation space.

Since the house was built in 1920 there's not much in the way of wiring up there--only a single outlet and a bare bulb fixture in the ceiling--so unless I have some re-wiring done it won't be particularly luxurious, but a pellet stove and a small air conditioner might make it liveable. Also new sheetrock, paint, and a nice tile floor. There's a small window that opens into the skylight over our shower, so there is a bit of natural light (and an occasional scandalous view).

I startled a good many spiders with my punching, pulling, and nail-yanking, and kept running downstairs every few minutes to turn on the TV and check for indictments. Alas, there were none. I also became filthy dirty--we had a chimney leak about five years ago and there's still a nice coating of soot hanging around--this made for a quality adhesive for the plaster dust I stirred up, and took a vigorous application of Lava soap to remove.

Tomorrow I have to go to Home Depot for those big cotton-candy rolls of pink papered fiberglass. Itchy! Installing that shit is easy and should go quickly. What I'm dreading most is cleaning up the mess I made today, and disposing of the bags of debris, which weigh a ton.