Now It Looks Like Progress!

So, at the end of the week, we’ve finished the electrical, including some in-wall speaker wire and coax, and one Cat-5 Ethernet line. Most of the walls and all of the ceiling are insulated:

This is a bigger deal than you might imagine. Previously our kitchen had zero insulation, but stayed somewhat warm even at night, because the old stove had five not-terribly-efficient pilot lights. Indeed, we used to reheat leftovers by setting them on the griddle, without lighting it, and we warmed plates in the oven. The pilot lights were quite enough for those tasks!

But since the old stove was disconnected, the kitchen has been cold at night. And once the walls had all the lathe and plaster removed, it got even colder. We dreaded going in there as much for the chill as for the construction mess.

So we’re pretty excited about the R13. If we can just seal up the window sills more completely, and get the windows to close fully, we should be able to cope with our new stove having zero pilot lights.

Other progress made includes “getting the lid on” — the ceiling is sheetrocked. But probably the biggest deal, something I’m particularly proud of persevering to make happen, is the ventilation duct for our (forthcoming) hood for the stove:

The fisheye effect might make it tough to see, but it’s between the ceiling joists, and so it is entirely hidden now that the new ceiling is up. The alternative we were otherwise faced with was to go out along the side of the room, below the ceiling, and through or behind the cabinets that will eventually be wrapped around the refrigerator. It wasn’t going to look as nice, and it was going to cost us probably two cabinet shelves.

Next week: more sheetrock, then mudding, etc. But the big deal will be the plumbing. More on that in the next house post.