My Dad and I had a cool conversation about insulation and windows. His house is well-insulated, has great windows, and he’s recently installed some honeycomb-style blinds that are working great. I shared how our house is so old, and the old single-pane windows were either drafty or painted shut. New windows made a huge improvement.
Dad told me that at the old parsonage in Delta (my childhood home), it had single-pane windows with no storm windows. He installed some temporary plastic storm covers, and when he did the east side of the house, they all bowed out from the draft. As soon as the west side was done, they went back to flat. Yikes!
That’s not the craziest part. He said the attic was very poorly insulated – just batts among the rafters, and the dishes in the kitchen were always cold in the winter. As it turns out, there was no ceiling above the cabinets – the tops were just exposed to the attic! When they the congregation agreed to some blown-in insulation, they crammed cardboard on the tops of the cabinets first.
This is the only picture I can find of the cabinet situation, and I’m so curious to go back up in that attic now, but that isn’t happening. This is Hobbit Lauren with her huge feet, standing on the countertop to put away the dishes from our portable dishwasher. (There is another story about that at a later date.) Mark’s the one grinning at you and that’s the back of Phil’s head. I love all the old containers on the counter. That Jello? So cool.
Mark says
I’m smiling because I’m the supervisor of that work crew, not lifting a finger to help.
I never knew about the insulation, cabinets or cardboard! But I want to forget the green and pink color combination. And, yes, please tell the story of the portable dishwasher.
Brad says
Hahaha! “Hobbit Lauren”. I love it!
That’s a great picture!
And it just goes to show me that when I’m so worried about doing a fix-it job just exactly right, maybe sometimes it’s ok to just use some cardboard.