Progress Report

The attic ventilation is complete.  This went in a few weeks ago, and yesterday James did the roof vent.

I don't think he quite got the message that this is supposed to be vertical, adjusted to the pitch of the roof.  But, it's done and I can live with it.  The important thing is that it works!  It was spinning around when I took this photo.  James says it's lots cooler up there now than before he did any work, and that's what it's all about.

The pest control guy came by this morning to check out the crawlspace and give recommendations.  Turns out he's a friend of my cousin in Rockmart, which is always nice.  He says no treatment is necessary, that it's best to just solve the moisture problem and then the wood rot and other issues will go away, since they require moisture to live.  His main recommendation was to get the dryer vent hooked up to the outside vent, because that's putting moisture into the crawlspace every time I use it.  I didn't realize that, but it makes sense and it's easy to solve.  He felt that was currently causing most of my moisture problems.  Lots of the floor insulation has fallen down, worse than the photos my inspector took, and is probably all filled with moisture and not doing a good job.  So, I need to get that taken out and then plan to replace it before winter sets in again.  That'll give me time to put the $$ away.  My cousin says his neighbor is a contractor and has excess insulation and can probably get it free or really cheap, so I'll follow that up. After that's done, I can get a moisture barrier down, but he felt there was no rush on that if I take care of the other stuff.

I spent an hour or so scraping outside paint, and let me tell you there is NO better way to make the sun come out around here. Twice now it's happened -- I've gone out while it's overcast and relatively cool to do this work, and out pops the sun.  This is hot work in the sunshine!  I didn't push myself -- no rush, after all.  And now, I think I'm lazing the rest of this day away.