Before we put the insulation in, we put insect control on all of the horizontal surfaces so it will be permanently sealed in the walls. We used Diatomaceous Earth – insects in general, Timbor (trade name for a boron powder) – wood eating insects, and boric acid – for ants and roaches. These are all inert ingredients, so as long as they stay dry they will last indefinitely. We also treated all the horizontal surfaces under the house. These are all relatively harmless, organic chemicals.

We used pink insulation for the 6″ exterior walls, but for the 4″ interior walls we used a brown insulation made from recycled coke bottles. Oddly enough, it is the color of coke and furry. One daughter walked in and said, “Why do we have Sasquatch in the walls?” and a second came in later and said, “Wow, we have wookies in our walls!”

We finally got all the drywall up on the walls and for the most part taped, mudded, and sanded several times. We are almost ready for wall paint, but first we have to finish the ceilings and get them painted to keep from dripping on painted walls. We bought a  drywall lift to help with the ceiling and it has definitely been worth the investment. It was only a little more to buy one than rent one for several days. All the rooms except the bathroom have the ceilings drywalled, taped, and mudded at least once. Hopefully tomorrow, we will have everything ready for paint. 

The stairway proved the most challenging to drywall and required some backwoods engineering that most definitely wouldn’t meet OSHA standards. There are two large beams running from the top of the stairs to the top of the window opposite it. Boards were laid across those and while it rocks pretty bad when you walk on it and it is at the top of the second story window suspended over a stairway, it is doing its job. The drywall is up and mudded, and the paneling and boards will go up before we take it down. The only problem is that we have to climb over the beams and the sawhorse they are laying on (at the top of a flight of stairs) to access the bedrooms.