As an insulation product, wool has significant advantages. It is about R3.3 per inch, putting it in the same class as fiberglass, but without the associated itchiness, toxic binders, or hazardous dust. It is naturally fire resistant, insect resistant, sound dampening, and moisture buffering. Finally, wool is a renewable resource with far lower embodied energy costs than fiberglass, foam, or rock wool. The only real disadvantage is price–even the scraps used in insulation are labor-intensive to produce.

From an installer’s perspective, sheep wool insulation is wonderful compared to traditional fiberglass or rock wool insulation. Rock wool is the worst to handle and I always suit up in coveralls and safety glasses before I touch it. Despite those precautions, I feel itchy even after a shower. The new improved fiberglass insulation I’ve handled causes a tiny bit of itching but really isn’t bad. Sheep wool insulation is the only one I’ve installed in my pajamas and tank tops. There’s no itching! I just wish it was a little easier to cut.

So far, we are only using the wool insulation in the upstairs end walls. The inner layer of each end wall was framed in 2x3s so we can pull each batt in half to cover twice as much area. (Six inch thick sheep wool batts evenly tear into two three inch thick batts.) During the 3 years since we bought the wool bale, Lee forgot that it was intended for 16 on center, and he had the walls framed at 24 on center. This meant we had to cut each batt in half length wise and install them sideways. Lee used sheep shears to cut the bats in half.

I found the sheep shears hard to use, so I ended up using kitchen shears for trimming ends that were too long.

Once the wool bats were in place I tacked them up with a staple gun. The whole process was super easy, but time consuming.

The picture below is a finished end wall using the sheep wool insulation. Unlike most building products, it has a pleasant smell like a hay barn or a horse blanket.

We plan to use sheep wool insulation in a few other areas of the house, so we are going to have to track down another source for the batts.

Things I’ve learned about drywall.

1. We are ridiculously slow.
2. I need bigger muscles.
3. You can use your head as a third arm.

Starting this project was a little bit intimidating since neither of us had much experience with drywalling. Lee read lots of books, watched videos, and finally it was time for us to start. We looked like giraffes trying to roller skate while putting up that first sheet.

Lee made two drywall T’s which came in handy.

A new project such as this required new tools. Lee was very excited to try out his new Dewalt drywall screw gun. A few minutes later, the muttering started from his general direction. Let’s just say that doing a new task with a new tool while being slightly OCD does not make sinking drywall screws any easier. After developing about 200 new white hairs, practicing on a scrap piece of drywall, and searching the internet to figure out what he was doing wrong, Lee switched over to a small cordless screwdriver. It gave him more control than the fast moving screw gun. Maybe with a little more experience he can switch back to the new tool.

Lee got to use another new tool, a drywall router, when we came to the first fixture box. I think he developed 5 new wrinkles in that process. Lesson learned: extend the router bit more so it actually follows the fixture.

We got to the second fixture box and learned another lesson. Don’t apply too much pressure to the drywall or it will bust when you are still cutting the hole. I think Lee lost a day off his life to that one.

The third fixture box went slightly better and the fourth box went fairly smooth. I say fairly because while it routered out well, the process started with a little Marco-Polo exercise. We forgot to mark the box location before we installed the drywall.

The first screw lines started out pretty lousy.

The later screw lines got much better. Lee is still having problems getting the screws to not tear out at the butt joints. If someone has a wonderful piece of advice on that, please do share!! I think this is the first time he has wished that a 2×4 was actually 2″ wide.

Man, oh man, what a beautiful sight! Lee knew we would get to this stage but I have to say there were times when I had my doubts. The drywall makes it seem like a real house, not just a bunch of ideas that are so very far from completion. I am so happy!!

We finished the stairwell drywall tonight. I think it’s about time for me to start singing love songs to my new drywall. Or maybe I should run up and down our street screaming “I HAVE DRYWALL!!!” I did tell a few neighbors I was going to do that.

The shed door was cut from a thick sheet of concrete form plywood. Cedar trim was then applied to dress it up in the style of a traditional carriage door. We painted it green because that is Lee’s favorite color.

After much deliberation, we selected strap hinges from Pacific Gate Works. We wanted something that would impart a sense of age and tie this new shed to our old house. The hinges really are massive, with thick steel straps and cast iron pivots.

The latch is a twisted ring latch. It arrived with a glossy black finish, so Lee resprayed it in a matte to better match the strap hinges. He also primed and painted the stainless hasp and lock which secures the door. The latch turned out really well, but the paint on the hasp easily chips off.

Lee built the shelving units really quickly based on ideas from a youtube video. The side shelves are two feet deep, so we added crossbars to each level to prevent sagging. We also built shelves across the back (not pictured) which meet the side shelves. The rear shelves are only 16 inches deep and more closely spaced so that one extra shelf fits in the same vertical space.

There’s no picture of the final shelving layout. Immediately after we finished the shelves we started filling them with items that have been clogging up our house projects for years. In the long term, it will be a “garden shed” but in the short term it’s a “bringing some order to our life shed!”

Two years ago, we hired out some structural work and a new roof. While this greatly improved the “bones” of the house, the corbels were destroyed in the process and some of the front shingle siding was removed.

One of our summer goals was to restore the front facade of the house to better-than-original condition. To that end, the following changes were made:

• Rigid foam was applied to the exterior front wall.
• Three front windows were replaced with insulated double hung windows of the same style and proportions.
• A new door was hung.
• Upgraded corbels were built and installed.
• The porch floor structure was leveled and a new deck installed.
• The porch ceiling structure was leveled and historically accurate soffit was installed.
• New cedar shingle siding was installed.

Only the front of the house was painted as there are still windows to replace and siding to fix on the other three sides. The porch was finished with a solid deck stain which was color-matched to the dark brown trim color. The primary trim color in these pictures looks white but its actually a creamy color. Our next front yard project is to finish digging out those stumps so we can put in a more appropriate sidewalk.

I am very pleased with how the colors turned out. I still catch myself staring at the front of the house as it looks so odd after three years of a big dirty white mess. This next picture renders the colors a little more cool than is accurate. The small rectangles on the front pillars will eventually mount porch lights.

Our front door had to be custom ordered from Rogue Valley because it was so narrow. The doug fir door arrived unfinished, leaving us with intimidating process of applying stain and multiple coats of spar varnish. In combination with the new facade and fresh paint, I think we have a pretty welcoming front porch for the first time in years. Just don’t open the door … it’s all saw dust and project mess beyond.

I think Lee’s old tractor is going to look pretty cute under it’s new tractor port.

Lee made corbels for the back of the shed too.

The house needs a few more shingles before we can call it done. Then it will be primer and paint time too.

The last corbels I built for our dormer, had through-pegged bridle joints with hand-chiseled square holes and were rather time consuming to build. I wanted to use the same base plans for these new corbels, but with some changes to simplify construction.

The new corbels still have a true corner bridle joint (because it’s pretty fast to cut on a table saw and strong), but the hand-chiseled peg holes are gone. Instead, I built a template and used a plunge router and a collar to cut 1/2″ deep peg holes. My contractor said I should just tack on little blocks as ‘pegs’, but by gluing and pinning them in these shallow holes they should resist twisting and splitting with age. Of course, the glued-in portion of the pegs needed their corners rounded off, so I made a small table saw jig to precisely nick each corner of each peg. The pegs were then cut to length at a miter saw with a stop block.

A new addition to my workflow is a pair of 1/64″-accurate dial calipers. Robin probably thought this measuring tool would just make me more OCD, but it actually simplified construction. By eliminating much of the guesswork, it was easier to set up accurate cuts and the pieces came together with less adjusting.

I still like our corbel design a lot, but I grimace to think that there are 10 more to build for the house.

Our new door was installed. I can finally open our front door by myself now. It is beyond amazing. This is what it looks from inside our house. It makes the whole rest of our house look pretty shabby.

The new porch had to be shimmed to make it level again. All in all I think it looks pretty nice.

This picture is several days old now and more cedar shingles have been installed along with several corbels. I can’t believe how nice it is starting to look.

The garden shed was roofed with composite shingles. We used the same brand and color as the roofing for our house, but went with a cheaper grade.

The guys aren’t going to be back until next week so that gives us time to finish making 7 corbels, finish the 900 coats of spar varnish on the front door, and primer the underside of the new porch decking. That ought to keep us plenty busy. I should also probably try to corral some of the mess that seems to have exploded everywhere. There are more wood scraps, sawdust, tools, demolition trash, and stray nails in my living room than I know what to do with, let alone the front yard and around the garden shed.

Don’t worry. We aren’t going to leave it like that! This front wall had foam insulation and new sheathing applied to the outside (because the front door position precludes thickening the wall inward). Our workers ran out of time to cut the holes and set the windows. They’ll be back during the weekend. We think.

Until then, we suspect all our neighbors are driving by and staring at our new window-less facade in abject horror. We don’t know for sure, because we have no windows to stare back at them through.

Front wall aside, the remodeling updates are going pretty well. Our shed was framed in just two days and now awaits shingles on the roof, cedar shake on the walls, trim, and a door . Our framer friend was pretty proud of his work on the shed, telling us that we were going to create massive shed envy on our block, and that it was “a work of art.” I have to agree with him. It’s cuter than our house already. Then again, our house has OSB for windows.

Robin is excited about moving boxes into the tool shed, but I’m keen on filling it with tools. It will have room for the tiller and mower on one side, a workbench on the other, and shelving units in the rest of the space. I’m finally going to have a place to store hand tools, sharpening tools, motor oil, gas tanks, fencing equipment, irrigation equipment and all those other things that normal people don’t store in their living rooms.