The rockers proceed through the house at a grueling pace, fitting sheets of drywall and cutting holes for utility boxes and light fixtures. Apparently they get paid by the square foot, but even at speed their work is pristine. A separate crew from Poulin Drywall began taping the seams today and applied the first coat of “mud”, aka plaster or joint compound. The goal here is to make all the inconsistencies – the screw holes and the seams between drywall sheets – disappear into a perfectly flat wall.

Tape and mud. (The picture is blurry because he moves so fast.)

We carpenters (Colin was tickled pink when I called him a carpenter the other day, as if my opinion counts) know better than to meddle in such affairs. When rain kept us indoors this week, we busied ourselves with sealing and insulating a few remaining locales. The joists above the basement and first floor, which sit atop double walls, received a dose of foam around the perimeter followed by insulation batts cut to size. I strongly recommend long sleeves and gloves if you ever work with insulation batts. Above the second floor, every ceiling perimeter needed a bead of acoustical sealant… recall that the second-floor ceiling is part of the airtight envelope. But now that the ceiling has been rocked, it’s pitch black up in the attic! So Terry and Colin climbed up with their headlamps today and did the job.

Insulation batts fill the space between floors.

Colin and Terry go spelunking in the attic.

Miraculously, the weather cooperated enough for some outdoor work as well. In a mild rain, we raised trusses for the screened porch. These trusses come from Adam Lumber, who delivered them with the gable roof trusses way back when… we’ve stored ‘em in the Barn for months. Colin studied the key plan they provided with the delivery and solved the puzzle of which truss went where. Terry laid out the location of the first few trusses atop the ledger beams, and once I got the hang of it I was his right hand man for layout, lifting, nailing, and checking level. Definitely a team effort.

Looks pretty cool, huh?

And we started installing the soffit and fascia that will encircle every roof. I’ll save the details of this procedure for a future post, but here’s a look at our progress.

Soffit below the overhang, fascia on the edge. We have a long way to go…

We three hope the sun will come out next week, so we can finish roofing the porches and continue wrapping our fascia. The rockers need only a day or two more, and three coats of mud will follow… then drywall too shall be done.