Sunday is Also Attic Day

December 14, 2014

Sunday, I found myself actually looking forward to going up in the attic. I had the big shop vac transported successfully up there, and I had the work area pretty set to go.

After having to manually scoop up insulation with a dustpan and fill up countless bags in that manner, having the attic almost done gave me a lot of motivation. I feel like now, a majority of the work is clearing out the last bits of the attic and getting each row cleaned up.

Here’s an example of the area I worked on, before I started (although if you really want to see the before before photos, check out this post).

Notice how the rows are mostly cleared? All the remains is getting rid of the loose stuff, the stuff that’s much too cumbersome to pick up with a dustpan or by hand.

One thing to watch out for: super huge nails, sticking out of the roof. This makes getting to those areas where the roof and floor meet super tricky.

Another challenge: after dumping out the shop vac, you also have to clear off the filter – which gets super encased in filthy insulation shmutz. This involves unscrewing the filter and banging it a few times against the side of the shop vac. And also requires running your fingers between the grooves, to try to clear things out more.

Looking down, half clean, half dirty.

I’m really glad I went back upstairs today, as I got a decent amount done. I’m now close to about 1/3 of the attic being cleaned out, and technically ready for insulation to be put down.

It’s funny that, when I’m up in the attic, I tend to lose track of time. The past two days, I’ve taken to bringing my phone and headphones with me, and listening to podcasts (which works out well, even when the shop vac is running right next to my head).

So I don’t think of my time in the attic in terms of hours, I think of them in terms of podcast episodes. On Saturday, I was upstairs working for about 2.5 Serials. Today, it was one This American Life and two Radio Labs.