Yesterday I had the distinctly interesting experience of hoisting myself up from a slightly-too-short ladder into our attic space, where I measured the total area — not overly difficult, as it’s a perfect rectangle. Here’s the intermediate result of this measuring:

We fit 6 bales of UltraTouch R30* insulation in the Fergusons’ minivan (which we’re taking care of while they’re in Europe for 5 weeks). If our calculations are correct, we need another 13 bales to insulate the entire attic to today’s building code.

As part of our home improvement errands day, we also visited Seattle Home Appliance, Albert Lee, and Sears to look at washers and dryers. I’m hoping to visit Arnold’s Appliance today. Consumer Reports, Puget Sound Energy, WashWise, and Energy Star’s huge list of empirical values are all helpful resources, but every salesperson we talked to told us something different, and I’m feeling pretty confused about what to do at this point. This is a case of too darn many choices. However, I think if we end up with a tier 3 washer and comparable dryer, we’ll probably do fine in the long run.

Finally, we stopped at the Blind Alley to schedule a time for somebody to come out and measure the windows and bring samples of window shades. Today, in addition to visiting Arnold’s Appliance, I’m hoping to get those 6 bales of insulation installed in the attic so we can park the car in the garage again. Also, if anybody has a nail gun, we’d like to borrow it for a little bit to reinstall the moulding in our bathroom and laundry room.

Gosh, washers and dryers, flooring, window covering, insulation, bookshelves (not to mention French drains, a leaking toilet, a fan that vents into the kitchen instead of outside)… Who knew home ownership could be so exciting?

* The R number apparently refers to how good of an insulator something is. We’re also buying new shades (see above) that increase the R value of our downstairs windows.