Serious Progress Preparing for Winter
AT LAST! All of the rigid foam insulation had let go and fallen to the ground under the shed...as noted before, the adhesive needs to be pressed into place and then the foam pulled free so it will off-gas, then pushed back into place. Who knew? So I watched as each piece let go and gave me a refrigerated floor! I was GOING to get it fixed before another winter, whatever it took.
So hooray, Mark and Zach were free, and arrived yesterday to get us fixed up!
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| This is the old stuff, all out from under the shed now...you can see the glue spots that let go. There wasnt a bit of it still on the floor where it belonged. Somehow it didnt warm the floor much once it was all lying on the ground... |
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| We decided to replace some of it with the 2" stuff, and double up the old... |
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| They didnt have long enough nails with the plastic washers, so heres Mark replacing the nails with screws...Zach couldnt have swung a hammer under there anyway! |
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| Finishing up along the west edge...Zach crawled under for most of it... |
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| You can see some of the little fasteners here--more dependable than the glue, I hope! And you can tell how little clearance there was... |
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| Marks squeezing the last bit into place...Zachs underneath guiding it in. |
If I had REMEMBERED Id owned this book since the late 80s, I could have saved us ALL a bit of trouble. Or a lot. Its still out there on Amazon, as you can see at the link!
A Place of Your Own Making: How to Build a One-Room Cabin, Studio, Shack, or Shed
Soooo...let this be a lesson to you if youre wanting to build your own place...nails in the floor joists BEFORE you put down the floor, at the depth of the styrofoam, as you may be able to see above. Rest it ON the nails. THEN cover.
Voila, an insulated floor that stays put! (A vapor barrier between the insulation and the sub-floor--or floor, as it turned out to be for us!--is good, too. Duh...)
So looking forward to a warmer winter and a lower electric bill!
Serious Progress Preparing for Winter
We made a traditional apple strudel with vanilla custard, pork knuckles (Schweinshaxe), goulash, the sweet-and-sour roast silverside called Sauerbraten and Bavarian bread dumplings (Semmelknodel) which are a great way to use up old bread rolls and perfect for mopping up sauce or gravy. We then sampled a little of each, accompanied by red cabbage and a selection of German beers from Weihenstephaner. For some of these dishes, it was a case of "heres one I prepared earlier" because they take hours, or in the case of Sauerbraten, days to make. I came home with a booklet of recipes and new confidence to make more of the food I love.
