Leaving our Presents for the Future

As people have done in the past, we at HH like to leave little surprises for future remodelers. Whether it's something simple as our initials or a date, layers of drywall castoffs buried in the walls (hey, it's good sound insulation), beer bottles walled up, or even a poetic note. We love it all.

The joy of finding hidden treasures in our walls help us ensure that future owners (FO's) won't miss out on the excitement either. With that in mind, we left a calling card on the walls behind our cabinets, wrapped up for a Humphrey House FO.

Hello.
Sorry you didn't like our cabinets.
We did. We loved 'em.
Oh well. Jason and I (and our friends and families) worked very hard on this house.
We've practically rebuilt the whole thing.
We were even on NBC's "Today Show" on 11/02/2007.
Go look it up.
Okay, I have the flu and must get back in bed.
Good luck with Humphrey House, and I hope you like your new cabinets.
Jennifer La Fleur

PS. Good luck trying to put anything inside the walls.
This is Solid Foam Insulation, Baby! :-)
12/31/07

Insulation Made of (Human?) Hair

Our kitchen's breakfast nook is a bump-out over a crawlspace next to our kitchen. We originally thought this was added on, but after peeling back layers of the house, we now realize this was part of the original home. This latest discovery helped confirm that. We had to remove an odd covering that was above the ceiling joists in the nook, and it turned out to be hair! Yes, indeed Hair! After removing this, our floor looked like Cousin It got a trim.


But what exactly is it? We had briefly seen hints of the mysterious building material, but nothing quite prepared me for seeing the whole thing on our floor. It was quite a hairy mess! (sorry, I couldn't resist a pun). For those curious about this material, it was basically a 1/2" of hair sandwiched between 2 layers of building paper. It was clearly very old and practically disintegrated on touch. Unfortunately I don't have any "before" photos of this, but it was placed (not fastened) above 1x6 boards running perpendicular the ceiling joists. Above the paper/hair sandwich, another run of 1x1's were nailed to other framing to hold the thing in place. Here's a photo:


I simply can't believe this was used. Especially since elsewhere in the home (e.g. the walls, floors) there is no insulation! Maybe this was an attempt to keep the naturally cooler addition warmer? It probably only had an R-value of like 1. Also, exactly what kind of hair is it? Part of me wants to take it and get it tested. Is it horse hair, or some other animal? Perhaps human? Maybe a long lost relative? Will I find the body belonging to this hair buried in the crawlspace? All very engaging questions, you be the judge.


Jen and I will be making a tight building envelope and having soy-based foam insulation installed in our walls (more on that later), but while we were getting estimates, one contractor said he had seen this only a few times and it was clearly a sign of a pre-1920 building technique (our house was built in 1912). Hair. I never would have believed it. I'm left in wonder.