We decided that we would put up ceiling fans in the boys' rooms. John's room already had a light so it was simple enough to replace it with a ceiling fan. Caleb's room did not have a hole in the ceiling for a light so lines would have to be run, a hole cut and box put in for the fan. Simple enough.
Being that this is an older home, nothing is ever simple or easy. John went into the attic, pulled up some boards and discovered that none of the knob and tube wiring had been replaced (we had been led to believe that it had). No worries. We would have to run a line from the basement to attic and then John could rewire the attic. Our attempt at running the wire failed and we had to call electricans. The fact that they had a hard time as well made us feel better.
While this is all going on, John cut a hole in the playroom wall to determine tie ins for the partition wall we are planning and low and behold no insulation in the exterior walls. John suspected there was none but now it's confirmed. We decided to insulate the exterior walls with foam insulation which means we have to have all the knob and tube wiring disconnected in the exterior walls.
John inspected and the master bedroom, John's room, the hallway light and part of Caleb's room were knob and tube. The only way to rewire is to rip up the floor in the attic. We figured since we are ripping up the floor, we might as well replace it and insulate the attic better. However the joists are not deep enough for the insulation so John has to add 2x4's each joist to increase the depth, put the insulation in and then put plywood on top.
Now if anyone has ever seen our attic, you will know that is equivalent to re-doing a whole floor of a house. However John has gotten rid of the active knob and tube so we can insulate next month. I think by late June we should be moving on to partitioning the playroom. I am trying to keep a better archive of our house projects so I will post pictures as we go.
The enemy (Knob and Tube)
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