Moisture Barrier

With the upstairs ceiling insulation foamed in place and given a few days to set, David began stapling the moisture barrier in place. This process was fairly simple and quickly completed. He was able to use a drywall lift, which he again fabricated himself, to assist him with the larger pieces since we tried to keep either no seams or as few as possible in each room. 

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These are just a few photos to show how we put the drywall lift to use already. 

Ceiling Insulation

Once the basic wiring for the main room lights in the upstairs rooms was completed, we purchased and had delivered the insulation for the ceiling of the upstairs. As you can see in this photo below, the insulation comes in large sheets which have to be cut to size. 

 The foam in our garage after we unloaded it from the delivery truck.

Once again, my husband David did some research and had a plan to make a hot wire cutter which could speed up the cutting process and make it much more pleasant than that awful sound you hear when you cut foam with a knife!

The table David prepared with the wire cutter mounted in place above it.

The transformer, pedal and dimmer switch can be seen here.

He added an indicator light for safety.

The wire definitely hot and ready for cutting.

With the help of the hot wire cutter it was a much easier process to cut each piece. However, placing and foaming in each piece was a bit more tedious.

All it takes for you to appreciate the time it takes in insulating a house in Siberia is for you to live in a cold house for one winter. We have lived through some pretty cold winters (-40 Celsius) in the small cottage we live in now. The temperatures at the floor level are +5 Celsius during the coldest months. Therefore, we are so thankful we can build the new house properly by insulating it to stay warm and heat efficient.