Saturday, July 25, 2009

To The Wall(s)!

The prep of the rest of the sewing room exterior walls was completed this morning. I have applied two coats of The Precious Stuff (Nansulate Clear Coat) and am about to apply the third. The Guest Room follows and it was a bitch to take all the old layers of wallpaper off, but off they came bit by bit, layer by layer. I counted 5 layers in the corners. A copious water spray soaked the paper and eventually the glue let go. No fun there. It now awaits it's third coat of Nansulate in about another hour. Then...we wait for 30 + days til we can wallpaper the completed jobs and finish the refurbishment of the upstairs rooms. Kelly has finished the appliance applications and one gallon of Nansulate is now on the walls and appliances. Onto the 2nd gallon for the third coat on the walls.
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One of the prospects for buying the Little House at Dix Rt. St. Amand called this morning and we met him at the Cafe Commerce downtown and had lunch (on him!) prior to visiting the house for an inspection. He was most organized, having a folder with all the pictures I sent to him and all the other info about the house as well, very impressive documentation. He was a yacht broker in a previous life and his attention to detail was very apparent...like a ship inspector checking out an old hull! Money is very difficult to get these days so we will see. He's be a real asset to our local community. We shall see.

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Back to the Nansulate job. I applied the final coats on the sewing room and guest room exterior walls. Now we wait in earnest for the CURE, 30 - 60 days though exactly how much time depends much on the humidity and temperature. Otherwise a good guess is the best I can do...so 30 days it will be. It looks good now, all shiny and the walls are quite sealed by the coating and definetly in a better structural way than they were thanks to the glue-like effects. Kelly finished up on the refrigerators and her clothes drier. They seemed like a good idea but how to test now that they are already coated? It's ok.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Nansulate Applied!

Yesterday I gave three rolled coats of Nansulate to our attic mounted water heater of unknown capacity, perhaps 200 liters. Today I took the ambient temp of the attic adjacent to the water heater and it was 72 degrees. the temp on top of the water heater itself was 78 degrees...a difference of 6 degrees. Yesterday the temp difference was over 9 degrees so we are in the positive so far in this grand and somewhat expensive experiment ( the closer the water heater temp is to the ambient temp of the room the better the paints performance ). Kelly coated the clothes drier and the small refrigerator in her kitchen, I took no before and after temps but it couldn't hurt the performance of those devices to have additional insulation now could it? Then I tackled the back wall in Kelly's sewing room so she could put the chest of drawers back in place and we could get on with coating the rest of the room. Nansulate is tough stuff when dry, drips come up but only with difficulty. I think it would make great glue if it didn't cost so much. The surface after three coats was smooth with a matte transparent appearance. The same held true on the appliance applications...plus it developed a feel as though it were coated with rubber. I had Kelly coat her little water pitcher too to cover the rusted ridge on the bottom so it would no longer stain her drain board. We'll see how all these little projects play out. Other uses have come to mind as well, the car's firewall to keep heat from the engine out, on patio umbrella cloth to keep the UV damage to a minimum, on the outside surfaces of my countertop oven to prevent heat loss. I'm SURE there are many, many more things that we will discover uses for this nearly miraculous substance. Tomorrow we will "paint" the Nansulate on the exterior walls of the guest bedroom...three coats and wait the requisite 30 days before we apply the wall paper.


An additional note: the sewing room wall is covered with horsehair, lime and sand and had many small surface cracks thoughout though it was firmly attached to the waddle and dab underneath. The coating filled most of these crevices completely and with the strength of the bond I think that it has helped overall to maintain the quite ancient surface from degradation. We shall see. I'm very hopeful.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Cure Is Taken

Today we ventured to Bourges and the Tissues Du Monde outlet in the eastern part of town. Kelly was looking for a bold cloth with pink and perhaps black or violet as an addition to the current curtains in the dining room that we have hung over the two front windows. We both hunted high and low in this quite large stock of raw cotton, linen and polyamid cloth. They have a wonderful array of material from intricate brocades to common canvas and oil cloths. We have spent much time in the store going back several years, and always seem to find something that will be either superb or fantastic and that happened again today when Kelly spied a rather bright pink material with large dark flowers, at 50% off. It was only 18 Euros for 4 meters. She bought some other yardage for projects yet to come. Then we drove back through the recently harvested wheat and colza fields to the Maison Blanche to tackle the painting of the insulating paint on the water heater in the grenier (attic).
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The Water Heater

Kelly washed it and dried the heater thoroughly and then I tackled the Nansulate application chore. I measured with a precision digital thermometer I use for my wine making activities. I took the temperature of of the attic adjacent to the heater, 77 degrees it was and then on a spot midway across the top of the heater and it indicated 86.3 degrees. I will retake these some days from now and see how the application is doing. They say full effect isn't met until 30 - 60 days of cure time has gone by so my expectations are less than immediate. I used a very short nap roller of the small variety, only about 5 inches in length. I stirred the translucent grey-looking Nansulate for a bit over 5 minutes and finally deposited a few ounces in the small plastic roller tray and rollered it on careful to cover the top evenly and without thick areas or drips. It is similar in viscosity to regular paint, it is NOT overly thin and doesn't drip everywhere or spray from the roller either. Very well behaved in fact. It is a milky translucent material and goes on absolutely transparent. The first coat on, I retired to my computer for the requisite 1 hour drying time before the next coat, to chronicle the start of this quite amazing project.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

A Red Letter Day and 108 Euros!

Fed Ex recieved the paint on the 14th and as of last night it was in Paris getting duty assessed by French Customs before leaving for Bourges (St. Doulchard). 5 US gallons of the ever more precious nano paint are, at last, in the country of France and subject to whatever duty Customs can figure out. There is no estimate of additional charges on the Fed Ex site at this time, and there probably won't be anyway as by the time they process all the fancy and expensive paperwork the stuff will be on the truck speeding down the heart of France to our anxious little hands. We will pay by check whatever amount is necessary to get the paint into our house, rest assured. And I did, and slept like a baby.
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Up at 7am, coffee, potty and check the Fed Ex web site...it's IN Bourges! Arrived there this morning, terrific! Now to another truck (probably a local expeditier) and then to us sometime today! Whoopee! Guests gone one day and The Paint arrives the next! Great timing! Another cup of java at 8am and read the emails, start writing the blog to explain all of this. Recheck the Fed Ex site and l'viola! It's on a deliver van already! Cool! Or HOT depending on which side is one or the other (It IS insulating paint after all!) Wondering where we start the application and if we have the right roller(s). Kelly wants her sewing room finished and so that is where the action will start so that we can paint and wallpaper and get it back into useable condition ASAP. I walk downstairs and go to my kitchen to assess the days activities in that arena. Wash a couple of pots left over from last night, put away the now cooled thoroughly roasted (overdone actually) chicken and on my way back to the sitting room...the truck of our dreams (nightmare?!) arrives in front of the house.




I openned the front door and the driver handed me the small box with 1 gallon of the ever more rare and precious paint inside, he then returned to the truck for the other 4 gallon box. $108.68 duty is indicated on the shipping receipt. Wow...$657 for 5 gallons of the stuff. We must be mad or terribly convinced. Check out their website...http://www.nansulate.com/

Monday, July 20, 2009

Peace

Our friends from North Carolina left this morning bound for Paris and the ETAP we stayed in about a week ago. I abandoned all my plans for kitchen cleanup and fell fast asleep a few minutes after saying goodbye. Having guests is heady business,
we had plans, they had plans but we were put in charge from the get go so Get Go we did. They inspected Dix, the house we have for sale ( http://hnlute.blogspot.com ) and loved it. We went to the local horse races and numerous brocantes including the giant one right in our front yard in the Champ du Foire. They bought out half of France having fallen in love with the place. The car was a beast to pack even as well organized as it was. So much wine, food, cheeses, pictures and the spacious Saab was chock full to the very brim.
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We visited Ainay-le-Vieil ( http://chateau.ainaylevieil.free.fr/ ) yesterday and went on the tour of this little gem of the Loire Valley. It always gets high marks from us as it is really a family home and quite intimate. I always feel priveleged to be allowed to see the beautiful interior rooms and especially the chapel with the endearing frescoes. It is a place not to miss in the Loire.