Putting a floor in the attic
Last year I put in the lights and a walkway. This year I expanded the walkway into a floor.

A before shot - miscellaneous stuff stored up in the attic.

Another before shot - boxes of books and asundry other garbage...

Step 1 - Temporarily moving all of the stuff out of the attic into the library, boy was that fun!

Step 2 - Removing the walkway I installed last year and moving the existing blown-in insulation out of the spaces/bays between the joists.

Step 3 - Once two joist "bays" were empty, install 1" x 4" nailing strips over the entire length of the joist, cut spaces to allow power and cable lines to cross joists, install new faced insulation, then cover with 1/2 inch plywood. I cut the plywood into 16" x 48" strips so I could get them up in the attic through the attic access panel.

Step 4 - One set of double joist bays completed. There were three sets of double joist bays to the left of the attic access panel, four sets on the other side. Did I mention that it was a little "warm" up in the attic?

Another view of the left side. Last two double joist bays ready for plywood panels.

Starting to clear the right side.

Right side partially cleared.

Two of the four double bays on the right side completed. I put some temporary plywood sections across the uncompleted bays so I would have a safe platform to work on while I was prepping the bays. My guess is that Angela would not have been pleased if I dropped through the attic floor which essentially is also the second floor ceiling.

Third double bay on the right side completed, starting to look like a real attic again...

Last section completed, John is the last man standing, hurray!

I added some lightweight but strong cable netting (actually soccer goal netting) all along both sides of the floor to keep anybody (who could that be?) from accidentally dropping something through the floor/ceiling of the unfinished portions of the attic.

More netting.

I had enough materials and insulation left over to do another ~ 6' x 12' storage area behind the netting area in the photo above. I laid the floor down but did not screw it in/attach it, I left the blown insulation below and piled up the faced insulation above. This is right above our master bedroom and we can really tell the difference in the comfort level inside the house. Also, it's perhaps too early to establish a trend but our last two heating bills have been lower comparable to the same time last year. Natural gas prices have gone up and the outside temperatures have been way down so the fact that our bills are lower is a good sign! And of course since we did this in 2010 I believe there is a tax rebate coming too...