Ok, lumber is ordered, permits are coming, and I'm acquiring other materials and tools.

First step: insulation.

This isn't as easy as you'd think. The jury is still out as far as what the best approach to insulating a basement. Here's what I do know...

1. The house has 1" Owens-Corning Foamular 150 on the outside of the walls.

2. The rim joist area was insulated with fiberglass. When you pull these out, there's all kinds of moisture in there. Essentially air is moving through this area and condensing on the rim joist. The local building inspector said mold is a problem lately, so I want to avoid that. Solution: a DIY spray foam insulation kit by Tiger Foam. I considered doing it via rigid insulation, but cutting and trimming that would have taken months.

3. The top 4' of the wall is where most of the heat loss is, after the rim joist area. According to the Building Science Institute, you prevent only 10% heat loss insulating from 4' below grade on down. This means I'll only insulate the top 4'. Batt insulation won't be installed. The building inspector said this is a good approach.

Ok, more to follow.