Over the last several days I've been braving the heat and cramped surrounds of our attic all in the name of energy efficiency and comfort. It's a little bit funny to me that I will venture into a veritable oven on some of the warmest days we've had this year to run duct work and lay insulation in order to ensure we can stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer. I guess my comfort in the short term is easily sacrificed for our long term enjoyment. It makes sense, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. Although in retrospect, it would have been better to do this in February.

If you've ever worked with insulation before, especially in a home with odd sized joist and stud cavities, you know just how cumbersome and difficult it can be to cut the insulation to size. Whether you're using something light and fluffy like fiberglass, or dense and heavy like Nu-Wool, we are all quickly reduced to neanderthal DIYers, hacking, clawing, and tearing at the insulation with utility knives and scissors to make our cut.

I've seen many different approaches for cutting insulation. Let me assure you, not all are created equal.

• There's the good old "hack it to death" approach, where you slice the same basic area with a utility knife, over and over, until you emerge victorious with a lopsided and not very smooth cut.
• There's the compress and cut method (which actually works quite well), where you use a board or straight edge to compress the material while cutting with your knife. The big problem here, you tend to need to touch the insulation more, and you must fluff it back up after you've cut it.
• There's the "my hands can do this" method, where you figure out where you need the cut, or where your knife missed the cut, and you impatiently rip it apart in your own hands. This tends to leave a less than neat cut, for obvious reasons.
• And there's the "when-all-else-fails-I'm-going-to-use-a-pair-of-Wendy's-scissors-and-I-don't-even-care-I'll-get-yelled-at" approach. I guess the frustration is too much when I reach this point. They still don't do a good job, but at least I'm not using my hands and I'm not going to accidentally stab myself in the leg because I get over zealous with these.