Energy_rater, OP has insulation at the house ceiling/attic floor, a (poorly) vented attic and MIGHT have insulation at the roofline. In the OP's second post it says " above the attic floorline" which is not the same as the roofline. Maybe it does not matter since it is gone. I am just trying to figure out what was going on up in that attic. DC is pretty hot and humid in the Summer, but they have to deal with a little ice and snow. I am quite aware of the historical insulating strategies there and much further North since I have lived in the mid Atlantic. What I don't know is if sealing the attic is a good thing in that area. If it is, he might consider it. If the attic is to be left vented, it needs more ventilation than one 18" square vent. As Energy_rater wrote, you need more insulation and gaps are not good. I think that you have little choice but to pull up the floor to add more insulation. Pay attention to the weatherstripping on the attic stair door and insulation around the encloses stairwell too.

I don't have access points like that in this house, but in a rental we lived in many moons ago we had the ugly cord, but since it was in the kitchen it drove me nuts. Since the access was near a corner I changed the cord out for a piece of thin tapestry (maybe 9 inches wide) which I bought in a scrap bin. I but a thin binding on it and hung a pretty tassel on the pointed end with the goal of making it look like an old servants bell pull I'd seen in a Victorian house. My sil liked it so much she did one as well but she embroidered service on hers :). No servants ever came when you pulled either but at least they were pretty lol. Now a quick note from the safety commission......if your drop down ladder is an older Werner ladder you should check it's serial numbers with recall sites. They have literally killed or caused significant brain damage due to a part that fails and causes the thing to slam down on your head when you pull them down. I learned this after another Werner ladder that had been recalled failed when I used it, causing me to lose our second baby and breaking my wrist very badly. The recall notices were posted in ladder areas of home improvement stores but who goes there if they already have a ladder? Werner went banko over the attic ladder so if you have one you end up assuming the cost if a new one, but it's cheap in comparison to permanent brain damage or death of you or a family member so pretty please.....check if your ladder is over five years old? Off my ladder soap box and sorry ab

Chispa, those are really interesting. The aluminum stairs I've seen operate just like the wooden stairs, but are supposed to be lighter to handle. You are correct that for a 10 foot ceiling, the wooden ones are heavy and hard to pull down for vertically challenged people like me. No one I know has put in the aluminum ones yet so I don't know if they're as sturdy as the traditional wooden ones. Linelle, marking off where the feet go is very clever. The previous owners of our house actually cut didn't cut the feet short enough. While it would seem easy enough to just cut them down, the joints holding the sections together became deformed from the incorrect positioning

I have widen pull down attic stairs in my hall and I'm wondering what is customary when painting them? I know the trim around them will be my trim color but what about the panel part? Would that be my wall color or trim color?