Insulation, Radiant and Vapor Barriers - Attic Insulation Confusion

Hello All,
I just bought my first house (build around 1940) recently and decided to take another look up in the attic, as Wisconsin winters are not pleasant and the upstairs feels drafty and is colder than the main floor.

There a hodgepodge of different insulation up there, here is what I have:

1. There is no insulation between the ceiling joists (that doesn't seem right to me).
2. On top of the joists there is a 2 inch thick piece of foam board insulation that is black on the top and bottom of it, and yellow in the middle.
3. On top of this is an old 6" thick unfaced fiberglass batt.
4. On top of this is 3-5 inches of blown in cellose.

For ventilation, there is a gable vent at each end. There are 6vents evenly spaced out on the roof (no ridge vent). Soffit vents were installed on one side of the attic, and I have put the plastic rafter vents in to pull air in from the soffit vents (all were originally blocked off by a rolled up batt preventing any air flow at all).

At this point I am entertaining the idea of ripping everything out up there, sealing/caulking any spaces, and re-insulating the entire thing. I know this would be a messy, dusty,pain in the butt at best, but I am young enough that being up there for a few hours (probably many hours) won't be a problem.

Having no insulation between the ceiling joists does not seem right to me. Has anyone else heard about or done this?

The whole setup up there doesn't seem right.
Any input you guys/gals have would be appreciated, as I am getting tired of my wife telling me how cold it is in our upstairs bedroom.

Thanks,
JP

I have a couple questions for you. What is the approximate size of the attic? So if I understand you correctly, the foam board is keeping all the fiberglass and cellulose floating on top of the joists? What size are the joists? Is the foam board covering 100% of the joist all the way to the perimeter of the attic? My initial thought was that if there was access to underneath the foam board, you could shoot some cellulose into the void between the ceiling and the foam board.

Congrats on the new old house. I love'm. I completely gut remodeled a house built in 1890 in Denver, Co.

Now to make your honey happy so you are happy we have got to look at the whole upstairs of the house, walls and ceiling.

What you have got is a drafty (lots of air infiltration).old house built when energy was cheap. Doing something just with the ceiling ain't going to cut it. Insulation is insulation. You have dead air space beneath which ain't dead air.You don't need all those vents. Cover them now tightly and close off gable vent at each end. Just temporarily close the big holes in the attic. Its winter time so no big deal. And the sun will heat the attic which will keep the upstairs warmer somewhat. Do it and do it now. If you had infrared imagery you would see big plums of heat pouring out of those vents.

Figure out what you have in the upstairs exterior walls and how are the constructed. With this info we can figure a plan of attack.
I will do something like I just did here http://forum.doityourself.com/insulation-radiant-vapor-barriers/369283-insulating-basement-walls.html
Show me the data.