Comments (15)

By kilax, August 8, 2016 1:03 pm

Our pond is still disappearing! Everything that is muddy in this photo used to be covered in water (so, really, the entire photo)!

Soon, it will be gone, and the ducks won’t visit anymore. Sadness.

See the ducks in the photo?! When you compare this photo to the ones in this post, you can see how much the pond has gone down.

And, I won’t get to play with my remote controlled boat on it! Sigh, I had big plans for that. Ha.

For my birthday (July 31) I asked for a remote controlled boat for the pond. Steven gave it to me when we were at the Mississippi River and it was so much fun to play with up there.

Teaching Luca how to drive the boat.

I hope we get some rain so I can play with it here. And so we don’t have a giant mud pit in our yard.

Comments (5)

By kilax, August 6, 2016 9:37 pm

Even when I find a space (three, actually) between rafters full of squirrel nests, I still don’t get mad at the animals. What is wrong with me?

I found those yesterday. We’ve been finding LOTS of interesting damage, which (among other things) is setting us back with our timeline. Like this pipe, that was cut, but left open to the outside, and let water run down our master bedroom wall. Also, carpenter ants did some work on that beam:

Steven and friends cut out more of the wall and replaced the header and studs today. We’re also replacing a bit of wood in the attic that was damaged by animals.

Those rascals.

It’s good we’ve taken the ceiling out to take care of this now. I’d rather get it taken care of, than have it get worse down the road!

We also removed a damaged part of our dining room ceiling, which I forgot was on our scope of work until Steven reminded me. There’s so much going on to keep track of!

Ceiling removed behind plastic. Excuse the mess on the table!

Poor Data. He keeps trying to run through the dining room (we have a full path through all our rooms on the first floor) and getting trapped in the plastic! Er… just a few more weeks like this Data, then we’ll have our house back…

Comments (11)

By kilax, August 5, 2016 6:58 am

Man! My arms were sore at strength class this morning! Ha!

We demolished almost all of the second floor ceiling yesterday, and got a ton out of the ceiling (can lights, etc.)… and this was all after a morning of moving the furniture out and putting up plastic to protect the carpet and walls.

Master bedroom

Guest bedroom

Hallway

I had to work a half day, and do today too, but luckily, we have help – because there is no way Steven and I could get this done on our own.

Oh, sorry, Steven, Data and me. Data is very helpful.

Not surprisingly, we’re discovering more (than planned) damaged things that need to be replaced. I demolished the entire linen closet (including the walls, not just the ceiling) because it was in bad shape. Check out the ceiling, ew:

And also not surprising, we’ve found some interesting things, like the linen closet walls being full of pieces of drywall. Okay, that’s one way to do backing…

Hopefully we get a lot done today and don’t get much further off schedule! We need to try to have everything done by Sunday night so the contractors can put the new ceiling in on Monday!

Comments (12)

By kilax, August 4, 2016 6:15 am

But just down to our first floor/basement. Demolishing the second floor ceiling requires removing EVERYTHING from the second floor, hence, why our basement looks like a consignment shop:

Thank goodness we have a basement at all, to put all this stuff in!

So here’s the (condensed, I left some things off) plan:

Thursday
move furniture off second floor
remove ceiling fans, can light trim kits
remove ceiling
remove can lights, ducts & vents, insulation
vacuum attic, clean soiled spots
remove screws/nails/glue from bottom of joists

Friday
repair electrical wiring
install 3-way switch for master bedroom fan (it’s never worked)
install new ducts, vents & duct insulation

Saturday
install new can lights
install new joist in basement

Sunday
all the stuff that didn’t get done and a few other extra projects

That’s a lot to do – wish us luck! We will have some extra hands on and off throughout the project, thankfully!

Comments (12)

By kilax, July 28, 2016 6:23 am

• Hummingbirds have been hanging out by the flowers growing out of the hastas! Exciting! I should put out a legit feeder for them. They’re so fun to watch. Here’s a super awesome photo I took of one (circled in red, in case you can’t find it, ha):

• We had friends over last weekend and I was excited to use our new lawn furniture and eat lunch outside! Only, all you had to do was step outside to start dripping in sweat. So… we ate inside. Ha. But I am happy we got some outdoor seating. Hopefully we will have some opportunities to use it next month.

• I finished knitting a bunch of wash cloths. I thought about saving them for housewarming gifts, but decided to mail them to my Grandma to sell at her church’s farmers market booth. The pattern is ZickZack.

• Shelley helped me pick out needles to start knitting socks! August is going to be busy with house projects, so I hope I can give it a try in September.
• I’m sad to be missing the Movin’ Shoes Full Moon Run (5K) tonight in Madison with Rachel! We’ve run it the last three years together! But it just doesn’t make sense with my schedule this year. I hope she has a great race!!!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 103

Comments (10)

By kilax, July 27, 2016 7:31 am

We don’t compost (yet) but I do have something I do with the fruit that we don’t eat (either because some of it came bad, or we didn’t eat it in time) – share it with the animals!

I know, “Kim, weren’t you just saying you had animals living in your attic and that caused all sorts of issues?!” We did! “So why are you inviting them toward your house with all this food?” Well, they got in before we lived here because there were holes outside in to our attic space. Those are all sealed now. We feed these animals far away from the house, and so far, it doesn’t seem to be inviting them in to the house… so far…

So anyway. A few weeks ago I put out some melon, strawberries and grapes by the feeder in the morning. I was walking inside the house later in the day, and happened to look out toward the feeder and I saw a piece of melon falling from the sky!

What the…?

So I decided to go sit outside for a bit with Data and see what was going on.

Oh my gosh, the squirrels were going NUTS for the fruit. They’d take something small to eat at that moment, but also carry a piece of melon to “hide” for the winter. I saw one squirrel hide his piece under a leaf. Yeah, it didn’t last there very long! So funny.

I know, what am I going to blog about this winter when there arent as many animals out?! Who knows, ha ha.

Comments (14)

By kilax, July 26, 2016 6:32 am

We’re making progress with jacking up the house – the middle of the house is where we want it, so on Sunday, Steven cut off the ends of the crappy joists in the basement and put in solid blocking.

Per (purr? ha ha) usual, Data likes to help with our projects, by observing me prying up the floor so Steven can fit in the blocking from the basement side:

and by stepping in front of the (borrowed) laser when measuring for levelness:

Disco Data!

We’re slowly getting there! We still have replace those two joists eventually. Baby steps!

And, on to a new project! Fun fact – we haven’t had any insulation in our attic since April! It was part of our FHA 203k streamlined work to have the old insulation removed, the attic cleaned and new insulation put in. However, there was so much damage from animals in our attic, we told the crew NOT to put the new insulation in. Why put brand new insulation in over a ceiling, ducts, and conduit, etc., extremely soiled by animal droppings? Yuck!

We planned to do it ourselves after cleaning out the attic (which we did on July 16) and taking down the ceiling in the second floor and installing a new one. However, when the bank came to take pictures of the work done so they could pay for the rest of the FHA 203k work, and saw that the insulation was not in, they said it HAS to be in for them to give the contractors that final payment. Okay, then.

So, the contractors will be back in August to put in new insulation. However, before they do that, we will:

• Remove EVERYTHING from our second floor (and sleep on the first floor)
• Tear out the second floor attic
• Install new ductwork, returns, etc. in the attic (yay! our old ones are so retro!)
• Install new lighting in the attic (yay! they’ll meet fire code!)
• And probably other stuff I am forgetting.

Then the contractors will come and put the new drywall ceiling up, spray “kilz” primer, cover any holes to the exterior, install new baffles, install new plywood in our secret secret attic, etc. etc.

After they do that, we’re going to put a catwalk (like this) up in the attic, so we can still get around up there after they put the insulation in. Then, they’ll come back in put the insulation in.

And hopefully after ALL THAT, it won’t sometimes smell barn-y in our upstairs, and the heat will be a little bit better regulated. Oh yes, and eventually, we will paint our new drywall ceiling. SHOULDER WORKOUT!!!!

Yay! August is THE MONTH to be in your attic! Muah ha ha.

Comments (27)

By kilax, July 25, 2016 6:13 am

I didn’t edit the original text, but a few people corrected me (thank you!) that this is a crane.

Another bird has been visiting our pond – a heron! We’ve named her Sharon*.

That’s a horrible photo of Sharon (she’s by the red arrow). She flies away every time we open the door to go outside, so we don’t have a decent photo of her yet. Here’s a better photo I took of a different heron on the same day (that is NOT our pond, ha ha):

I wasn’t sure if Sharon was a heron or a crane, and the internets told me to look at her flying to tell – herons bend their neck in to an s-shape when they fly, and cranes keep it straight. I took a (horrible) photo of her flying away, and her neck was an s-shape! Heron it is! (updated below – commenters who know more than me say it’s a crane. I am not so great at identifying birds. Also, the first site I visited had conflicting information from another, so, yeah. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.)

I saw herons all the time when we lived in our townhome. I think the logo for our neighborhood there had a heron on it! I’d often see three of them together, when running, and it became this thing to take a picture of them and send it to my mom and snister. So my mom started called them my cheerleaders, Larry, Moe and Curly. Heh.

Round Lake Herons

I was really excited then, when I realized three herons hang out around my running route at the new (can I still call it that?) house too! So I take photos and send them to mom and Snistina. It’s probably only amusing to me at this point, but whatevs.

Zion Herons

And then there is this guy. He’s big enough I think he deserves a name.

WHY ARE THE FLIES SO BIG OUT HERE WTF!!!!

Updated to add: Steven was able to get a photo of Sharon this morning on his DSLR!

Also updated: apparently the internets lead me wrong and a few commenters are saying these are cranes. Oops! We’ll still call her Sharon. Ha.

*No idea if she is male or female.

Comments (10)

By kilax, July 17, 2016 1:48 pm

We haven’t seen Peoples, the raccoon, in forever! Sadly, I have seen what looks like the remains of Peoples, near the street. The circle of life is hard*. Maybe living here will make me less sensitive about wild animal death? Maybe? Doubtful.

So, no Peoples, but this baby raccoon has been showing up A LOT in our yard.

We’ve named him Rocky. Maybe he knew Peoples, and that is who taught him how to hang like this? Ha ha.

I know they’re horrible and unclean and destroy things but they’re SO fun to watch!

*OMG, speaking of the circle of life**, I was watching a documentary on Netflix this week about Antarctica, and they were talking about the seals that don’t make it out in to the water before it freezes in the winter, and are stuck on dry land and how they aren’t allowed to help them. THEN THEY SHOW A SEAL CRYING FOR HELP!!!! OMG. I about cried. BLAH.
**Also circle of life related… I have just been telling myself that this (photo below) is poop, and it’s red because there are raspberries in the yard. That’s gotta be it. No other possibilities.

Comments (5)

By kilax, July 16, 2016 5:54 am

Steven brought home our picnic chairs from storage a few weeks ago, and I took them up to the balcony off our bedroom. A few times this week I ran, then threw a towel on a chair and cooled off outside, while Data hung out with me.

Surprisingly, we get a nice breeze up there, and the mosquitoes stay away (there are just a few flies and bees (the bees are eating the wood off the balcony… little effers)).

Yesterday, it was cooler (YAY!!!) and I knitted a bit, while Data hung out with me.

Steven has come out a few times too!

I cannot express how nice it is to have our own outdoor space to enjoy! It’s such a pleasure. At our townhome, we had a “yard” but didn’t have any space outside to relax. And really, our neighborhood was too loud, and there were so many loose dogs, it wasn’t relaxing at all. It got to the point that we didn’t ever want to be outside, around our own home. Blah. It was a horrible feeling.

So, it’s such a nice change here! I can’t wait to see how we expand our outdoor living space over the years! We have two wooden patios off of the first floor, and plenty of space outside for lawn chairs, a hammock, and a fire pit… what else do we need? Ha ha.