Spring Break 2019 Day 2
around the house
Spring Break 2019 Day 1
The first day of spring break, and I spent the morning in the attic, putting additional insulation to compensate for the fact that the insulation we blew in eleven years ago has settled significantly: all the rafters, once hidden beneath several inches of insulation were once again visible.
This time, though, I decided simply to buy some R19 batts and hope for a little longer break than eleven years before I need to do it again. Part of this is due to the fact that to get to the attic above the upper part of the house, we have to take everything —Â absolutely everything — out of L’s closet. That in itself will be a task. Today, though, I just focused on the lower part of the house.
While all that went on, our regular construction guys worked on our new windows in the basement and the siding for the closed-in bedroom/bathroom we’re building for Nana and Papa.
Additionally, two other fellows came in to start putting up the drywall and eventually finish the bathroom.
During all of this, the kids took care of themselves. The Boy spent the day playing with neighborhood kids, an activity that included me at least once saying, “Where’s E?” and having to go look for him. He was right where I thought he would be, but we’ll to establish some new protocols with him now that his independence is steadily increasing.
Saturday Growth
The day began with a bit of unusual work: pulling old wiring out of the attic. At first, the plan was just to remove them from the area over the old carport. But when in the afternoon I began the second part of today's tasks -- adding insulation to the lower part of the house -- I realized I could pull almost all the wiring out -- just about the whole length of the house. It was a relic from the past: old 10-gauge wiring used for long-removed baseboard heaters.
We took a break around lunchtime for E's first game of the season. Emil had his first break of the spring season in the second quarter. (Youth soccer is divided into quarters.) He beat the last defender, sent his shot past the goalie toward the far corner, and would have made a goal but for a few inches.
Afterward, it was back into the attic for me. In the end, I put in several bags of insulation and took out one full contractor back of wiring.
Floor Joists
are in. Our builder tells us he will be done with framing, plumbing, and wiring by next week.
Changes
The other day, I was looking through old posts here and noticed this picture:
I had forgotten completely that when we bought this house, there was an enormous antenna on the chimney. I found the image in Lightroom's catalog, played with it a bit, and then found this image:
This was from about 2008. The bushes in the foreground are long gone, as are the pine trees and dozens of sweet gum saplings, which I thought, at first, were some kind of maple. What an idiot.
That is all to say, things change around the house. Since we moved in twelve years ago, we've replaced the windows, replaced some doors, remodeled a bathroom, remodeled the kitchen, added insulation, replaced the outdoor sewer line twice, redid the landscaping in front of the house, replanted the front yard at least three times, repainted a few rooms a couple of times, replaced the whole HVAC system, and dozens of other little things.
Today began the first of another change: remodeling the carport to make it an extra room and to convert the laundry room into a bathroom. Nana and Papa are moving in with us, and I began the transformation today by removing the brick steps up to the door. It wasn't necessary, strictly speaking, but we'll use those bricks to close up finally the gaping hole left when we removed the old heating system.
An odd feeling, realizing that our house is about to undergo its most radical change.
(Click on images for larger version.)
Saturday Adventuring
The first day of spring work -- outside collecting hundreds of Sweet Gum seed pods to prevent potentially thousands of saplings, mowing, cleaning.
Dinner at Nana's and Papa's, preceded by some exploring.
What For Dinner?
Railing
Sometimes, I think I can’t do anything right when it comes to projects around the house. If it’s something I’ve done a number of times, I’m fine with it. The toilet in our master bathroom, for example — I’ve replaced it twice. If I had to replace it again, I would be frustrated but not overwhelmed. I wouldn’t even have to look at a YouTube video for help. Any spigot replacement is no problem because I’ve done it so many times that I simply installed a Shark Bite coupling, and it’s a simple matter of some Teflon tape and a quick trip into the crawl space. The reason is obvious: practice makes perfect.
But catch me doing something for the first time, and you’ll probably find me using inappropriate language at some point, sitting at some point with my head in my hands, standing at some point staring at what I just messed up.
Today, I put up the stair railing that we took down over two years ago when we remodeled our kitchen. Following the principle that one doesn’t want to rush into anything unadvisedly, I’d put this off for ages. When necessity finally overcame procrastination, I thought it would be a simple process — after all, it looked simple on the YouTube video. And in hindsight, it should have been terribly simple. Yet not being a professional handyman, I screwed things up (poor pun intended). I mismeasured once even though I checked it. Somehow 29 3/8″ morphed into 31 3/8″ in my head, and though I’d written down 29 3/8″ and drilled the first hole 29 3/8″ from the stair tread, I drilled the pilot hole for the last bracket a full two inches higher than needed.
That wasn’t the first error, and it wasn’t the last, and as a result, I have a number of superfluous holes that need to be patched, sanded, and repainted.
What I wouldn’t give for a second shot with clean walls…
Autumnal Saturday
The Dog digs. And digs and digs and digs. She digs everywhere. We've discovered that staw keeps her from digging up an area again.
Soon, our whole yard will be covered with straw, I fear...
Yellow
It's been a couple of years since we've had a yellow jacket infestation. For a few years, we had one or two nests just about every summer, and taking care of them became a simple process: a few gallons of boiling water around ten in the evening, when they're all bedded down in their nest, and no more problem.
This year, though, one hive made its home under the slab that supports our heat pump. If it were a concrete slab, I might consider the water method again, but it's some strange concrete/foam "slab" that is just a little bigger than the unit itself. The thought of pouring water into that area, possibly destabilizing the whole unit -- not a good thought. The other hive has made its home within a bush: it's impossible to pour the water through the bush to make a good clean shot.
So today, I went by a DIY pest control place, bought some Talstar and Evergreen Pyrethrum Dust and let them have it.
I hit the nest under the heat pump while it was still daylight: I turned the nozzle on my sprayer so it was a fast, fat stream, stood back about ten feet, and sprayed into the opening for a good ten to fifteen seconds. I went back ten minutes later and did it again. After ten more minutes, I hit them a third time. Then a fourth time.
By then, there were yellowjackets everywhere, all rolling around on the ground, all struggling through their last moments.
It's a strange moment: on the one hand, I feel a little bad for the guys. There they are, just doing what instinct has trained them to do. They're breeding, raising young, defending them when necessary. On the other hand, they're assholes. It doesn't take much to get them riled up, and with two kids, two cats, and a dog around, it's not a chance I'm willing to take.
Still, I can't help but feel a little like Ender...