Record Setting Warm Temperatures

The past couple of days we have had record setting temperatures.  The high today was 82.  Yesterday it was 80 and Monday it was 79.  It makes a change from last year at this time when we still had snow cover.  It was so warm today that Alistair wanted to play in the sprinkler.  He also wanted to water the plants.  Pointing to the dead leaves on the rose bush, he said, "This plant needs feeding."

The mud at the back of the porch is drying up, but the frost heaves are bringing rocks to the surface.  We have six rocks now to use in the garden as part of edging or a wall.

New Drywall Primed

We finally got some priming done today.  We primed all the new drywall in the "blue room" (above, and not yet blue) and in Charlotte's room and the hallway outside Alistair's room (below).  Next is priming the old walls.

First Meal on Porch

Except for two picnic lunches on blankets on the porch, today we had our first proper lunch.  We brought up our table and chairs (we bought in England at a gardening auction) and ate our lunch.  The weather is beautiful today, especially for mid March.  We are excited about using our new porch.  The old one was so dilapitated that we didn't use first floor porch at all.

Mud (Natural, not Joint Compound)

We haven't had much snow this winter, but that hasn't stopped mud season.  We lost grass cover with all the porch foundation digging, and now it is just a muddy mess.  Yuck.

And Another

Today when Colin rolled back some insulation to install the new ceiling light box in the blue room, he found a sleeping bat.  It was hibernating in it's cozy bed of insulation.  It stretched a bit as it began to wake up, so Colin quickly used a bucket lid to flick the bat into a bucket and brought it outside.  He laid it on the driveway, and when he checked on it a few minutes later, it was gone.  We shudder to think how many other bats are hibernating in the attic.

Yet Another Bat

This morning, as Colin was about to go upstairs to load up our car with old plaster, lath, and other unusable building materials, he noticed a bat on the third step in our front hall.  It flew out the front door when he tried to move it.  He followed it around to the back of the house to see where it went, but he couldn't see where it flew to.  Maybe back into the attic, maybe off somewhere else.

Yesterday morning Alistair woke up over an hour earlier than usual saying that he heard something.  (He was scared and ended up in bed with us and Charlotte.)  We wonder if he heard the bat in the ceiling above his room.  Alyssa had heard something rustling in the bathroom ceiling a few weeks ago.  Both the bathroom and Alistair's closet are below the new bathroom.  The bat could have flown out from behind the new tub, which does not yet have walls.

This is not the first bat we have seen this winter.  Colin found a sleepy one in the attic a few months ago.  He put it outside, but it soon flew away.  Then the night before Colin's Dad left after his visit this fall, there was a bat flying around his room.  Colin, his Dad, and Alyssa's Dad cornered it into Charlotte's bedroom (under construction) but it disappeared the next morning.  One of the roofers found a bat in the fall too (he just put it back in the attic).  Over the years when Colin was doing a lot of wiring work in the attic, he thought he saw something flying.  (And of course when Lauren visited one summer, there was a bat in the house, but that flew out of the basement.)  We're worried we might have a colony up there.

Mud, Sand, Repeat

During Charlotte's naps, Alyssa has been working on the new drywall at the top of the stairs.  The main thing left to do is work on smoothing out t he wall where the old wall with the door was.  Tonight, Colin chipped away at the left of the two ridges.

The other area of work is the old doorway at the other end of the hall.  There are some big holes on the hallway side that need filling (that you can't really see in the picture).

Stairway Ceiling

This weekend, Colin started to install the stairway ceiling.  We used the same material as in Alistair's room.  The different sloped sections make it a bit tricky to cut the wood.  The new ceiling looks great, and we are glad that we don't have to look at the ugly plywood anymore

Shedding Snow

The new standing seam roof is doing it's job of shedding show.  The gable above the side stairs keeps the snow and dripping water off the stairs.  It also made an interesting snow curl, which Colin knocked off to Alistair's delight.

Reassembling the Hallway Upstairs

Today Colin continued working on the hallway upstairs.  This weekend we started taping and mudding the drywall we hung last weekend, and we are getting the top of the stairs ready to nail in the wood ceiling.  It dawned on us that we have not had a proper ceiling at the top of the stairs in about five years or more.  We took down the horrible ceiling tiles and then realized that the roof was leaking, so we decided to wait until we replaced the roof.  That took a while.

Colin also finished demolishing the old archway that was between the hall and what we are now calling The Blue Room, since we are thinking of painting it Benjamin Moore Mill Springs Blue. 

 All of this demolition has left us with a lot of plaster and lathe and garbage.