Ant Farming

Our current house is a ant habitat, not intentionally of course. Despite our many attempts at ant eradication, from squashing them all to slow acting poison to spraying around the house, whenever it rains or outside conditions are less favorable they invade. We all have our ant stories. I have found ants crawling on my bed, the top bunk. J often has them crawling up his leg as he sits reading in the living room. Once someone found an ant in their ear when they woke up. Most memorable is the muffin story.

Back in the fall mom made muffins before going to bed. The next morning, I ate muffins for breakfast in the dark at 5am before swim practice. When I got home from school the rest of the family told me in horror that when they woke up the muffins were covered in ants! So who knows how many ants I ate that morning! YUCK!

Today, J is taking out the round patio stones in our front yard. Some of them have thousands of ants with their eggs underneath. I took pictures of the ants and the ant eradication team.

                 All those little white things, yeah those are so to be inhabitants of our house.

                                  M, the eradication team, out to get as many ants as possible!

Siding and Windows and Doors, oh my!

Our living room has turned into a house planning center. Below is a taste of the decisions we are trying to make.

Siding:
For the exterior we are considering J & N stone's brickease product on the foundation and then using Hardieplank lap siding the rest of the way up. We haven't decided yet whether we will use Hardieplank shingles (shakes) for the dormers. So far our favorite colors might be Heathered Moss and Mountain Sage, thinking a green might blend nicely between our yellow and blue neighbors. Perhaps we will form a neighborhood color wheel!

Windows:
There is ongoing debate here on site about whether or not to try Serious Windows, some super energy efficient fiberglass windows. Today we should finish our spreadsheet of window sizes and coatings to send to Serious, Pella, and maybe a few other companies to get quotes.

Doors:
Who knew you had to have your doors chosen to get a permit? I am not filled in completely on what we are thinking, I do know there are fiberglass options.

Other matters of note on site today:
Dad and Jonny may try to put up the silt fence. The outline of the house is staked out and marked with string. The gas line and sewer just happen to run right underneath the new house, so the next few months begin an experiment of living without heat, hot water, or a stove. And the truss plans came in differently than Dad had thought.