Thanks a Lot Squirrel!

Today marks a great occasion.  I think the renovations on my house (not the backyard, but the house) might be finished.  I have to say "might" so as not to jinx myself.  This place has been quite a challenge since I bought it back in 2007.  I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad to have an old, historic home and honestly, I'm happy with it.  In fact, I love it.  It's been my very expensive child.  I get that term from my dad. He calls me his expensive daughter, but I swear that I'm not that bad. It's just this house.  It's required a LOT of work since I moved in.

All the interior renovation and work has been finished, except for curtains. I'll be able to afford those someday.  The heating and cooling system has been replaced.  The new roof was put on twice, thanks to needing a new one when I moved in and then again when the hail storm hit. I've replaced the fence thanks to two fires and ice storms.  The green house has been torn down and rebuilt, also thanks to the hail storm.  And most recently, I got a new deck.

This deck addition was a result of squirrel.  "A squirrel?" you might ask.  Yes, a squirrel.  One day last fall I came home to find that the pumpkins on my front steps had become a feast for something with sharp, pointy claws.

Clawed up Pumpkins

One day, I pulled into the driveway and found the culprit!

Squirrel!!!

Check out the size of that belly!

Right after the squirrel had his feast, I watched him scurry up the side of my house and disappear into my attic! Yuck! I could only imagine the mess he was leaving up there! Plus I began to wake up every morning to the sound of claws scratching the floor of the attic, which was right above my bed.  It was time to do something about it.

I called my friend Moses, who does such a good job helping me with the house and told him that we needed to repair the woodwork around the attic opening where the little rodent was getting in.  We were going to have to paint after that job, so I felt like we might as well fix up all of the woodwork that had been rotting around windows, doors, etc. for the past 26 years.  The previous owners hadn't really paid too much attention to that.  Well guess what we found in the sun room when we took siding off that needed repair.  Windows were coming out of the wall! The whole wall had to be taken down and replaced before we could paint. Ugghhh!!!

So we get that wall finished and in the process one of the workmen steps through the back deck.  Of course he did! The supports below and some of the wood on top was completely rotted.  Are you seeing a pattern here? One job has led to another and while I want to follow a logical progression of renovations, these were things that not only amounted to a lot of money, but also much more time than I had planned on giving.  What choice did I have?  None.  I couldn't very well have people walking around on that deck with the possibility of bodily harm.  So it had to be replaced, but I calmly explained to Moses that I couldn't afford any more projects so if he or his men broke anything while building the deck, he would be responsible for replacing or rebuilding it.  He very sweetly agreed.

Thanks a lot squirrel.

Aside from pulling up the concrete in the drive, front walk and around the pool, tearing down the pool house and rebuilding it, adding outdoor lighting, and a new awning and lights by the front door, I think I'm done. Haha! Seriously though, I'm done for a good long while.  This stuff can wait.

In honor of all of the accomplishments of many, many people here (Patrick, Phillip, Moses and his team, Me, and many others like the other Patrick, Dan and his crew, Imants and I'm sure I'm leaving people out) here is a clip from the movie Money Pit. I posted it on my Facebook page earlier.  It pretty much sums up the whole experience, complete with the "I just lost my mind" laugh at the end. I can relate. :)




Oh and here's a picture of the almost finished product.  It is so close to what I imagined when I first bought the house and what I wanted it to look like.  So I'm grateful. Almost as grateful as I am to be able to take a break from all of this work.  I have a few other things on my plate. :)

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