Into the Tedium

There’s just something about walking through masses of fall leaves, with blustery winds making them dance around your feet that evokes the total feel of the season. Our old oak out front went from green to brown within the space of a week and soon will face the sky with barren and knarled old arms. I got the last of the apples picked from our front tree; likely around 40 pounds of them and peeled and sliced them all into freezer bags. I must now have about 15 pounds of processed apples to use this winter; patiently waiting their turn to be made in apple crisps to be paired with morning coffee. Ah, delicious! 

We’re into the tedious details on the house; things that don’t necessarily show a lot of progress but which must be completed. Marc continues to go out after he finishes his job and work on the house each night until around 8-8:30 p.m. He comes in and has a late, cold dinner then goes to bed, to wake up at 4:30 the next morning and do it all again. I helped him install the energy heel, which required individually cut pieces of Styrofoam to be stapled to the roof trusses. This surrounds the entire interior perimeter the length of the Styrofoam; next up will be the batt and blown in insulation. I think he is aiming for R44 on the ceiling through this process. He is also working on all the backing for all the shelving throughout the house, for all closets and the kitchen shelving. We’ll also install grab bars in the bathroom and shower figuring at some point someone may need them and it’s better to be prepared than to have to retrofit since this is our intended forever home. The kitchen required that he do a mock-up of where the countertop will sit so we could better visualize how high to place the open shelving.

We were very unhappy with the 4x4 posts used on the front porch so Marc went out and bought all new 6x6 to replace them with and has been slowly working on rectifying using a proper cut-in fashion rather than just shoving them in and nailing them as the Blenker carpenters had done at first. Those blue boxes seen on the FL are pressure tanks which will go in the basement for our well water. Right now the water pressure tank and pump are located in the shop so can’t be used in winter so that all needs re-doing. Cha-ching.

Fortunately one of the young Blenker workers has agreed to do a little moonlighting so was available to help Marc build the well for the basement window. Since it sits below grade it was necessary to fabricate a well to hold back the backfill when it’s completed. As an added bonus to this, he’s decided to make some type of cat enclosure using this space as a playground for the kitties that can be accessed through a pet door out the window. Complete backfill from the excavator should occur sometime this week and the septic guy should get going on installing that late this week or next week before ground freeze.

Weather wise we’re having a late fall mixed bag but for the most part it hasn’t been terribly rainy; just cold. Very occasionally though we end up with a sunny warmer day (60) and I took the last occasion to get Rocket out to the park on what could be his last visit there. I figure we’ll be moving in the middle of winter before he is able to enjoy it after spring thaw. He gets very excited to hear he is going “to the park” for his short ride on my lap in the car.