Deck the Halls - Getting Boosted - Start Our Next Big Project

Ooooh it's that time of year to Deck the Halls and to get the decorations put up in time for the holiday season! I just love decorating the house and so far here is our outside result:

Earlier this year we happened upon a large tote full of new and slightly used LED Christmas lights at a rummage sale. We got the whole tote for only $5.00!   They were much better than the regular incandescent twinkle lights that we previously had for exterior home decor.  LED lights are so expensive, we really hit the jackpot with 20+ sets and extra bulbs and cords in the tote.

The other week, the grandkids helped me go through the entire bin and we picked out all of the warm white LED strings.  Each was bundled securely, and we made sure each string worked before adding it to our own Christmas Decoration Bins. 

I don't care for the cool light LED strings that are so much brighter with that whitish-blue color. Those we bundled up and gave to our daughter Heather's family that they can use decorating on their house.

The weather was finally warm enough to start our Decking the Halls on Tuesday. Steve and I started the day out with wrapping all of our original garland with the new LED lights. That was quite a process because we had to stretch them out the entire length of the She Shed room and twist the strands of lights around the length of garland.

And we dragged the newly wrapped garlands upstairs, we had to stage which end first before going out to the front porch. We had to have the plug-in end leading to the one side of the porch where Steve had added a new exterior grounded GFCI outlet this summer. He put it specifically there so we could light up the house in the winter as well.

I leave the red velvet bows attached to the original garland at just the right spots. It makes it easier to put it on the front porch because I know where each one needs to be fastened from year to year. 

Now the outside stuff begins. I started draping the garland and getting it spaced out onto the front porch railing while Steve started pulling out the power cords and getting things set up to plug into the timer at the outlet.  I am glad we had gotten snow overnight, so it really felt festive! Sometimes we don't get snow this early in the season.

The weather was up to almost 40 degrees, so we could do our work without wearing gloves. One of the first things I hung up were the three big white snowflakes. These are made from Dollar Store plastic clothing hangers! They are wire tied together into this intricate pattern and then little gems and sequins are hot glue gun attached on to the surface. Here is my blog post of when the grandkids help me make them two years ago:

http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2019/11/back-to-real-time-ceramic-tile-and.html

After the snowflakes were up, Steve had all the electrical cords set into place where we could drape the garland and get that plugged in. I wire tied it all to the railings, and Steve stood up and did the high garland across the top of the porch roofline. Then the best part is wrapping the red velvet ribbons around the pillars. They make adorable looking peppermint twisted candy canes.

I have this cute little red glistening tinsel tree that I found at the Habitat for Humanity Restore a couple years ago. It works just perfectly between the windows and adds a little dash of color. Even the lights on this tree glow red. Everything else is white.  

This adorable little Rudolph managed to make its way home with me last year. I think somebody made it from some wood workshop plans that are readily available, because I do see other versions of the same hand made reindeer in different sizes from time to time. His nose is a red painted golf ball. How cute is that?

We put the finishing touches

 here and there

 and managed to get it all decorated in one afternoon.

We also did the pergola walkway between the garage and the She Shed entrance, but I didn't get that in the pic.  And last night Steve put one more strand on the tiny pine tree we have up near the end of the driveway.  The LED lights should be a bit easier on the electric bill. We have it all set on timers to run from 4:30 till 11 p.m.

Here it is lit up at night! I think it's prettier and more striking Christmas-y festive during the daytime. But the nighttime is pretty too: 

The other night, we took care of the littlest granddaughter for a couple hours. She was so excited to see the totes of inside Christmas decor stacked in the livingroom.  She helped me put all of the rocking horses and lit garland across the mantel. She had to play with each little rocking horse before we put it up into the perfect spot, naturally.

We also took out what we call the "Family Tree". It's a smaller fiber optic tree we used to keep in the motorhome if we were traveling for Christmas. Each little handmade ornament is a stuffed heart with a name applied to it with the flow paint pen. Every single person of our family is included on an ornament for this tree.

When the fiber-optic motion is started, then the little tendrils and the snowflakes all change colors from time to time as the halogen bulb underneath illuminates the fiber optic lines. It kind of makes a little motor noise that drives me crazy, but it is pretty to watch. I don't think I would like a full size tree that is this noisy?

The stockings were hung "by the chimney by CLAIRE" not CARE, really it was by Claire! After we did this, we curled up together on the couch and read 'Twas The Night Before Christmas'. Now she knows why I was laughing about "the stockings were hung by Claire".

Claire then decided the little firewood bin door needed a wreath, and the little Collie Beanie Baby would enjoy a ride in the sleigh with the teddy bear and books...

We also set out the magnetic Grinch Tree with tiny seed lights on strings, the fillegree paper cutout tree of the Twelve Days of Christmas, and the really cool green geometric tree made by our son-in-law Jesse on his 3D printer. 

  

 

Our next project was to decide where to put our 9 ft tall artificial tree this year. Our first Christmas in the house we had it next to the doorway between the bedroom and what's now is our office. Now since that doorway has been widened, that space is a little smaller, I don't think it will fit there.

2019 tree placement

Last year we put it closer to the fireplace. That was a good spot too, but it did take up a lot of space in the room when it came time for a gift opening with everybody gathered around.  In 2020 we didn't have a family gathering, so it didn't matter. 

2020 tree placement

So this year we decided to try something new. 

We put the tree in the She Shed!

These are those wide angle setting pics, 

so they are a bit distorted.

We're not sure if this is where we are going to actually keep it. So the lights and decorations are not yet on it. We kind of ran out of steam last night....

Since getting our covid booster shot Thursday afternoon, we both have been slightly sore and tired.  It only took a minute or two at our local clinic, and we were sooooo glad to get it done.  But we did notice by Friday we were kind of sore in the joints and the energy level is depleted. But that's been the only side effects. We will see what today will bring and if we decide to keep the tree set up here and finish our Decking The Halls???

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A couple blogs back I mentioned that we were up to a new project. Steve did his normal perusing of the Facebook Marketplace and ran across some building materials that are just perfect for our next project. The price was right and he decided we needed to pick this up. It was TWELVE big rolls of 23 inch wide faced insulation. The seller had overestimated his square footage and had too many. He was selling it for close to half-price and it was with only one package opened and unrolled, but still complete.  And one 15" roll thrown in for good measure.

The same day that we planned to go and get this insulation, was also a day that our son-in-law planned to borrow our flat trailer. Steve said no problem, he figured it out and measured and figured that all twelve rolls would fit in the back end of the Saturn.

Because the seller's home was quite a ways away (70 miles) we also incorporated in a trip to our favorite meat market / grocery store down in Sherwood, near Chilton. They were having a good meat sale, and we wanted to stock up.  They only butcher local meat from surrounding beef farms and we never had a bad cut or steak or roast from there ever.  We took along a cooler to haul the meat home. We also stopped at my two most favorite thrift shops. We picked up a few extra items and groceries at Aldi as well.  We had to be careful that we didn't overfill our Saturn too much because we knew our last stop would be to pick up this insulation. Steve was right, it all fit! Much to the amazement of the seller, we were able to get all 12 rolls and the loose stuff jammed into the back end of our Saturn!

These plans are now to insulate the ceiling of our garage. It's a four stall garage so there's a lot of ceiling space square footage to cover. He figures he will probably need an extra 4 to 6 rolls, but we won't pick that up until we get this all mounted into place.

We have a nice gas garage heater that he is going to install once he gets it insulated. It's especially important to get the ceiling insulated because that's where the cold air comes in through the soffit vents. When the wind blows across the field from the north, our garage can get quite cold. By insulating the ceiling, it will cut down those blasts of cold air and snow infiltrating the garage. He will only turn on the heater when he actually wants to work on something out there. But all in all, it will be nicer for the garage to be a little more air tight and snug. How much you want to bet that he will insulate the garage walls sometime soon too?  But he said for now the ceiling is all that he wants to do. 

As a matter of fact, while I am typing this morning, he is out there starting to install the first piece!!!

Guess our booster shot didn't affect us too much, so if we can do it, you can too. 

No More Bats in Our Belfry!!

I had written some blogs a few weeks back about 20 or so bats that were in our attic!  

Batty Bat Bats! Plus Weaving and Apple Pies

ONE Batty Bat - TWO Batty Bats - THREE Batty Bats!

We needed to get the bats out before our new attic insulation was due to be blown in for the winter heating seasion. 

Good news! The Bat Specialists Company, Ryan "The Bat Man", came back for one last check. http://batspecialistsofwi.com/index.html  He has determined that yes, all of the bats are GONE. Not only that, he got us adequately sealed up against any further intrusion because the one single bat that we thought was still up there is now DEAD. That means it never found it's way out and didn't have anything to eat.  

Ryan and his partner Adam came back here multiple times until they were sure the bats were gone. They will continue to check on us for one year per contract. 

 (they don't kill the bats, they install one way doors that let them out and not back in again, and seal up any openings they find all over the entire house).

So that means 

we don't have any more 

bats in our belfry!

Ryan's next suggestion was to seal the surfaces of any areas of the exposed wood on the rafters, eaves and studs where the bats had been clinging to. There is evidence of bat urine and guano (bat poop) that is remaining on the surface of the wood. He said by sealing that off, it would deter any future bats to be attracted back to the attic by the lingering scent.

He suggested that we pick up a product that is a primer/paint that kills odor-causing bacteria. It's also used for killing mold mildew and is a primer that could be sprayed on to seal the wood.

He also suggested that we remove all of the new layers of batt insulation we just put up there this spring, on the south section of the home. There's not a lot of that guano on it, but he said every bit that you can remove now will help deter any re-infestation.

The third thing he suggested is that we upgrade the standard roof vents that are up there, which the screens had failed and allowed the bats entrance and exit every night. In the meantime, Steve added a new layer of screening and stapled it into place, and caulked around all of the edges too.  Ryan said to replace the vents with a better designed roof vent that is more bat proof. We are contacting the roofing company that did the original installation a few years ago to see what's covered under warranty and if we upgrade, if would they install them? 

So ----  bright and early this morning at 5:15 a.m., Steve and I filled our bleary heads with coffee.  Oh my, we don't get up this early anymore since retirement.   We headed down to Home Depot in Green Bay to rent the big airless paint sprayer. None of our local hardware stores had one that was functioning. How well do I know that? I used to work at one of the local hardware stores. I'm the person that had to clean up the sprayer every time somebody returned it all full of gunk and paint and crap.

Home Depot charges $76 for the 4 hour rental, $11.40 for damage insurance and also charges you an extra $150 deposit to make sure that you clean it up afterwards! 

We got the paint sprayer through the rental department which is a little side door and a single counter with plexiglass. So at 6 am, we were relatively safe from being around any other shoppers by picking it up. We had the curbside pickup for the large 5 gallon bucket of the Zinsser bacteria and mold killing primer.  That was an extra $135.00 for the paint/primer. 

(note -we aren't really killing mold, this stuff works to seal the residue from the bats)

We loaded the paint sprayer in the back of the Saturn, and we were sure to bring along extra plastic tarps in case anything dribbled onto the carpeting in the back of our vehicle.

We got home by 6:45 am and while Steve got out the big ladder and carried the paint bucket, I covered some of the floor of our porch with cardboard as well as a plastic tarp. We had already pre-gathered the supplies and materials to get a good organized start.  My sexy Steve donned his industrial n95 respirator mask as well as put on his old glasses instead of his newest ones. He put on his sexy brown painting overalls and got on up the ladder to get started.

The air hose was plenty long to reach up from the porch into the attic via the entrance window.  Steve could work up there and not have to haul the big machine or the 5 gallon bucket up the ladder. 

I was the "down below person" who manned the pump, controlled the pressure, and let him know how the level in the bucket was progressing. It is kind of a one-man job up there at the spraying end of the machine, but at least I feel like I am helping from down below.

We only had about three hours to get this done, because the rental time span is 4 hours. That includes our half hour each way for traveling to Green Bay, so we had to get this done quickly.

As I type this blog, he is up there spraying away. He said everything is going good and he is able to reach all of the areas that need to be covered.  I did a cell phone camera zoom picture from standing on the ground.

On one of Steve's breaks, he took the cell phone up there to take photos of what he was doing. This had been all dark brown raw unfinished wood with streaks of bat doo doo on it. what a difference!

Here comes my sexy painting guy,

at the end of the job,

(minus his mask). 

I think my guy 

went prematurely gray

awfully fast?

We got the entire 5 gallon bucket done and sprayed by 9:30 AM. We now needed to get the whole thing cleaned up spic and span to be sure we were not going to be charged a cleaning fee once we brought it back!

Actually, we scrubbed and cleaned it so well that we cleaned up old paint and residue from other people who rented it before we did. Steve also cleaned out the filter and made sure everything was up to snuff before loading it back into the Saturn.

The guys in the tool rental department, Dennis, Mike and Dale, were very nice and chatted for a bit over the condition of the sprayer nozzle and talked about the process. Actually, Steve had worked with Dennis for many years at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay. They will all get good customer reviews from us online at Home Depot customer service department. 

~~~~~

Once this prep work is all done, next week the insulation contractors are coming. We had originally hired them to just remove all of the small styrofoam bead ball type insulation on the North section of the house attic, because we felt we were sufficiently covered on the South section with our newly rolled out batts that we put there this spring.

They will be coming with a huge dumpster and a vacuum device that will remove all of the crazy Styrofoam ball insulation. Just think of stuff like the inside of a bean bag chair! That is what had been put up there previously on the North half of the house, when there were renters in the home. They qualified for a State NewCap Weatherization program for free insulation. That is the cheapest stuff that was used and it was just dumped all over in the north half of the attic from big bags. So the whole North section of our house is loose styrofoam balls---- AND bat doo doo! So this company is going to suck it all out and then blow in new proper insulation to an R50 depth.

At our original time of contracting with the insulation company, they were only going to do the north side of the house. The South side was already rolled out with our batt insulation that we added in the spring.  That is now covered with bat doo-doo too!  It's gotta go.  Steve rolled it all up prior to the painting and the insulation company is going to dispose of it for us too.

But now, with the recommendation of the Bat Man, all the bat residue is contained, and we will have the entire attic insulated up to R50. It will cost us more, of course, but then it will all be done correctly.

When we called them back to say we will need more insulation, they were more than happy to comply! LOL 

Oh my, our poor retirement budget is getting stretched this month. 

My Jack of All Trades - He Can Fix Anything!

My Hero!!

Two days ago, after sewing through my fingernail and tip of my finger, it threw my mid arm Janome 1600p-db sewing machine out of sync.

It was skipping stitches, not picking up the bobbin thread, and lots of fits and stops and starts with bird nests of snarled threads underneath the quilt on my frame.

The nearest Janome repair person is 35 miles away and he is backed up about two weeks. I didn't want to wait that long to get my machine back.

After consulting various websites, downloading an actual service manual, and having a very talented mechanical hubby ... We did it!!!

I gathered all of the right tools, and held the flashlight. We had to loosen the tiny set screw on the needle bar and move it downwards... where I am pointing with the purple pen. Bit by bit, testing it each time until we found the right spot!

Got a pile of test swatches

from trying things out a bit one way 

or a bit the other way 

until we got it adjusted just right!

Whew.... Back to quilting!

My hero easily saved me $100 repair bill, not to mention a couple weeks of downtime not being able to use the machine. I have other regular sewing machines, but this is a high-speed machine with a larger throat opening. It rides on a carriage back and forth across the frame. It is able to do quilting at a much faster speed as well as handle large king size quilts.

~~~~~~

Well, it's been ONE year since we came and looked at this house with our favorite realtor Amy Badendick. She let us come along on the listing appointment when she was going to take the initial photographs to list this home and put it on the market. We got to meet the sellers and walk through the house with them, as well as check things out more thoroughly than just during a regular home showing. We got in the car and decided to sleep on it overnight. The next day we put in the offer and put our own home on the market. We got a full price offer on our Chilton home in 2 days. The rest is history.

To celebrate the one-year anniversary, we did something we've been planning to do for quite some time. A elderly previous owner of the home was still residing in an assisted living center. We had made a few inquiries and they said that she is very alert and cognitive and would welcome a visit from us.

I will respect her privacy and not post all of the details. She as well as her husband both grew up in the neighborhood a block apart from each other. She regaled us with tales of growing up on North Park Avenue and all of the people in the neighborhood. It was so fun to hear her stories.

The things she told us about the house were wonderful and illuminating. After his time in the service, he came back and they got married. They bought this house right across the street from her invalid mother and where she grew up.  Her husband became a Carpenter and a Mason. He is the who one who had built that huge fireplace in the living room. She told us multiple times that her one request was to have him build her a big fireplace!

Also he had built the backyard brick outdoor BBQ kitchen that we can only now see the foundation of. It is used as a small patio base for our picnic table and chairs now.

He built the cabinets in the kitchen in the late 1940s back when they did things the right way!! He had built a booth seat in the kitchen under the windows for a comfy little breakfast nook. We can see the marks on the baseboard and the walls from where the L-shaped bench seat been. Somewhere down the line it had been removed. Now we have a taller bar height table with stools in that sunny place in the kitchen. I can just imagine her children lined up on the little bench with legs dangling, feet kicking against the bench seat, and eating their breakfast at the little table.

As their family grew, they decided to turn this home into rental property and move out to the country.  It was only a few miles away from their parents, and they built a house on a farm. Their country farm is still in their family today.

It was so nice to spend the afternoon chatting with her, and we left her some photos of how the house how it looks now that she can show her family when they come to visit her.

~~~~~~~~

I am happy to say that Steve has finished all of the electrical work. Every single light fixture, switch, outlet, and junction box are correctly wired with new up-to-date, up to code wiring. After he finished the last of the upstairs ceiling fixtures, it was time to finish the insulation in the attic.  (In my last blog post, he had pulled out all of the old stuff).

Steve had done all the prep work and told me that I was going to stay out of the attic while he spread the fiberglass insulation. I have had lung damage in the past and he didn't want to harm my lungs by helping him.  But I did help load, haul and move around the plastic wrapped bales of insulation. I told him a catapult would have worked better to get it all up on the roof!!!!   He brought it all in through the attic window across the front porch. The weather was so warm, it was in the high 50's!

He donned his zip up Oompa Loompa Willy Wonka suit and got to work. Before he spread the rolls of insulation out, he also put on gloves and a full face respirator mask with filter cartridges.

Incidentally, as a side note, we went to buy more filters for his respirator mask, only to find out they are completely out of stock. People who can't get the regular healthcare type face masks are buying industrial face masks in the stores and they can't keep them in stock. We had to order additional filters from Amazon to get them in the mail for his industrial face mask!

Our weather here has been really crazy. We've had the unusually warm weather which has been slowly melting the snow. We've also had some interesting foggy mist come in the other night that was just beautiful and I took these pictures

But then this morning, surprise surprise, we got 2 to 3 inches of new snow cover again.  AAARRRGGGHHHHHHHH

I am snuggly warm in my she shed, happily sewing on my quilt again this morning.  Waiting for the snow to melt?

My ever hopeful husband is out in the garage today. He is tuning up the lawn mower and messing around with the belts in the cutting deck, sharpening blades etc. I think he's trying to remain positive that Spring will eventually come?