My House's Facelift

As noted before, the old garage was looking awfully tatty with its new blue roof--lipstick on a pig! So in came the crew to replace the siding with HardiePlank. Much of the cheap board and batten siding was rotted or hopelessly warped, so they replaced it, largely with plywood they found in the garage. I was glad in this instance that Bill saved so much stuff.

Oh it was wonderful to watch that garage being transformed.

To drive up and see this!

To climb the tower and see this!

and to walk out the meadow, turn around and see this!

A badly needed new door, painted my favorite shade of purply-blue. I couldn't match the roof, so I went for what I loved.

Cedar siding put on in 1999 was hideously rotted on the north side of the house, and peeling and weather-beaten on the south and west sides. Daniel tore it off with his bare hands until I begged him to stop. Never mind--it would all be replaced soon.

I was pretty much done with wood. Bring on the cement composition HardiePlank! 

In mid-February 2020, I went to Ecuador. Remember international travel? I do, dimly. The Amish team timed their work to coincide with my absence, so all the hammering and banging wouldn't disturb me. I can tell you that, in my experience, nobody but the Amish works on outside house renovation in January and February. 

Daniel had purchased the siding in advance and painted it under controlled conditions, as well, which helps a lot!

Upon my return, I beheld a tower transformed, secure.

They were good, they were affordable, and they were fast. Got in, did the work, got out. Boom. Fueled, perhaps in part, by this:

If I drank that I'd be awake for a month.

In this video, Curtis perfectly expresses how it felt to come home after a long trip and find the siding on garage and tower magically finished. I am so grateful to Daniel Yoder and Amish Builders of Patriot, Ohio for their wonderful work; for their speed, professionalism and efficiency. You've spoiled me for good.

           

The Greenhouse, Occupied

It's just a whole 'nother thing, looking at this house all red and cornsilk yellow. I love it. I love the way it looks against the sky and the landscape. Forest green turns out to be a great accent color (along with cobalt blue) for the red. So the greenhouse, which was already pretty groovy-looking, looks even groovier now.

While the Big Sit was going on, I grabbed Tools, who didn't mind being pulled away from birdwatching. His favorite bird is a fast-rising ring-necked pheasant, anyway. I asked him to come down and look at the sagging roofline on the greenhouse. He recommended a support pole, a floorjack if you will, and even texted me a photo of it from our local Lowe's. My personal tool/gizmo shopper. It's a 7'0" - 7' 4" adjustable pole. You put it in place and crank it up until it's bearing some weight.

I didn't even know there was such a thing as a floorjack. That's what Tools is for. That, giant concrete drills, and decoration.

He arrived at the Big Sit like Knight Rider in a new graphite-gray Corvette, which was most unfortunate, because we had to look at that car all day long, sitting in our driveway, totally outclassing every other vehicle that arrived. It was harrible.

The manifestation of the floorjack. It's smack in the middle of the floorspace, which is taking some getting used to, but the greenhouse no longer looks swaybacked, like an elderly horse. And I like the color!

Now that's a nice topline. Much better. I'm also diggin' the ketchup and mustard color scheme of the house. Bill pointed that out. At first I was most chagrined, then embraced it.

 Inside, Salivia greggii "Desert Blaze" is blooming like mad! It survived transplanting and repotting without even so much as a shrug or dropped leaf. May it keep going. I'd love to carry it over the winter, since I'd been looking for it for about a decade without success, and found it at a farmer's market in Brunswick, Maine this summer.
This is one of my favorite plants, an icy bright variegation on a theme. In the foreground is a small red mandevilla that just had to come in when it got nippy. And the beautiful lacy-leaved vine in the corner is pink jasmine. I cannot wait until it blooms. It grew and grew all summer with nary a blossom. I think I see tiny buds...mmmm.

Geraniums "Frank Headley" and "Happy Thought Pink."

I keep trying to get a shot of the golden arbor vitae that does it justice. I'll have to wait for sun.

Every once in a great while, there is sun.

And when there is I scat up to the towertop to have a look-see. For those who wonder what it's like up there... looking north

 looking east

and looking south

and looking west as the sun drains away.

A House in Use

The Big Sit was a housewarming, really, many of our favorite people coming from all over, bearing carbs for our table. There was a preponderance of doughnuts and baked goods made with apples, and it was all delicious!

I got to listen to Steve the Royal Meteorologist for the Whipple Bird Club give his weather report for the day. He has this radio voice I love, very resonant and authoritative.

Margaret and I arm-wrestled. These are actual, unretouched photographs of Zick beating someone, anyone, at arm wrestling. Beating Margaret!! who's been workin' out. Guess all that laundry totin' and lawn rakin' has had an impact.



Yee-haw! Ain't tellin' what we wuz wrasslin' fer.

Towertop was very very beautiful.

Having so many friends come was a treat in itself. But there was one housewarming gift I'd been looking forward to for months. Terry Lobdell came from northwest Pennsylvania with our sweet and wonderful friend Dallas, bearing bat boxes he'd made himself. Three of them. Not just bat boxes like you'd get at a nature shop. These are bat manses. Bat Taras. Bat Taj's. This is Mimi soaking up some of Terry's amazing bat wisdom. I didn't manage to get a photo of Dallas.

They're huge and heavy and well-insulated, with room for hundreds of bats inside three compartments. And Terry mounted two of them on our deck, and he put the third (an observation box you can OPEN UP so you can PEEK at the BATS through PLEXIGLAS) yes I am shouting

on a 4 x 4 that supports my clothesline. It was featured in the previous post.

Terry's van, which is a rolling hardware store. He is the cutest. He knows so much about bats, and yet he told me he learns volumes each season. I know how he feels. There is so very much to know about bats.

 I love that there are people on this earth going around doing things for bats, spending their own time and money helping creatures that terrify most people. That wasn't very well put, but you understand. It just moves me.

From the amount of time and thought Terry and Dallas put into mounting these boxes, I am sure that if there are bats to be got here, we will get them. Mimi, who loves bats more than I, if that were possible, came away with a serious case of bat box envy. We'll have to do something about that.

Terry broke for lunch in the Air Chair. Yes, he fed Chet Baker. That's what the tongue action's about.

Soon, it was time for a fashion show. Phoebe came out in her homecoming dress.

Oona led the processional.

Yes, That Oona. See her (and Chet) in 2007 here. OMgosh, Chet looks like he just came out of the dry cleaners, doesn't he? So crisp, so spiffy, so very young. Two, in fact. Lawd. And in December, he's about to be nine...

Speaking of things growing up right under your nose...

I made Phoebe take off the horse head for at least one photo. We like her color choice. It's a red red year here.

There was a whole lotta hangin' out going on that Sunday. The new porch, a huge hit. And technically, it still fell within the 17' Big Sit Circle when people were on the porch. So you could "birdwatch" from towertop or porch and still count what you saw, if you saw anything, which mostly we didn't.

Mimi and Marcy and Creeper Phoebs.

Later that afternoon, Ohio University English professor Mimi took Phoebe in hand for a trip through the Common Application for college. Yikes. This is something best done with a non-family member, Phoebe tells me. So much the better when it's a super-literate university educator huge Pirates fan musician singer bat loving and beloved non-family member.

Pawpaw processing will still happen, whether I can eat them or not. Now I just get to share them.

Sun will slant across the new front porch and the bonsais will turn red, then orange, then crimson

and the man who set it all in motion will finally exhale. Thank you, Bill.

And thank you to our friends at Before and After Remodeling.  Mighty nice work!