The sun has been out for a couple days now and we have a bit of a heat wave! Ice is melting and I can finally see some grass. Grass I literally haven’t seen since we moved here 5 weeks ago. We were beginning to think the old owners took it with them. Word is, we will likely have more snow coming, but the break from the day after day snow is much needed.
I even spent some time out on my porch swing drawing. Something I’ve been doing a lot of. It’s lovely with the sun beaming down. Normally, I would feel awkward sitting out where the cars driving by can see me but something about this place is instilling a confidence in me I didn’t know I had.
Today’s drawing was of Sebastian. You see, in our utah house, we had a pet squirrel that would often play around our yard. We put our squirrel picnic table out for him and him and the birds shared feasts of nuts. And Sebastian was a survivor. Many times I watched him verbally take down a hawk on the prowl. The hawk would swoop down and he would hide and that is how they would sit, staring each other down, daring the other to make the first move. When all of a sudden, Sebastian would have enough and would start chattering and scolding the predator. And the bird would fly away, his pride wounded. We were all sad to say goodbye to Sebastian. The kids wanted to take him with us. But we left him for the new owners to enjoy.
But then, the kids were hanging out in the sunroom when suddenly they started yelling “Sebatian!” and lo an behold, there was Sebastian sitting on our deck. He had followed us all the way to Vermont! (somehow he also split himself into multiple Sebastian’s as well because he was also in a tree but I don’t question how miracles work). And he was the first wildlife we saw in person (other than the birds but they are always around). So he got to grace my tablet today.
We have started step 1 in renovation! Unfortunately, it’s the world’s longest step. Often times, old houses were built in a time that the builders weren’t fully aware of longterm construction techniques. And often the foundation is lacking. As a result, floors start to bend and sag and you get a wave effect happening. This can be very difficult to work around when doing renovations. So the first step it to get the foundation leveled as much as possible. They do this by adding metal beams attached to what is essentially a giant car jack. Each week, the jack gets lifted a fraction of an inch, allowing the floor to slowly adjust itself to the minute alteration. This happens until the floor is level. For our house, we are looking at about 8 weeks of “heavy lifting”. So that is our first step. A long but necessary one. One that can potential extend the life of the house by another 100 years.
When Tyler called the place to agree to the installation of the beams, I told him he should say he ready for them to “Beam me up, Scotty!”. He said he wouldn’t because it wasn’t funny. And he’s boring. But he’s used the joke several times since then so I’m feeling pretty confident about it’s level of humor.