House Update
January and February
Written February 23
Dear Friends and Families,
Of course, the Big Deal from 2005 and 2006 was our house remodel. Some people ask about the latest status, maybe thinking it has fallen down since we last talked. Well, I'm reporting here that it hasn't.
Overall, the house holds up to Winter. It's nice and warm inside, thanks to burning wood in our tile fireplace and hundreds of dollars of Russian natural gas feeding our hot water heating system. |
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Here's Mr. Dorn, from down the street, enjoying the Winter. He was nice enough to sweep a path in the snow from one end of the neighborhood to the other. |
Inside, the house is cozy. Winters are dark, but that's what electric lights are for. |
 Germany has real chimney sweeps and our local man-in-black came for his twice-yearly clean out and inspection. We passed. |
 Not so easy has been the problem of mold on the bedroom walls. It seems stone walls have the drawback that some places, corners for example, are cold and serve as ideal places for moisture to condense. After moisture comes mold. We now have a routine for limiting warm, moist air in the room and for airing out the space in even the coldest weather. |
Winter was not without damage. We had one wind storm come through that moved some of our roof tiles. However, one neighbor lost even more, and was nice enough to patch our missing pieces at the same time. The other neighbor actually had a part of their barn wall blow out and fall through the roof of their shed. It certainly made us wonder about our own old barn.
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The only house visitors we had so far in 2007 were these sheep. It was a bright, sunny day with no wind to disturb the sound of munching. We could tell we weren't in the city anymore.
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By mid-February, days were long enough to consider enjoying our house on the outside. We don't have the patio table set up yet, but that time is not too far away, especially with sunny evenings. We have even been inspired enough to think about the old barn and what we might do to transform this neighborhood eyesore into a nice guest suite, if only we HAD guests other than sheep.
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So, that's where The Project stands. Available for inspection.
John and Marianne.
