Five Indoor Things I am Really Excited About

There are lots of things I like at the new house, too. Here are five things inside the house that I'm particularly enjoying. And given the stormy weather of the last month or so, having a safe basement to cower in ranks high!


- Basement

What the heck, nature?! Nebraskans are good people. Lay off the severe storms, please? But at least we have a good place to go during severe weather. We can even bath, sleep, and paint and heat set dishes in a kiln down there if we need to. (Except the kiln isn’t set up yet. Someday.)

Patio Pool Party

Since we’re doing a lot of work at the new house and the girls enjoy playing over there, plus there’s so much more room to play, we set up our pools on the patio.

Yep. Plural. We have more than one pool.

Really, should that surprise anyone?

Actually, we’ve had a small plastic pool for a few years. Last year, Adam cracked it on the bottom. It has duct tape covering the crack now and does not seem to be leaking. But it may not have much time left on it. And we thought it would be good to have a “calm” pool for Agatha and a more wild pool for Emaline and Gwendalyn. Plus, three girls don’t fit into one small pool without a little territorial arguing.

Don’t Make Friends with the Wildlife

After the girls were in bed, Adam yelled that I needed to come look at something. Outside the living room picture window are three of the four little raccoons that live around the new house.  And Adam is tapping on the glass to amuse them.

I don’t enjoy killing animals, but a family of raccoons is not really something we can have. They will eventually need to be, unfortunately, put down.  If you have ever lived on a farm or acreage, you may be nodding your head or sighing in frustration because you’ve experienced this before. And you know how frustrating it is. If you’re really offended but live in the city and don’t actually have to deal with this level of critter issue on a regular basis (meaning lots of them every day), please don’t lecture me on wild animal ecology. You don’t even want to know what I think of mountain lions. And now I’m freaking out a little because I’m thinking about mountain lions. So thanks for that.

Most likely, Adam is the one who will have to handle the raccoons. I’m not a bad shot, when I’m not upset about having to be shooting at things. But I prefer bow and arrow, and that isn’t really practical here. Ever seen Robin Hood? Yeah, there’s no way I’m THAT good.

Five Things the Girls are Really Excited About

 The girls love the new house. Here are five things they are especially excited about.

- Windows

 This house has a few HUGE windows. The girls love looking at the plants, the sky, and the animals outside. The windows are now covered in fingerprints. And mouth prints. I will be having them wear Windex covered gloves in the house now so that they can wipe the windows clean as they look outside.

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs (and Trained Attack Babies)

This house has not been lived in for about two years.

Strike that. This house has not had humans living in it for about two years. It has, however, gained and maintained a healthy population of bugs. We have glue traps out and we’re squishing whatever we see, but I can’t say how much it actually helps. (Again, I don’t like killing things, but a near infestation is a problem.) The occasional roach seems to get in through the vents. Little beetles are coming in because the back/front door doesn’t seal all the way at the base. Mosquitoes have found holes in a screen door. Ants have a little passageway in the sliding door. There may be bees in one wall. Carpet beetles have a number of entryways, unfortunately, but at least they’re kind of delicate. And most of the rest of the bugs come in when I forget to turn off the inside light when the outside light is on and the door is open.

I remember Grandma and Grandpa used to have a bug zapper. I think I saw at least part of it the other day. We may need to see if it can be revived or just get a new one. At least for the outside door. Darn moths and June bugs.

Agatha, by the way, worries me. She puts a lot of things in her mouth. And she’s dangerously quick.

Dishwasher Disaster

Adam had his first day of graduate school today.  I thought I would be a hard worker and get a lot accomplished. But I was also a little lazy, too.

So I loaded up the dishwasher, still the original machine in the new house, and turned it on. Nothing happened. I called Dad, and he reminded me to turn the dishwasher’s water lines back on. Easy enough, right? I should have thought of that. The girls and I played, read some books, and then decided to do lunch in town and go to a park. Maybe even see Great Grandma. A few hours had passed.

On the way to get shoes on, we noticed that the kitchen floor was wet. Flooded, actually. As in, “Hey, get the plastic boats from the bathtub!” flooded. Monsoon season flooded. The dishwasher had not drained normally and instead was draining all over the floor, which apparently has low points over by the clothes washing machine in the entry and also in the space between the fridge and the oven. That’s where the pool of water was deepest, of course.

I sent the girls to play in another room, but of course they hung around to watch and ask a thousand questions about the water.  And splash. And get yelled at by a panicking mommy. And splash some more.

New Carpets and Naughty Babies

Due to a few problems with stains and mold, we have many new carpets in the new house. I would have liked to keep the old ones, but it wasn’t entirely an option. So only three old carpets remain.

New carpet it kind of nice. We got some odd looking ones and we were able to make the master bedroom yellow again. And there are fewer carpets with pins and needles in them. Seriously. Grandma sewed a lot, and growing up, I always left my shoes on in the house because it was really risky to go barefoot. My feet picked up SOOOO many stray pins over the years. It has only been a minor issue so far; mostly in the office-turned-sewing-room that kept it’s carpet. Along with the carpet roughness issue if you’re crawling on it.

But also, new carpet sheds a lot. There are lots of little pieces of carpet coming out and migrating around the house. And it’s REALLY easy to pull out a few loose strands.

Up and Down the Stairs

We’ve only been here a few days, and we’re already stuck in the basement for an evening. There was a big hailstorm tonight, and with the huge windows my Grandma always loved, being upstairs was not an option. So we brought a TV downstairs along with the girls’ sofas and spent the evening playing in the basement.

And Adam and I spent a lot of that time just going up and down the stairs. Going up to look out the windows. Coming back down. Going up to check the weather radio. Coming back down. Going up to get something for snack. Coming back down.

Moving-ish In-ish

Don’t tell my mom, but I’m allergic to bunnies.

I’ve actually known that for a while. And really, I’m mostly allergic to their food (timothy hay) and their loose fur. And the dust they create.

So as we’ve been packing at home and preparing to move, we’ve had a very important rule: If Adam is going to pack things near the rabbits (which I can’t do, due to said allergies), it needs to be at night so I can bath and go upstairs to bed right away.

Well, a few days ago, Adam forgot our rule. He’s out of school now, so he’s home all day. While the girls were doing afternoon nap, I was sitting by the TV, sorting papers. I didn’t pay attention to what Adam was doing, until I started sneezing and rubbing my very itchy eyes.