Time to get this blog updated!

Again, we seem to have let this blog become another thing that slips between the cracks in this crazy life. We appreciate all the feedback we've gotten from those of you who follow and are going to try to make it a little more of a habit to keep our progress and adventures recorded and transmitted. I know it's already December, but I'm going to try to sum up what happened in the last 4 months in only a few short entries.

Most of the rot repair was fixed up by same contractors, but they have since dropped off the radar again. Luckily they left a bunch of work lights and a bucket of framing nails at least. We've since started working with another private contractor that Deder really likes working with.

August and September had us focusing on the exterior of the house before the weather became prohibitive. We searched for a roofer and lined up a date for them to start and made our order for all new downstairs windows on Andrea's birthday. While the windows wouldn't be in for 4 more weeks we started getting the siding in shape or replaced and coated primer. We quickly realized that a wussy palm-sander was the wrong tool for the job. So Deder has been going at the 80 years of lead-based pink paint with a disk sander. It works great, you just end up with a lot of paint/cedar dust in your ears.

In late September we received a surprising notice from our home insurance company (actually a subsidiary of Lloyds of London) canceling our policy due to moss on the roof. Well. . .It would have been nice if they just asked. . .and they didn't have a problem with the giant blue tarp? Andrea was some how able to reach a deal (I don't know how she does it) with the insurance Co. and convinced the roofers to come a few weeks early so that we could keep our insurance. And that's when the roofing began.