Stupid Nature - Posted by Steve Mount

The new house has made it through its first winter, and we're now in the midst of out first spring, soon to be summer. The painters came back to do touch-up work, required after that crucial first winter to fix cracks from settling, heaving, and all other manner of ground-shift (not to be confused with California's temblors). They were actually impressed with how well the framing all held up, and had to do very little, compared, at least, to what they say they had to do to another house across the street. Whether that is a result of our framing crew, or the soil on one side of the street or the other I don't know. Either way, it was welcome news.

We paid the painters to do some touch-up of other scratches, nicks, and bumps we had put into the walls by moving furniture and by just living there. Brittany's walls were covered with scratches from a little adventure my niece took behind her bed. Suffice it to say that metal buttons on pants and jean jackets can make quite a mess of a fresh paint job, correctly applied.

We also finally got our landscaping done, or at least mostly so. The builder is holding off on the full drainage work until the last house in our circle is done - the lot has been sold, and we're waiting for the ground to be broken. Once the foundation is in, they can finish the drainage work in the center of the circle where all the property lines meet. Until then, the edges of our lot will continue to be a frog habitat. Meantime, I'm watering what will be lawn each night, and making a muddy mess of the sidewalk, walkway, and driveway. I'm praying for rain so I can forego the ritual.

As to what Nature has in store for us, there are lots of birds around our neighborhood, since we're surrounded on all sides by stands of trees. Too, we have bird feeders out all over our property, since we and the cats all like to watch them flit about. The consequence, however, is that at least one birdy family has decided to nest in our vent. We have four vents, one for each batchroom and one for the dryer. They are louvered, which has kept the wind out of them and which, presumably, is supposed to keep birds and insects out. Some birds, being smarter than insects, have figured out that the louvers are lighter than feathers and easily overcome with a flick of the beak. I actually saw a pair emerge from one vent, and we can hear scritching and scratching if we listen closely enough.

I found bird guards for the vents online, and once I knew what they looked like and what they were called, found our local Home Depot had them, too. I bought one for each vent, and a tall ladder. Not tall enough, however, for the highest of the vents. So I installed one, but the other three, one of which by now has a nest in it, are uncovered for now. We've done some scrambling to find someone with access to ladders that are tall enough, and with a sense of balance strong enough to climb more than 25 feet into the air to clear out the vents and screw the guards into the siding. We think we found someone who is will to do the job for less than $100.

As I was climbing up to do the one I could reach, and in calling around, we found that we are not the only ones in the neighborhood with this issue. We flushed with schadenfreude at hearing we are not the only ones. But hopefully by the end of this week, our particular problem will be resolved.

We also discovered an HVAC vent that was never hooked up, and we have one of the plumbing guys coming Monday, hopefully, to fix that. Turns our Brittany wasn't just whining when she said her room was cold this past winter. Oops.