Three guys were up there yesterday (Saturday)
- to stucco the bottoms of the north and south walls to protect the polystyrene footing forms from chompers and chewers (most of the stucco will buried in dirt after the stuccoing and painting is done),
- to insulate the ceiling of the ground floor
and - to start finishing the plumbing on the ground floor.
The plumbing and the insulation needed to be finished so the drywall guys can hopefully do their part this coming week. Peter, the plumber, wasn’t quite done yesterday so he came back to finish today. Greg, the solar fellow, finished his work today and will ask for an inspection this week. The house now has electricity!
Notice that in the first picture Carlos is wearing a nice warm jacket. Everyone is now aware that winter comes early up in the mountains, and there is starting to be some pressure to move right along and get things done. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.
What about you. Are you affected by winter/the weather very much?
I still can’t get over how Yummy the colours are.
Our house is very cold in the winter. I wear a jacket inside. Better for the cost & environment rather than heat the whole house. It’s sunny & not humid here so outside is wonderful.
bikehikebabe,
Thank you!
I’m glad to here 🙂 you winter is on the way, cause that means our summer is coming on down here!
I must say though, I’m certainly not wearing any less right now…although there might be a little less on the bed sometimes.
We have had a lot of mixed days where “like today” – it will be raining at first light, then brilliant sun and then later a stiff and slanty cold rain will shoot through usually with very little warning, of course as soon as I got home, it starting spitting in the driveway which caused me to move faster up the steps.
Got another fright as Toto was on the porch…I will have to be careful he doesn’t find out how to open the front door. He is a type of chocolate brown Burmese with a voice and now he is happy to have a short pat…he lives next door but obviously thinks my sunny/sheltered porch (well at cat height) is nice.
goodness…grammar and spelling has somewhat changed in first line…I must be tired or my brain cells are tied!
still in the 80’s and 90’s here each day… but winter will be here before we know it. they are really making fast progress now. i thought the dragging of inspections would never end! such a waste of precious days they could have been using.
but you have stayed so calm and “cheerful!” through it all.
you are the cheerful monk for sure.
and i’m with bhb. it’s going to be beautiful!
and cathy… i had to laugh… i have a neighbor kitty named
natalie. i keep treats just for her. (maybe not a great idea!)
she’s now at my door in the mornings. gets her treat then sits on my patio in the sun.
Winter is some two months away but it is not the bone biting cold that you will get up in North India. It is pleasant and just a sweater wearing kind. I enjoy the winter as much as I enjoy the other seasons.
Winter is generally mild here in Arkansas. However, it can also get dangerously cold and we do get some snow almost every year — I’ve seen as much as 2 feet in the 32 years we’ve been living here — but it seldom stays on the ground very long.
Mike, I have never lived full-time where snow abounds…and as I was commenting to someone recently on a blog, we don’t do raccoons or squirrels either. The only time I was involved with snow and then ice was when I sojourned in the UK it the late 1960s…interesting how certain parts of the world were certainly not joined at the hip both animal and weather-wise…
Jean: a friend of mine wrote rather late last night and she was brain cell dead as well. As she was suggesting that I have the key for “tonight” – actually she meant today/night 🙂 but it was so funny…
Rummy: many people who come to my city in Winter cannot understand why people are wearing puff jackets when it isn’t cold. But you get acclimatised I think. As I have grown older I have got colder and this year I decided on light thermals top/bottom and mostly I have been toasty warm..
BHB: I couldn’t imagine having no heating. But then again in NZ it is uncommon to have central heating and only recently are houses being insulated properly
Tammy: I have other cats who visit but as soon as I come within an inch…even when there is no way of leaping from 2nd floor to their perch they race away…
Cathy, we do have central heating; (we’re not cavemen Haha). But when it’s below freezing outside it’s still only 64 F (16 C) in our house. We have 4 heating zones & I could turn up the one in our bedroom part, but what the hey, I enjoy being conservative.
I’m pretty unaffected by the externals (which has its strengths and weaknesses). As long as I can get warm enough of course.
Hi Cheerful Monk! I wasn’t sure about the chocolate brown at the house bottom. Ha, but it would be gorgeous to plant ornamental grasses and low maintenance plants indigenous to the area. I’m prompted by a recent did a blog post on China’s Yellow Mountains…incredible nature!
Fall and winter are my favorites! Even at my old age I still love raking leaves, piling them high, and taking a plunge, LOL. Then again, the shoulder is not ready. In N.C. we have four distinct seasons… and I really appreciate having them all. I’m just a nature lover at heart.
Hope things go well and get finished to your satisfaction.
Cathy,
I’m afraid I prefer winter to summer, but spring and fall are my favorites–cool enough to be invigorating but not too cold.
It is a nuisance when you’re out and the weather changes without warning. Glad you were almost home before it started raining.
tammy,
It’s starting to be a bit cooler here–temperatures in the 70’s rather than the 80’s.
Yes, inspections took a long time and there’s always the problem of contractors having other jobs. We knew that before we started so it was no surprise. I do sympathize–they need to arrange to have enough jobs to keep the business going yet not so many that they can’t do them.
bikehikebabe,
I tend to keep the apartment cool in winter too, when I’m here by myself during the day. I do try to remember to turn on the heat before Andy gets home. He keeps reminding me that older folks can get hypothermia even when the temperature is 70 degrees. It’s a family joke now.
Rummuser,
It was November when we went to India, and we thought that was a great time to go. We tend to wither in hot weather.
Mike,
What’s the coldest it gets there? Our winters here are more mild than they were when we lived in Ithaca. It sometimes gets down to -10 or -20, but not nearly as often as it did there. We used to walk the half mile to work and back and I still remember the biting winds. I was young enough then to think it was adventuresome.
Evan,
I imagine it doesn’t get very cold there? But I also remember being very cold in France. The thermometer didn’t read that low, but the moisture sucked the warmth right out of us.
Dixie,
I’m afraid the animals have taught us not to try to plant things, except daffodils, unless they’re well protected by hardware cloth, chain link fences or greenhouse walls. It does spoil the effect. 😀
The fire destroyed Andy’s fruit trees but not his fences, so he’s planning to replant next year.
No Sydney doesn’t get very cold. Sometimes down to a little below freezing but not much.
Closer to the coast is milder, inland a bit colder in winter.
How cold? We’ve seen it below 0°F, though not often. Winter here mostly stays above freezing, though there has been a few times where the ground has frozen. Our water line froze in 82, but it was just below the surface between the pump structure and the house. When the rural water supply system came through, I trenched from the meter to the house and made sure it was as deep as I could get it with the ditch-witch. That line will never freeze — unless we have an ice age. 😉
I hate the winter. I hate the cold and dark and all the bare trees. Our house like most others wasn’t built to be warm and energy-efficient so it’s always a struggle to get it probably warm on the coldest days. Where can I hibernate until the spring?
Hi Jean,
Things are getting ready on your corner.
No winter on my side of the world yet. We are still experiencing a hot summer. Winter will only hit us around December (a mild one though).
You went solar: hear, hear!
Cheers
Nick,
I sympathize. You are far north and the days tend to be short and dark. Our apartment down here isn’t energy efficient either, so the poor furnace has to struggle on cold days. But at least we get plenty of sunshine and the days aren’t so short.
Max,
I don’t like hot summers! Here the air is dry so even if the thermometer gets into the 90’s it’s not as bad as some places are.
Yes, we’re miles from the grid so if we want electricity it’s either solar and/or a generator. We have a propane generator for backup. We can’t use the solar yet because we’re waiting for the inspector to give his approval.