Die, Carpenter Bees, Die!!!

We finally decided to buy some bug killer spray. That hole in the deck railing that we covered with tape....the bees drilled a hole straight through the tape. Drastic times calls for drastic measures.

Chris sprayed half the can into all 3 carpenter bee holes. We figured that should do. So Chris proceeded to empty the pond, per his daddy's request. After bailing out about half the pond, Chris was being attacked again. With broom in hand, Chris used all his golf skills and wacked his attackers with all his might. As I watched safely from behind the screen door, I was reminded of Luke's first lightsaber lesson. "Stretch out with your feelings"... "Use the force." I'm not sure if the force or the broom was working, but after using up the rest of the can of spray, there are 2 less carpenter bees in the world. Victory!!!

In the meantime, I was finishing up our first bucket of joint compounds. We still have half of the first layer left for the 2nd doorway. Unfortunately Home Depot ran out of the stuff. Well, ran out of the 12lb bucket. We really don't need 50lbs of joint compound. Since the supplies were exhausted, I moved on to chipping paint. The kitchen walls are just screaming to have its paint removed. Amazingly its a lot easier chipping paint than peeling wallpaper. This paint comes off in large areas sometimes. We finished about half of one wall before dinner.

And in the other part of the house, Chris' dad claimed his room and was setting up his futon. He'll be the first resident of the new house. We set up the microwave for him and put his care packages in the fridge. They thought of everything... camping chairs, radio, coffee maker, rice cooker... all the comforts of home. But he did forget his set of keys. Technically its not his set of keys (we only have 3 sets) but they took them home last time they were here. We're changing all the locks later anyway.

We should get a lot done in the next 1.5 weeks.

1 Down, 1 To Go... of the first layer

After Sunday, Tuesday and part of Friday, I finally finished putting the first layer of joint compound around one doorlessframe, and part of the 2nd. This is taking forever. And there's still 2 more layers after this. *sigh* But the first doorway looks decent. After more sanding, compound, sanding, compound, sanding, primer, paint... it'll look good. The 2nd and 3rd layers are thinner so it shouldn't take so long. It helps that I sorta know what I'm doing now.

We've decided to chip the paint off the other kitchen walls. Its like gloss paint on gloss paint and some is peeling/chipping already. So to save us headaches later, we'll just deal with it now.

They're baaaaack!!! We think what we've got are carpenter bees. They're in the stump, the railing of our deck, and the awning of the back room next to the garage. We'll try some insecticide or bee and wasp killer stuff. We should just put a big bubble around our house/back yard so no bugs get in. *Shrug* I dunno, got any other ideas?

Chris' dad is coming up Tuesday to help finish the electrical work. I think he's done with almost half the house. He actually wants to sleep at the house. He'll be the first. We'll see how it goes. We could use the help.

no door; no casings

There are three entry/exit ways to/from the livingroom of the house. One of them is the front door. Another goes to the hallway to the bedrooms and the other goes to the kitchen. The latter two don't require doors yet they have doorway casings. Sooooooooooo OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!! err... CASINGS!

We got some drywall from H/D, cut it out, screwed in the metal corners, and joint compounded it to death. It said to put 3 layers of compound on it and let dry overnight between each layer. That'll take a long time. We're almost done with one doorlessway. We'll finish up on Tuesday, then layer, layer, layer.

OSH How-To Fair

Today we went to the OSH How-To Fair in the San Jose Convention Center. Besides the free bucket and other cool stuff, the highlight of Chris and Wilfred's day was meeting R. Lee Ermey. This retired marine was in the movie Saving Silverman, Full Metal Jacket, and many more and now hosts his own TV show, Mail Call, on the History Channel. He's a real down to earth guy and loves talking with people and giving autographs.


After all that fun, we went back to the house for some work. Today's focus was cleaning the kitchen walls to get all the grease and grime off before priming. And boy was it gross. I let Chris and Wil have all the fun. I spent the day spackling all the holes in the walls and started fixing the paint we scrapped off when taking off the wallpaper.

No more wallpaper!!

Its official. The wallpaper's all gone. Chris' best man, Wilfred, came along to help us today. Sunday we'll tackle cleaning off the yucky wallpaper goo with TSP.

A bit of bad news. Butch didn't make it. After we pulled him out of the pond, we noticed he had red stuff under his scales. He was sick from being in all that muck for so long. We buried him near the persimmon tree. May he rest in peace.

The Rescue

Our usual home improvement days seem to be Tuesdays and Sundays, at the least. But on Tuesdays, after 2 hours of work, we're hungry and tired and lazy so we go home. Not too productive on Tuesdays. Well, we hacked at the wallpaper and have about 10% left to do.

So around 7pm when we're at that lazy point. We decide to pack up and try to rescue Butch. Chris went to Walmart yesterday and purchased a net big enough to catch Butch. Since he was going fishing... he got a fishing net. I guess a 12" diameter net would do the trick. Although Butch isn't exactly salmon size, but if we ever go salmon fishing, we're prepared.

As Chris fills the 5 gallon tank with water, I walk over to see how Butch is doing. Ah, he's near the surface. Chris walks over with his NET. With one swoop... Butch is saved!!! He puts Butch in the small tank.

Now, for you who don't own fish, you're suppose to put the fish in a bag (like if bought from the store) and float it in the tank water for a good 20 minutes for the fish to acclimate to the new water temperature. If you don't do this the fish can get stressed and stuff. I dunno, its not good. Butch didn't get that luxury. Not with potentially mosquito larva infested pond water... yuck!

After a 20 minute ride home and some sloshing around, Butch is resting quietly in his little 5 gallon tank on the kitchen table, staring across at Spot, Tangalow, and Rover in their 55 gallon tank. He looks okay. We'll check on him in the morning. Its okay, Butch. You're in a much better place now.

Steamy Sunday

Today is wallpaper day! Our goal today was to take off as much wallpaper as we can. Last Tuesday I got about 1/8th of the paper off. Well, of the first layer. The steam works pretty good. It makes it hot therefore melting the adhesive, and moist to water down the adhesive.



Chris started the day removing 2 door frames which we're not replacing. There's no doors on the doorway, why bother putting a frame around it. It'll just have straight corners. Drywall and spackle... look out! I think he just liked using the crowbar and hammer.

Corey and Bennett came over a while later. Mamma brought Bennett shopping and Dadda stayed to help. Wallpaper removal goes by so much faster with 3 people. 4 hours later its dinner time. We've got about 75% of all 3 layers off. Its weird, we think they started with a beige wall and thought of painting it yellow. They painted the edges yellow and maybe a 1' x 3' wide space in the top corner, then decided they didn't like it and covered it with wallpaper. Quick fix I guess. And its almost gone!!!

**Update** Butch is still alive in the murky green pond water. We've bought a bigger net to try to rescue him from the mosquito larva that shares his water. Anyone got a pump?.... or microscope? I wonder what else is living in there.

The anti-climatic stump

Bees were still around the stump. I strategically stood on the opposite side of the live stump and worked on sawing off the rest of it. I got half way though when they made their move. Back in the house I go. I'll wait...

Melissa finally got home from work. I was waiting for her to bring over a magnet to pick up the perfectly good screws that were taken out of the basement walls. There was a ton of them. Much easier with a magnet. I started picking up all the screws and nails and finished cleaning up the basement.

Today Melissa came down to start removing the wallpaper from the kitchen. She's using one of those Steamer Shark thingamagiggers and a putty knife. There's 3 layers on that bad boy... white with pink flowers, brown with white flowers, and white with that 70's coffee pot, lamp shade, fruit motif in green, orange, and brown.



If there's more layers under that, she hasn't gotten to them yet. Her friend suggested saving time and tearing out the whole and redoing the drywall. It might be worth it. Hmmm... *pondering*

The stump was finally deserted. I finished sawing off the rest of the stump in triumph. Melissa was watching. I walked back over to her when I was done. Thought: "I still have to dig out the roots." *heavy sigh*

Anyone know a bee keeper?

Flight of the bumblebee

Boring part short, right after work I headed down to the house and did some work inside the house. The adventure begins in the garden...

*before you begin reading... I request that you download and play in the background...

Now then... I noticed Melissa mentioned yesterday that I cut down the "tiny tree bush thing" in front of the future garage. Well, I cut down most of it, but the main trunk still remained so today cutting it down was one of the things on my "to do" list.

First order of business was to move 2 boulder sized dead tree stumps (circled red) that were placed on either side of the live trunk (blue). I did so and was promptly attacked by a big brown bee/beetle thinggy (lets call this one Goldy). I responded like any normal guy who's previously gone through the excrutiating pain of a bee sting. I ran for my life, arms flailing, cursing at the top of my lungs for the thing to get away.



I looked out the window from the master bath at the stump. Goldy made repeated passes over the thing taking a few seconds to fly around for a few seconds then diligently took her post over the dead stump. Occasionally a big black one (Blackie) would join her and then fly off and take his post at the lemon tree.

Maybe there's still work inside the house for me to do? No paint. No sander. Need to consult with the boss before I start taking down the trim. Nope. Nothing to do inside for now. Crap.

Back to the stump.

So the dead stump is a foot or two to the right of the trunk that I want to cut down. After a few minutes worth of staking out the joint, I notice they are more focused on the stump than the live trunk. All of a sudden, I see Goldy disappear into the surface of the dead stump. DISAPPEAR. INTO the surface. There's a hole in the dead stump (yellow arrow). In a split second the thing has instantly changed in my mind from a stump into a really big hive. Good LAWD.

So anyway, I figure since maybe they're focused on the "hive." They'll ignore me while I try to cut down the trunk. It takes me a few minutes to sneak up "behind" the stump along the fence. Not long after gaining the courage to approach and raise the saw to start cutting, I'm attacked by a black bee/beetle/bug/thing. *insert cursing and running around waving a sharp object dangerously around here*

After several tries over the span of an hour (most resulting 3 passes with the saw then taking off around the yard and taking cover in the safety of back porch) and more bees appearing from the surrounding trees to help their brethren, the voice of reason finally chimes in...

Even if I manage to cut down the rest of the trunk, I still have to dig up the roots which requires that I stand in that area for more than a few seconds.

I'm going home. Defeated.

Why oh why didn't I move that stump straight out to the street when I didn't know about the hive.

Baseboards and stuff

Today was my first full day of work on the house. Chris' parents left at 7:30am this morning. Since we were up so early we went to 9am mass, grabbed some Costco gas and hot dogs for lunch and went to work. Tasks of the day were clearing out the basement and removing baseboards.

Chris' dad finished about 2 rooms worth of electrical work last week. It was up to us to clear away some debris and make more room for work when he comes back at the end of May. With full Darth Vader dust mask protection, Chris was salvaging some of the decent looking wood and screws that the previous owner used to frame the walls in the basement. Anyone want some free plywood and wood paneling? Our basement was lined with the stuff. Now we've got this big pile of reusable wood but no need for it. We might put it on the street with a FREE sign on it. I wonder if anyone would want it.

After sweeping up some, I moved upstairs to work on the baseboards. Equipped with a crow bar and hammer, I pounded away. With no carpets or furniture or curtains to muffle the sound, I was making quite a racket. I had to borrow ear plugs from my brother. Some 3 hours later, with some help with Chris and my brother, all baseboards were detached and thrown out the window in a pile. I'm sure I'll be aching tomorrow.

The last task of the day was chopping down a tiny tree bush thing that was in the way of the garage. No axe involved, just a saw. Great job, Chris!! We were too tired to do any more. We went to Walmart to look for door knobs. Similar style but much cheaper. We can handle that.

Donations welcome at any time. *wink* =)