Category: Halloween Fun House

Halloween Fun House

Oof

I don’t even know where to start. Chez Knitting Doctor (the house, not the blog) has been under serious construction for the past 3 weeks. We had a leak from the deck above into the kitchen ceiling that had a couple of failed attempts at patching. It morphed into major wood rot, stucco damage, failed prior construction issues, etc. We now have scaffolding on all four sides of the house, a huge circus tent over the house, and basically replacement of a significant percentage of the walls of the house.

Yeah, we’re having lots of fun here.

Oh, let’s not forget the hornet’s nest the guys found whilst putting up scaffolding.

The joys of home ownership. It’s all supposedly on deck for completion in 3-4 weeks.

There was wood rot discovered around the window in my closet, so the window had to be removed to repair that. Of course, the window isn’t a standard size, so we just decided to plaster it over and get rid of the window entirely. So all my bins of yarn and fiber are stacked up in places all over the house. In that process, I found a whole bin full of handspun yarn that I’ve forgotten about. All of my commercial yarn is in my Ravelry database, but the handspun has generally just been shoved into the bin when it was finished.

This week I dragged it all out, took pictures, and entered it into Ravelry so I know what I have.

And it’s done. I added about half of it as “mystery yarn”, since I didn’t keep records of what the fiber was.

Here is my latest handspun.

It’s not my best spinning effort. I haven’t used either of my wheels or the spindles much since Hank came to live here, so I need some practice. But it’s done, and useable, so I’m moving on to the next thing. This is BFL fiber from Susan’s Kitchen, and is a little shy of 300 yds. It will make a nice small accessory. I’m tempted to cast on now, but I have SO MANY little nice small accessories already in progress, so into the bin it goes.

Stay tuned for whatever’s next.

Today

It’s that time of year. As the weather gets nicer, it’s time for all the outdoor projects to get started. Those big windows are the originals that were put in when this house was built decades ago, and the seals have failed on all of them. So we have scaffolding built, and measuring happening. The rectangular ones were easy, not so much with the top two curved panes. They are having to take off the framing and remove the glass panes to measure accurately. It’s a good thing that there is no rain in the forecast. They already have one taken out and measured, and are putting it back in. Given that this house was built from Halloween Fun House architectural plans, they are taking the other one out to measure as well, just to be sure.

Hudson Bay socks. I’m a little farther towards completion than that photo. I have the heel done and the gusset decreases completed. A night or two of good television should do it.

We’ve been watching Atlantic Crossing on PBS the past few weeks. It’s the story of the Crown Princess of Norway and FDR during WWII. Not sure how historically accurate it is, but it is entertaining.

Lastly, my newest journal. I love the leather, it is a deep green, and smells lovely. The company is Galen Leather, this is their leather Slim Notebook cover. It comes in other lovely colors as well. The notebook inserts are also from them, they use Tomoe River paper, which you should try if you never have. I’m using the A5 size.

Hope your upcoming weekend is full of fun and happy projects!

Oh Holy Hell

Owning a house sometimes isn't all it's cracked up to be. Those of you who've been around Chez Knitting Doctor for awhile might remember the Great Circus Tent escapade from several years back, where we basically had to remodel one whole side of the house.The saga starts here, if you are interested in revisiting it. It makes me too queasy, but it might discourage you from buying a Halloween Fun House if you look through the whole thing.

A couple of weeks ago John noticed water dripping from the ceiling in our lower level. That is never a good thing. Plumber came out, tore some holes in the ceiling and walls in a few places, and found the culprit. the water line to our kitchen refrigerator ice maker had been chewed through and was leaking. And there was a rat's nest behind the refrigerator.

So the water line got replaced, but there is significant water damage especially to our wood floor in the kitchen.

We had a restoration guy out, who tore some more stuff out, including the wood floor under the refrigerator. We have fans and dehumidifiers going both in the kitchen and downstairs. The fucking noise is about to drive me insane, which is not a long drive this particular winter.

The wall guys came yesterday, once the mess is dried out, the dry wall will be replaced, and they will paint, of course they'll have to paint both whole walls in the living room where it got torn up. The floor guys come next week. The real fun is that we have continuous wood floors in the whole main level, so the WHOLE thing will need to be sanded, stained and then sealed. Meaning that at some point all the furniture will be in a pod in the driveway, the pets will be kenneled, and we'll be moved out of here.

The good news, Part One, is that our insurance covers this. We have USAA, the adjuster has already been out. It will cover ALL of it, including the kennel, our moving expenses, and even the cost of the electricity to run the blowers for the past week or however damned long it takes.

Good news Part Two? I caught the damned rat. I came downstairs to make coffee last Saturday and heard a rustle under the kitchen counter. He was in the garbage. I slammed the door, yelled for John, then grabbed a cookie sheet pan and slapped it over the trash can to trap him. I really didn't have the will to bash him over the head, and John didn't offer, so he was carried to an uninhabited section of our neighborhood and released.

We haven't seen any further rat evidence, so I think he was a loner. I suspect one of our worthless cats might have brought him in to play with and then let him go without finishing the job. They are on notice.