home is where the couch is

Almost all of the drywall is down, the tongue and groove ceiling is down and we're still chasing ants. We're using some new ant killer that seems to work really well, it's long lasting and must stay in their nifty little tunnels, ants keep falling down during the night all curled up dead. We're not sure if we've gotten the queen or if there's been many queens. We've had a lot of flying ants come down but by researching on line, we think they could be either the male stud ants or the queen.

One of the many possible pre-queen ants. Poor little guy.

We weren't sure if there was any sort of venting system for the cathedral ceiling. But we've found some, of a sort, on one side of the addition anyway. It's a little sketchy looking but hopefully it does the job because we'll probably keep it. We haven't taken all of the insulation down yet. Today is 'take the bathroom out' day and after that we'll take out the insulation. We want to make sure we have enough space to lay all the stuffing on top of each other and enough time to chase the ants when we find them hiding behind it all. Smart little guys, I feel so badly that they're in our house and that we have to kill them.

The office with some venting system in the ceiling.

Office: Inside Wall

Office: Side wall

I found this video, it's about 7 minutes long and will make you itchy but it just shows how carpenter ants are so resilient and hardworking. One thing the guy in the video said was that queen ants live for about 20 years..Oh. Em. Gee. I am sure the queen in our house is that old. You can watch it here.




One of the things that I will not miss, well, there's a lot, but one of the things is the bathroom. It was tiny but it did its duty. I don't know what they were thinking when they put on that door though. It never opened fully, it always banged into the toilet. When we first moved into the house, the whole room was wallpapered with this wild butterfly encyclopedia wallpaper. Very claustrophobic. One of the first things I did was rip it down and paint it this poo colour. It was free paint, what can I say, anything was better than that wallpaper.

View through the bathroom door with the door banging into the toilet. Good thing we're not fat.

The bathroom via Photosynth

Alternate view of the bathroom

Haven't done much in the fireplace room except finish taking down the ceiling. The man was so good and gentle at taking it down. I think only 2 boards ripped a little, but they can just be cut off and still be used. This is where the ants are hiding, I just know it. We're working our way up to it. The man is currently stalling by taking all the nails out of the tongue and groove boards. He's even roped the kids into helping.

This weekend has been great, a 3 day weekend - thanks Queen Victoria! - and we've gotten lots done. We have this huge pile of drywall and insulation outside covered with vapour barrier because it keeps threatening to rain off and on. We get the dumpster tomorrow and we've already forewarned the kids that they'll be helping us load it up.

Fireplace Room: Inner Wall

Fireplace Room: Side Wall - ceiling is almost down

Fireplace Room: Outside wall

The man has a 3 day work week this week and then another 3 day weekend - thanks Canadian Government! - so we have plans. Plans to work his butt off. I'm dreading what exactly is under the floor. I know that the addition isn't held up very properly and I know that one half of the addition has chicken wire holding up the insulation, but I've already bet the man that there is dead animal skeletons underneath that.

About a year after we moved in, the wood in front of the patio door (which at that time was a wood patio door, rotten and wet even then) cracked and this stink came up from the crack. Smelt like dead.

For a while we had some raccoons living under the addition. You could always hear them scrabbling and screaming. I don't want to know what they were doing or ruining. We would bang on the floor for them to shut up. It was like living in an apartment with noisy downstairs neighbours.

Maybe I`ll be wrong and there will just be stuff from our raccoon neighbours there, poo and garbage. Or there will be a skeleton. Dead.