You know those commercials for window cleaner that show birds flying into the glass because the windows are so clean? Well, a bird flew into our porch windows the other day and it certainly wasn’t because they were ultra clean.  Come to think of it, have we cleaned those windows since moving into the house six months ago?  No comment. Anyhoodles, back to the little birdie.

I was working at the computer when I heard this big “ker-thunk” on the windows behind me.  I went over to see what had made the noise and saw this little birdie completely dazed on the floor.  I delicately opened the porch doors – I needed to keep the dogs away otherwise it would have been sayonara Mr. Sparrow (any twitchers out there that know if this is a sparrow?).  I managed to pick the bird up in some tissue and place him on our rocking chair. He didn’t seem to be badly hurt, just dazed. So I left him alone to gather his thoughts.  You know, overcome his embarassment for this rookie blunder.

A couple of hours later I checked on the birdie and was amazed to see him still sitting on the rocking chair.  I grabbed the camera and was able to snap a few photos. It was great that I was able to get close enough to get the detail of his feathers and even the little moustache he has on either side of his beak. Cute!

I just love this picture. This bird’s got attitude.  It’s like he’s saying “yeah, I’m sitting our your chair, whaddya going to do about it?”. After this photo was taken, I guess he’d had enough of the paparazzi treatment and he flew off the chair, but not quite high enough over the porch railings.  He hid behind the electrical box for our landscape lights until Rick got home a few hours later.  Rick, a.k.a. the bird whisperer, simply whistled at Mr. Birdie and he flew off the porch into the neighboring tree.

There is a reason why I am not an optimistic person. Usually, as soon as I start looking on the positive side of life, fate steps in to bring me back to the darker side.  Following my last peppy post, this is exactly what happened. I should have known better than to bask in the glory of the projects we have completed around the house since moving in 6 months ago.  There I was, gleefully claiming that we haven’t had many projects to blog about just recently.  Well, not any more.

Friday afternoon, I noticed that there was a puddle of water on our breakfast table.  I was puzzled by this, but not especially alarmed.  When Rick got home later that evening, I showed him said puddle, which had grown considerably in size. We deduced that the water was dripping down from the kitchen light fixture. We ran upstairs  to the spare bedroom above the kitchen and found this:

 

A section of the flooring was absolutely soaked through  – this was what was seeping into the kitchen downstairs.  The bedding and mattress were also soaked.  There was significant water damage on the bedroom ceiling, where water had busted through from the attic above:

There was so much water coming through that Rick had to empty the light fixture of the water (we made sure the electric was off!)

In the attic, we found the offender.  The tray under the air handler (for the air conditioning units) was leaking water. It had overflowed so much so that the water seeped through the attic flooring, through the bedroom ceiling, onto the bedroom floor and into the kitchen, two floors down.

As soon as we made this discovery, we called the peeps who have our home warranty and an hour later, a technician came round to look at the problem.  The guy found two issues: apparently, the tray should extend the whole way underneath the airhandler.  Secondly, the tray appears to be cracked, so it wasn’t holding in any of the water at all.  There was not much else that could be done so late on Friday night, except for turning the upstairs air conditioning unit off.  The guy will be ordering a new tray Monday, so hopefully it will be fixed sometime this week.  In the meantime, we need to start thinking about replacing the ceiling sheetrock in the kitchen and spare bedroom, plus the flooring in the attic and bedroom.  We’ll also have to replace that mattress – all that water means that it just isn’t salvageable.  We’re hoping the bedding will come out okay, although I’m not too optimistic.  Back to my usual self then

The house renovations have slowed down a bit lately.  Maybe all that new homeowner vim and vigor has finally run out. Or the money has run out. Or perhaps is just takes two to do the renovation tango.  Renovating can be fun, but it also can be a tough job for two people to do together, let alone on their own-some. My month long excursion to the UK didn’t help our progress. Plus, as soon as I got back to America, Rick had to go on a week-long work trip to Notre Dame university (I tried not take it personally). Yesterday, a good friend noted that I hadn’t posted on the blog for some time, to which I replied that we hadn’t recently finished many projects to blog about.  But it got me thinking about all we have done around the house.  Today marks six months being in our new house.  Six months! Where did the time go? Seeing as I tend to be a ‘glass half empty’ kind of girl, now seems like a good time to think about all the projects we have completed so far:

All carpet has been pulled up

Back yard fence was built

Front and back doors were replaced

Landscape lighting has been installed

Downstairs bathroom was gutted and new tile installed. Bathroom vanity made over with a granite top and vessel sink.

New exterior lights installed

Dining room window replaced

 French doors hung between kitchen and office

Foyer chandelier replaced

Two foyer walls removed and headers installed

Dining room floor painted

Master bedroom ceiling fan installed

Dining room chandelier replaced

Siding removed and rehung

Thermostats switched out

100,000,000 green bugs,  3,000 big-ass spiders, 2 bats, a mole, a lizard, a frog… and a partridge in a pear tree.

Pheww! We’ve been busy! But all this optimism is making me feel all Paula Abdul – I’m much more Simon Cowell-esque (must be a British thing).  If I wear my pessimist hat for a minute, I’d hate to compile a list of all the projects that we have left to do around the house. Wow, that list would be longer than a prize bull’s ba-donk-a-donk. We’ll get there in the end.  That’s what the bull said.

Today, I am returning to the US of A, back to Rick and the doggies. 

The trip to the UK has been fun – as always, it is great to see family and catch up with friends.  A LOT of work was achieved, unfortunately at the expense of spending more time with family and getting to visit some great sights.  But we do what we must.  I can’t wait to get back and get some sorely missed cuddles and kisses.  Yes, I mean from the dogs.  Oh, go on then – from Rick too.