House Update

The house is coming along nicely. Almost all the siding is done now, with just two small areas needing to be completed. The ceiling is up on the porch all the way around and the floor joists are in place on the porch off the master bedroom.

Inside, the drywall is up and mudding is well underway.
That's Treebeard hanging out in the Harry Potter room - our cupboard under the stairs. We asked our contractor to give us as much space in that closet as possible and he did a great job.
In case you're wondering about Treebeard's sling, he had surgery about two weeks ago to repair a torn rotator cuff. His recovery is going pretty well, but it will be a while yet before he can do much with that arm. I have to keep an eye on him because he will do too much if I let him.

Here's a crooked shot of my favorite room, the dining area off the kitchen. We tend to think of it as a sort of all-season part of the porch. We will be able to keep an eye on the vegetable garden, the grapevines, and the fruit trees from this room.

Here's one of the yard critters we saw on our visit to the construction site yesterday. It's an eastern amberwing, Perithemis tenera; one of the smallest dragonflies in North America. This little guy is just shy of an inch long and from a distance can be mistaken for a wasp because of the way it moves its wings and abdomen when it perches.
Other critter sign in the yard included deer tracks, fox tracks, turkey tracks, and opossum tracks. We heard a variety of birds in the swamp next door, including a barred owl, a woodduck and a red-shouldered hawk. When I stepped out into the weed patch that will one day be the front yard, I was fussed out by a yellow-breasted chat, serenaded by an indigo bunting, eyed by a blue grosbeak, heckled by a fish crow, and buzzed by chimney swifts and purple martins. Bluebirds, prothonotary warblers, parulas, yellow-throated vireos, common yellowthroats, yellow-throated warblers, a Louisiana waterthrush, white-eyed vireos, cardinals, Carolina wrens, great crested flycatchers, mourning doves, brown thrashers, and turkey vultures rounded out our bird list for the visit.

Yep, it already feels like home.