Sunday, January 30, 2011

Is a beehive the same as insulation?

About ten years ago I read this article  from The Onion.  If you don't feel like reading the whole thing (and I think you should), it's a point/counterpoint that contrasts an entitled little twit of a teen who is "so starving" because she ate junk food for lunch and has to wait for dinner to be ready and an impoverished child in a third-world country who is "so starving" because, well, because he is starving.  She is fortunate beyond his wildest imagination, and she has zero appreciation for that fact.  It still makes my stomach hurt when I read it, even though it's technically funny, and it has inspired me ever since.  Yes, lifelong inspiration (and entertainment!) from The Onion.  I tell you all this because many people lately have suggested that we are brave for what we did and are doing, or wonder at how we can stay positive through this whole process, and all I can say is that whenever I start feeling frustrated or hopeless or exhausted, I remind myself to be grateful for our many, many gifts, because while we may sometimes be "starving" we are never, ever so. starving.


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Now we're all at the house and we can flush the toilet and turn on (most of) the lights, so clearly it is time to have a dinner party.  Oh wait- we're scared to go into the kitchen.  See, there was this mysterious odor coming from that room, some of it from the floor, which was very soft right there when you put any weight on it.  And there was mildewed wallpaper peeling off the walls...


and when I looked under the sink "to see what we're dealing with", I found (deep breath)  a snake skin.  The skin from a snake, which was no longer on that snake, but which had previously been on a snake, a snake who had grown too large for the skin and so had shed that skin...UNDER MY KITCHEN SINK.  And do you know what Tommy had to say to that?  Do you?  DO YOU?!?!  "Well" he says calmly, as he is wont to do right after I have just found a snake skin under my kitchen sink, "that's probably why we haven't seen any rodents."  

Yes friends, that is approximately when we decided we had to gut the entire kitchen instead of just slapping some vinyl tiles over that rough patch on the floor as I had originally intended.  Oh, and also when we realized there were no electrical outlets, except the one for the fridge, the wires for which were run up from the basement through a hole in the sub-floor and linoleum on the outside of the drywall.  Now if you are one of those lucky humans who has no idea what those words mean in that order all smashed together in the same sentence, just know that it was bad.  Bad and wrong.  BADONG!

After spending an obscene amount of money (at least to my frugal sensibilities) on stock cabinetry and counter tops from Lowe's, which made me second guess this whole gutting business, we then proceeded to discover that we had no insulation between the studs on that exterior kitchen wall but instead did have a beehive. 



And TWO actual, live snakes.  Who were kind enough to leave, allowing Tommy to blockade their little "door".  And I second-guessed no more.

12 comments :

  1. Oh... My.... GAH!!!

    You are amazing, and I so enjoy reading about this astonishing journey you and your family are undertaking. You guys are in my prayers, and I have the utmost respect for your boundless good attitude!

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  2. badong. that's the sound i hear in my mind when i look at that picture of the beehive. did I tell you there was a snake living in the walls of Catherine Hall before they gutted it this past summer? imagine what's in Gregory! although i'm sure you would have no trouble imagining that now given what you have seen in your own home!! incredible, dwij.

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  3. I was not aware of the snake in the walls of Catherine hall! Holy mackerel. Fearless little buggers.

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  4. I'm pretty sure snakes are smart enough not to go anywhere near Gregory.

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  5. Good point. The smell alone ought to be enough to discourage any living creature from residing there.

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  6. Euuuwwwww!That's all i've got. But I do like your blog. We just wrapped up the renovation of a 160 year old house in NH. Sold it and moved Maine...we had bats and carpenter ants.
    Found you on FTLOB.

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  7. oh my, and cannot believe how brave you were to pick up and move to a home you bought on the internet...KUDOS! I live on a dairyfarm that my hubs grew up on...we have mice all the time and have HAD rats but, i threatened to leave...haha...so we called the exterminator! ;)

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  8. No. 7- your next move will have to be to Canada! You've run out of America to live in ;) I'm excited to poke around your blog.

    Melody-mae- I love that you live on a dairy farm! I'm going to come over and check out your story :)

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  9. I think I would have hopped up on a counter after seeing a snake skin. Yikes. Good point about no rodents with them living there. Could you start a bee colony in your walls for insulation? *lol*

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  10. With your enginuity I am surprised you didn't start your own at home honey factory with the bee hive, call it Honey we're Home! So glad the snakes moved out so you could move in. :) I will start February's posts tomorrow and I am putting your button on my blog. Have a great Sunday.

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  11. oh my goodness that name is BRILLIANT! You should do that! Despite my hubby's interest in keeping bees someday (yes, don't forget...we are crazy people) I am sadly severely allergic to bee stings, so it's a no go. I hate when things are a no go!

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