Happy Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day, here's a picture of our little slice of heaven. I seriously love our back yard, especially now that the greenery is filling in! I know it will be my absolute favorite place once we build a deck (on the first floor... we already have a small deck on the second story, which is where I took the photos for this composite picture from). It is so beautiful! And the green seems to pop even more when the skies are gray and rainy like they are today. Love it!

Also in honor of Earth Day (sort of... ha), Gus and I spent a few hours removing boards from our attic. We have a company coming soon to air-seal the entire house, and install some additional insulation up there, and removing the boards was something we had to do before they could complete the work. This is all related to the energy assessment I had done for us back at the end of January. Yes, it's taken that long! The program (and the associated discounts that come with it) is very popular, and they handle a high volume of requests. Still, I am excited to lower our heating costs even further next winter, and reduce our dependency on oil. So if that isn't a good Earth Day activity, I don't know what is!

Anyhow, it was brutal. We actually have two (more like three) attics, with total floorspace of around 2,000 square feet. Yes. VERY large. The original (circa 1830) attic is the one we use to store things, and it has more than enough room. It has a walk-up staircase, floor boards, windows, and a light. It's a very nice attic, actually! I got everything out of there and put it into our weird little "extra" room on the second floor, so we are all set. The company is going to blow additional high-density insulation down between the floorboards in that attic.

From that main attic, there is actually a hatch that opens up on the side, leading to the next attic. This attic is at least twice the size, but it's not finished. And it's more like two attics, since there is a crawl-though opening into another arm at the far end (so it's shaped like an L). We were suprised to see that there were actually three lightbulbs with pull-chains in there, though! So no need for work lamps or flashlights. And there were a bunch of pieces of plywood that had been laid across the beams to make it easier to walk around in. These are what we needed to remove, because the company will be putting in a ton more insulation in here. About half of the boards were just resting there, but the other half were nailed down. And all of them were too big to fit through the hatch into the main attic. So Gus ripped them up, used his reciprocating saw to cut them into smaller pieces, and then it was my job to get on my hands and knees and wiggle them through the hatch and into the main attic. Once we got them all in the main attic, Gus backed his truck up to the front door and we relayed them all down the two flights of stairs. My arms and legs feel like jelly now! But the attic is totally ready for the workers now, and that's one less thing to worry about. Which is good, since Maya's birthday party is next weekend! And we will have houseguests starting on Friday night. So it feels really good to check that off the list!

Gus also managed to get almost two tons of wood pellets down to our basement yesterday. And I think I have figured out a good system for really spreading the heat from our pellet stove around our house more effectively. Again reducing the need for heating oil! Love it!

And that is all. It's rainy. Gus and I are exhausted, and Maya is conked out on the couch. Nikos never got dressed today, and is still wearing his pajamas. It's been that sort of day!