Ya know, if it wasn’t for the date on this computer I wouldn’t know what day it is.

Yes we have been that busy, that exhausted and now, sickly – ah the price you pay for burning the candle at both ends…

So, we are still sleeping in the house J - I knew there would be no getting Michael back into the caravan – and no complaints from me or the kids either.

But still there is not much more furniture in here – just a couple of (empty) sets of drawers and the dining table.  Just too tired to move more in – and most of it needs painting to bring it into this ‘new home’ colour scheme – so that is another factor – we will get there…

But we are on a mission to be prepared to move much more ‘stuff’ in this coming weekend – the outlaws are on their way over to help us again J – so rain or shine – we will at least have cooking supplies, foodstuffs and clothes in I reckon – and crafty goodness J - and a head start on some furniture too probably.  Can’t wait!

There is still the bug factor too as to why we haven’t rushed to move in – I have been vacuuming every second/third day – the whole house! – and it is so much easier to vacuum empty floors than know the lil’ critters are hiding behind our lovely furniture!  This is Plan C – intimidation!  I figure if we move in, us (being about a gazillion times bigger than them) will scare them out!!  Ha, take that booklice/barklice – be ye gone!!!

We were so close to nuking them – bought the flea bombs and everything – but with the worldwide evidence always coming back to chemicals are never guaranteed, usually only work ‘so-so’ and getting the humidity down is a 100% - well, we decided to wait it out a bit longer – and do the scare tactic too.  Hey, maybe if we dress up for Halloween, that will really scare them out…worth a shot anyway – and will at least be fun to try J.

Anyway, here is why we are so tired:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paving has started!!  And take note of this lovely selection of colours (yes, all from the salvage yard) – it will help explain the ‘character’ of paving patterns ;-).

My honey emailed me a photo at work last Tuesday lunchtime:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And by Friday afternoon he had got to here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow, so good!!

My contribution has been carrying plenty of pavers across before and after work.  And the kids have carried quite a few too.  Man, they are HEAVY!!!  I can carry a max. of 5 – so I figured they must weigh at least a couple of kilos each (concrete pavers they are) – but I decided to weigh one on my kitchen scales – a quarter piece weighed approx. 1.3kg!!!!  That makes a full paver about 5kg – five point zero kilograms EACH.  Darn, darn, darn heavy in any language!!! 

Hey, just for fun, let’s do the math.  There are 25 pavers per square meter – that’s 125kg lifted, carried and placed per square meter, right?  We have 210m² to do the verandah – so (work with me here) 125 x 210 = too bloody much = we are loco, crazy, MAD!!!

Some lovely progress last week.
My honey has been up a ladder:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So we could have this!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And the teenager could have his “way cool” light too:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Which goes from that, to this!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Definitely speccy!

And the wonderful Jeff the Joiner brought over our bathroom vanity top – so gorgeous as always. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can’t wait until the bathroom is finished – I’ve got decorating plans!!

But before then, I am now onto Plan B for the bugs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is borax – a 'natural' bug killer, it is a salt and dries them out – people say it works…I have been doing some more research...because I needed to.   We returned Kenny (the hire dehumidifier) as he had been here 3+ weeks and we thought it was time.  We knew the bugs weren’t fully gone, but we thought we would see where they were at, and some websites say the life cycle can be up to 100 days L.  Now I am not sure if it was a good idea to return Kenny because we had a few days of population explosion – so we started Plan B.  There sure are plenty of dead bodies again, but still too many still moving around too L.  I will leave the borax out for another week or so, by which time we will actually be finished! 

Yes, finished-owner-building!!  August 9^th is the day – the day our building permit expires.

It is exciting to be typing that J – but we won’t be moving into our home straight away – for the bug reason and because we will need to ‘finish’ off some other things anyway some painting (maybe we will do it, and maybe we will wait); shelving in the cupboards, paving the verandah, putting in the clothes line, getting the energy to actually move all our furniture...  So we will have some time after we are ‘finished’ to empty out the house completely of the cardboard, tools and bits that are cluttering it up and then, give it a good, sparkling clean and really see what the bugs are doing (maybe by removing the cardboard, which is a potential food source, we will be in a position to kill them off – maybe get the humidity right down for another 3 week spell???, maybe Plan C??? – actually not sure I have a plan C yet…)

But of course, we really want to be moving in!!!

I love bugs – I really do.  I appreciate the teachers who have taught our kids about mini-beasts.  I appreciate all that bugs do in our world to pollinate flowers so we have food, to compost and clean up, to provide entertainment in their antics.

But…

I do love it so much more when they do all that outside and I only have to be involved as I choose.  How selfish of me!

I am having to remind myself that we are imposing our environment into theirs – and I will need to bide my time until a new equilibrium is reached where we happily co-exist.

I had to remind myself that finding two types of spider and two types of black bugs on the silverbeet you have picked for dinner is fine!!

And so…the Dept of Ag have told us we have barklice in the house.  A slightly bigger relative of booklice – or the same thing depending on local naming.  And of course, they are not really lice, but arthropods (like earth-bound crayfish!).  There is always good news though, isn’t there?  Since it is known that they feed on microscopic algae/fungi/mould associated with plant stuffs, they are a good indication of too much humidity in an indoor environment – so we are grateful they have brought that to our attention.  Unfortunately for them, knowing this now means we will do something more about it – and their ‘perfect home’ will be uninhabitable for them – but perfect for us!!  We have already ordered a dehumidifier online (not a one single one available locally L) – and they should die off within a few days of us plugging it in. 

I put our temp and humidity gauge in the house over the last weekend – and we are averaging about 17^oC inside at about 78% humidity.  It does feel quite nicely warm compared to the outside temp of about 12^o.  But indoor air humidity should be around 30-50% according to asthma guidelines – so we have quite a bit of moisture to pull out of the air – and help those walls dry out!!  Last nights' reading was down to 68% humidity - and it was a rainy, wintery ol' day - so hopefully those damp absorbing granules are already working too!

Wish us luck!  Pray!!  Send good vibes!  We could do with this going well for us.

Oh, and a lousy house is not because of the strawbales!  These bugs love any humid house and have been found in many a pantry (plant) foodstuffs or even new houses after ‘standard’ builds due to the moisture in plasterboard before it has dried out.