Top shelf

Brandon and I headed out to the house this morning to try to get some more trim painted... which soon turned into the realization that first we have to caulk the trim. Sigh. Why is there always another step (or four) before the step we've actually anticipated and at least moderately prepared for? Anyway, not to brag, but I am basically a wizard with a caulking gun. Caulk doesn't make for good photos, though (NO DIRTY JOKES, my parents read this), so let's turn to what the pros were up to.

Remember the shelving unit turned media cabinet? Brandon and I had primed it and added a back and a top and access holes for wiring, and yesterday B and the GC installed it so it could be trimmed out. It looks awesome!! Still needs paint, to be sure, but I think it's going to be so great for getting all of our A/V stuff organized and out of the way.

The electrician is putting outlets back behind there, so the rats' nest of wiring can be hidden from view... but in order to access it, we'll have to squirm through a tiny opening in the "hobbit room" (storage closet) off the dining room:

In the kitchen, the glass-fronted cabinet has been installed...

...and the beadboard on the pantry is primed and ready for paint.

AND LOOK AT THESE MAGICAL THINGS THAT HAVE APPEARED THROUGHOUT THE HOUSE:

Have you ever seen something so exciting??? The electricians were still working when we left, and some of the lighting fixtures were piled up in the kitchen area - including the jellyfish! I can't waaait to get back there and see what they've gotten installed.

In other news, I just got off the phone with a professional pond installer. No joke. When I described what Project Vernal Pool entailed, he said something along the lines of "oh, no problem. I've done ponds like that before, and all kinds of specialty wildlife stuff - I've even put in artificial crayfish burrows for rattlesnakes to overwinter in." Um, I think I've found my guy.

In for a penny, in for a pond

As you guys may recall, I had a bit of a hard time (OK, emotional meltdown) with all the digging that had to happen to install our geothermal loops. The backyard went from looking like a pleasant little meadow to looking like the site of the county fair's tractor pull (TANGENT: Brandon took me to a tractor pull very early in our relationship, to try to remedy some of the Midwestern cultural deficits of his east coast girlfriend. Tractors + jet engines = insane). Anyway, the one consolation at the time was that we could restore the area with native plants, and perhaps even create our very own vernal pool. These small ponds (which hold water in the spring, and then dry down by late summer) are ideal breeding habitat for many amphibians, because they don't support amphibian-egg-eating fish. And as we all know, I'm a bit of a sucker for an adorable amphibian.

So, this plan was somewhat percolating in my mind already... but then this weekend we got some major bummer news. Brandon chatted with one of the neighbors who own the property adjacent to Turtle House, and thus own the fantastic vernal pool that sits just over the property line. I have kind of adopted the pool, and pulled a bunch of trash out of it last spring (when I realized there were at least four frog species breeding there). It is such a cool pond that I've been scheming about how I can buy the property (or convince a friend to do so) to protect it. Looks like I may be too late, though. Apparently the owners need to put in a new septic system, and they think this little pond would be the perfect place to do it. And then they're going to fill it in. And then they plan to reach down my throat, rip my heart out of my chest, chop it into a million pieces, and feed it to rabid dogs. And then shoot the dogs. Seriously you guys, TEARS.

So Project Vernal Pool (PVP^TM) is now in overdrive, because I need to create some good breeding habitat before next spring so hopefully some of my displaced little amphibious friends can find it. If the neighbors' pool still exists then, I may even collect and move egg masses... we'll see. Anyway, all of this tragic preamble is to explain why I spent part of this evening out at the house scoping out the site where I want the new vernal pool to be. This area is adjacent to woods (good) and the soil has a lot of clay content so it holds water (also good, especially since so much of our property is so sandy). I am meeting with our GC tomorrow to explain the scheme and ask him how much it would cost to have the foundation guy dig a big ol' pit. I plan to compare that number to the cost of a dozen shovels, six pizzas, and a keg of beer (a.k.a. the "alternative method").

Anyway, I was pretty freakin' bummed out after learning about the neighbors' plan early Saturday afternoon. I was trying hard to get all zen and overcome my bummedness and act like a normal, non-salamander-obsessed human, because I was expecting a visitor - Kit, a.k.a. the DIYdiva, was in our neck of the woods, and stopped by to check out the house. Despite finding me covered in poly, paint, and wood chips, and Brandon wielding a chainsaw (!), she did not drive away in terror - and it's a good thing, because let me tell you, that girl is just as hilarious in real life as she is on the interwebz. I'm pretty sure she gave me three new laugh-wrinkles, so THANKS A LOT, KIT. Just kidding - Kit is rad, and her can-do-anything attitude is incredibly inspiring and infectious to be around... to the point where crazy ideas like digging vernal pools by hand start to seem tooootally reasonable. Who's in? I'll buy the shovels and beer.