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We painted more walls and ceilings over last weekend and today the electrician will come put to have a look at the work we need done. We are pretty far along choosing colors and will spend 4 days painting this coming weekend. All 12 mouse traps are set so a survey of mice will be good to know.

We have spent 4 days continuing to paint walls. Tonight was our first big mistake. Ran out of LP gas in the middle of a blizzard. $100 for the guy to tell us that our tank was empty and $150 for a guy to bring us a full tank. It was $1.78 a gallon and we filled it up to its 400 gallon capacity. I had some time to look at the garage construction. There are some very stupid carpentry choices all over but it was good to start to understand what we are in for. Spent $281 on paint. Made some editorial changes to the storage area above the front doorway. We are pulling out so much trim from this house.

Got a second wall painted. Met with our contractor and made plans for tiling the window in the bathroom. Very excited that I knocked out the archway to the study and spackled the holes. Picked out more colors for both floors and we will return for more painting tomorrow. I want to find a way to get a picnic table for the yard in the summer. Researching more about a French drain but still have a lot more to learn.

Another snowy day here. We forgot pur snow shovels at the new house so now I have to get the snow blower working adequately. Im getting nervous about all this snow melting in the spring. We will have to act fast to get our roof drainage and gutters taken care of as best we can. Chris had the smart suggestion to bury our downspouts and have them drain out further into the yard on back and into the ditch in front. We will need to dig a french drain around the house this summer so I want to look into the cost of gravel and delivery for that.

Today I did some research about Asian beetles in an attempt to learn how to mitigate their presence inside of our new home. They offer a positive benefit by eating aphids but little can be done to deter their presence. They dont eat clothing or chew on your things so they pretty much just come indoors to die as the temperatures drop in the fall. Hopefully we can find a way to seal the undersides of the roof as best we can and just be satisfied that that is the best we can do. Secondly, I did some research on Siberian Elm. Although the species has some allelopathic properties, using the wood in our hugelkultur plans for the garden should be fine. I also set out to find a compatible fungus to break down the dead elm trees and golden oysters are a perfect solution since both the tree and the fungus originate from a Northern climate. We have already seen some of last years golden oyster fruitings on a tree, but I wasnt sure if the tree was in fact a Siberian Elm or not. I want to be sure t

Second day at the new house and we spent time vaccuuming out the mouse poop in the kitchen and scrubbing surfaces here and there. We were able to wash the walls, spackle, tsp clean and rinse a good portion of the living and dining room walls. Removed a lot of nails and unnecessary hardware from around the windows. We picked up two buckets of paint which should keep us busy through Sunday. Also set up 4 mouse traps upstairs. Contractor is coming Saturday to look at the bathroom. Weve found a few more things that need attention in the main bathroom. The toilet shut off valve is so close to the floor that you can't use it, and the bathroom sink is leaking so badly that the cabinet under the sink needs replaced, but its not as pressing. We have a sink we'd like to use in there so we will see whats possible. I dont think we will be able to have the electrician out for another week or so but Chris assured us that isnt as much of as a time bomb as one could think.

Closing day. Big doin's. We learned that we will have to start paying the mortgage in March instead of April, which was unexpected but not a huge deal. I calculated that our mortgage payments will cost us $4800 to get us through June which leaves us with about $7k to spend on repairs and moving costs. We celebrated with cake and then a long walk through the timber.  We identified several different species of trees: shagbark hickory, oak, and the primary species: Siberian Elm. We learned that this is a highly invasive species, so we will have a lot of work to do to get them under control. Might just keep 5 or 6 of them depending on placement. Also there is a really decent clearing in the northern third or so of the property that should be pretty good for some sort of garden or work area. Its hard to imagine how different everything will look in the spring.