Gutters, Day Two

There isn't much to report today. Roger and Dale came back and cleaned up the mess in a half day. They picked up the remains of the gutters, most of the broken slate and none of the nails or roofing felt. Tomorrow the roofing guys come to remove the asbestos slate, and I'm sure the mess they are going to make will be ten times worse than what Roger made. It's supposed to rain tomorrow. Thunderstorms. It will be a minor disaster if it does. I have no gutters, so the rain will go right into my soffit and then I don't know where, other than down.

I climbed up to look at the paper wasp nest tonight too and it's absolutely huge. It fills the space between two joists (sixteen inches). I took a broom handle and poked it into the nest. The handle slid in the full four feet. I don't know if the nest goes that deep for sure, but the resistance against me pushing never let up. I also saw a few wasps fly between the one inch crack between the brick and the terra cotta block. That means the nest extends down into the walls. Who knows how big the nest really is. Once we get a good solid freeze they'll die.

I was woken up last night at 5:30 by my wife. "We have another bat." Sure enough, I recognized the "flet, flet, flet" of the little guy. No telling if it's the same one as before. I never asked him his name. So Ms. Huis closed our door and I opened our windows. I crawled back into bed to try and sleep my last 30 minutes, but between my wife saying, "Is he out yet?" and the occasional whoosh of the bat flying over my face, it didn't happen. Eventually, about 5:55 he found his way out and five minutes later I got up to get ready for work.

We also got back the cost options for putting a decorative facing on the stainless steel gutters. It's $725 for a Galvanneal piece and $1650 for copper. Another option is to get a pre-painted Galvanneal metal. It's a little more than Galvaneal, but has a 20 year paint warranty. The only downside is that it may not match our paint exactly. We'll decide this week what we're going to do.

Most importantly, eight years ago, at almost this exact time, I married a brilliant, beautiful, talented and funny woman. I wouldn't be where I am today without her. Everything I've done with her in the last eight years, I'd do again, with one exception. I'd try and spend even more time with her. I love you Ms. Huis and thank you for eight great years.