A Little ReOrganization

A few weeks ago, we discovered that some of trim around our windows on the outside needed some attention when we found carpenter ants crawling up the inside of the back door. I emptied the bookcase on the left side and found them crawling along the baseboard and on the rug in front of the back door. The nightmare started back in 1996 when we bought our house. We moved in, in January, and one September day when the sun was shining brightly on the house, I returned home from work and found them covering the bathroom window. That was a shock of my life. I never knew what a carpenter ant was. Google it. It will scare the daylights out of you. Anyway, after many home improvements and many dollars spent on a professional exterminator (which really wasn’t doing any good until we replaced damp, ant chewed wood) we let the exterminator go, and started doing our own monthly extermination by buying professional cans of treatment online. We haven’t seen anything for several years. Several years ago, we re-sided the house, and we put in new windows, but we fell short on inspecting around on the outside of the house…..until I found the ants again. After reading THIS, just now, I learned even more…one thing, you don’t need a monthly exterminator to come into your home.

Anyway, to monitor activity after we treated for the little buggers, I wanted full access to my basement windows so I could keep a better eye on activity, so we moved the stereo cabinet that was in front of the window…..

…down to the other end of the room by Louie’s pool table. I also dug out all of our vinyl LP’s as we bought Louie a new turntable for his birthday, and decided that since we had the stereo cabinet all ripped apart, now would be a good time to do it.

We removed the two dressers that were blocking this window (no ants were found by this window), and replaced them with my two sewing machine tables on wheels that were in my quilting room……

….to the quilting room. One is just inside the door to my quilting room….

…and one is on the opposite wall.

I cleaned out under the steps last weekend, and moved these plastic drawers from under the steps (and got rid of most that was in them), and moved them into my quilting room as well. The wooden file cabinet that was sitting here now sits by the stereo cabinet. (see photo above).

This is just a wider view from the other end of the room by my quilter.

So with ants, and fixing sewing machines to get them ready to deliver, and just life in general, things have been pretty busy here. I am much happier with the exposed windows now, and hope that I start doing a better job of keeping my eye on things. Louie did end up checking all the windows outside, added some new caulk here and there, and repainted most of the trim on the windows.

Next: the east walls of the house need washed desperately! They rarely get wet with rain and they need a bath!