Bugs & spiders

We have most of the problem under control now. We have a spider I have never seen before. There was one in the bathroom. Then one outside on the side of the house near the ground. Then another in the bathroom. They are all dead. Ewww. Big, like the body was 1/2 inch long and short legs. They were reddish-brown and hairy. Not the brown recluse. I saw one of those and killed it. Not a wolf spider. I creeped myself out looking and looking at spider pictures and I can't find it. I guess if I see another I will need to take a picture before I kill it. Yeah....like that's going to happen. I have arachnophobia for sure.

Anyway, the big difference between houses in Europe and the USA, unless you have a brick house, then you  probably have a wood-frame one. Wood-frame houses have a bajillion places where bugs can enter and hide between the walls. In Europe you just seal up the cracks, inside and out, easy peasy....no entry.

Ants....they come in looking for water. We have everything sealed in containers or ziplock bags and put the garbage out immediately. It has helped.

Earwigs....we only saw a couple since the massive siding-banging spraying episode.

There is still sooooo much to do to this house and yard to get it ready to sell.

Cool & dry

We have are having a run of real cool weather, while the rest of the world is warmer than normal. We are taking advantage of the cool weather to get some yard work done. It's waaaay too dry, though. We are keeping the bird bath filled, so the birds have some water. Living room is coming along slowly.

It's been too hot! The living room is mudded. Needs to be sanded and mudded again. We had to spray for bugs. We kept getting earwigs and ants in the house. This spring I bought a pretty pot of pansies. But lately the blooms have been reduced to chewed stubs. I picked up the pot and HUNDREDS of earwigs went running everywhere. They don't seem to eat Impatiens but there were hundreds hiding under those pots as well. I tossed the pansies. Why feed those suckers.

So we bought some barrier spray. Then we cleared all vegetation that was next to the house. Then we started spraying. Hubby bumped the side of the house and omg THOUSANDS of ants and ant eggs poured out from behind the siding. So we changed tactics: bang on the house, spray like crazy. Every few feet or so dozens of earwigs would pour out, like scarab beetles in an Indiana Jones movie. It was so gross!!!

It looks like the heat spell will break this weekend.

More progress on living room

New window

Sheetrock

The new window is in, now to close the spaces on each side

So busy, so happy!

We are happy. Hubby tells me he is so happy. We are busy working on the house. Wallboard will be going up soon. Here is the ceiling with the boards down. Lots of patching to do. It's nearly done. Hubby has been working on it every day.

Few believe me when I tell them

Few people believe me when I tell them that in Kosovo Muslims and Christians live side by side. They tell me, oh, there must be a conflict, you just don't see it. Bullpoopie. Kosovo is about 80% Muslim majority, and it is in no way a "hell on earth" that one of my blog visitors naively supposed. Now you can add Jews to the mix of people accepted in Kosovo. Read this article by Steven Schwartz - Kosovo Revives Its Jewish Heritage

So....if my hubby ever needs a doctor.....

We both hope he can get a job and we hope it comes with health insurance, but we all know how hard it is to find a job with health insurance. I was looking at the Healthy Indiana Plan, which is my medical insurance. It is the state of Indiana's health plan for self-employed and low-income people that have no way in h-e double-toothpicks of getting health insurance any other way. I pay a monthly premium that is based on my income, so in a way, it is means-tested.

So anyway, hubby would need to be a citizen to qualify for the full plan that I have. As a Legal Permanent Resident he could sign up for emergency care, and they do stress EMERGENCY---such as "if you don't go you die emergency". To sign up for that, everything gets tied into the USCIS, whom, you may or may not know, is the keeper of my signed Affidavit of Support that says if hubby receives any means-tested government help then the government will come after me to pay it all back. The Indiana plan is the best insurance I've ever had and I'm thankful I have it. I'm thankful that my hubby is healthy, but I worry....what if he needs to see a doctor...what do we do?