OKDOKEGAL--- OMG!!!! Not only do we have the same wasps I think we have the same FLOOR!!!!!! Allegedly there are "Worse" places to get stung---one of them being the hands. Feet and face come next. I am not sure where the rear end ranks tho!!!!! I hope you have a plentiful supply of EPIPENS stashed everywhere. We now have the hubs and TWO kids allergic---our daughter is one of those scientific puzzlers--not allergic to honeybees but anaphylactic to "Mixed Vespids" ie wasps and hornets. White faced wasps are the worst offenders. She was actually included as a child in a Johns Hopkins study of adult reactions. Our younger son is also allergic but not so far as reactive. And we think the two grandkids have inherited this--AND the shrimp allergy. Makes for fun when people like great grandmother can't seem to UNDERSTAND this and try to grab food off their plates with a shrimp contaminated fork. Have to be ever so careful. These wasps in particular will and DO build EVERYWHERE. We have had them in the dog house; in the grill; in every container on our porch; and oh yeah--IN the house---we have a large double glass door that we don't use and that has a large hutch in front of it. I kept hearing some sort of buzzzzzing sound and finding bugs of the stinging variety in the kitchen. Finally managed to look behind the hutch and discovered that the casing was loose and a wind storm had apparently lifted a piece of outside alum siding--and there they were!!!!! Had to kick out daughter and tackle this=---the NON allergic people anyways! We spend most of our summers with a can of foam wasp killer close to hand. And everyone knows--you are ON CALL if you are not the allergy people to spray at any time any place! I also keep Benadryl handy at all times and in the car too. Can keep you alive til you get to the ER. Daughter had a soccer field sting and the ambulance took SO long to get there that I drove to the Squad building with the kid---apparently clutching the Epipen case the while time---got in the ambulance with it--got to the hospital waving it about--this has a HUGE needle after it is deployed!!!---and it had to be pried out of my now bloody hand. When we got done--many hours later----we went outside and I looked for my car and it was--gone!!!! Oh No!!! Stolen aged Honda! Went inside to call police and a nurse that knew us said--Did you forget--you came in the ambulance! Where is your car? OOps. Had to call for pick up and discovered car parked at a very strange angle with the doors still opened and blood on the stick shift where I had driven WITH that Epipen in hand---- Don't even get me started on the kid that needed rabies shots--and turned out ALLERGIC to them!!!!!!!

I am looking to buy a 720 sq. ft. cinder block lake cottage. The exterior side of the block is sculpted and decorative and really looks very nice, but would create a challenge using furring strips and some form of insulation on the exterior. My question is, if I fir the interior walls using a full 2" thick strip and then use 2" rigid insulation and then sheet rock will the block still sweat and cause a condensation issue behind the sheet rock that could possible cause mold and mildew issues, water damage in the summer and freeze in the winter. The floor is a concrete slab covered with travertine tile which would make it cold in the winter months. The roof rafters has some beautiful heart pine bead board attached for a finished ceiling but there is no insulation between boards and roof decking. I have built and remodeled a few home so I think I understand the challenges and options of insulating the ceiling but my concern is exterior/interior walls. If anybody has ever used firing strips, rigid foam boards and sheet rock only and no exterior insulation did you have a condensation issue and was it worth the cost and loss of some interior square footage? Any first hand experience would be greatly appreciated.

Previous owners photo Celiawk, I agree with you about the corner fireplace, we never had one in the corner, and I thought it would be nice to have the fireplace, and the tv close to one another, but it is not turning out to be good; one wall is all windows, and the other walls are all open to the rest of the rooms, so, I guess we have to live with it.

I have four small parrots - two I bought as weaned babies 14 and 15 yrs ago (maroon belly conure, caique) and two I "rescued" from craigslist (nanday and green cheek conures). I do not believe parrots should be kept as pets. They are truly wild animals. They are not evolved to live in homes. They should be in the wild, flying with their mates, dealing with the challenges and mental stimulation of navigating the wild and predators...not locked in a cage, left alone for hours or days on end. I dont think most humans can give them what they need - the constant social interaction of a flock or mate provides. I try to vary my birds' life as much as I can. I feel so guilty for keeping them as pets (although they would die if let free), that I bought large custom stainless steel cages - 4 fix 2.5 ft. They also sleep in night cages. They have cages in the dining/great room for eating on also. They have perches in the bathroom. These animals are highly intelligent and need variation in their lives from the monotony of the cage. They can be very affectionate and all of my birds crave being touched. If I was wealthy I would work to get a bill passed to limit breeding and to set minimum cage limits. In some countries, the minimum cage size for a parakeet is 2.5 feet wide. The minimum for a macaw is 8x8 ft. I feel like we are living in the dark ages of animal welfare in the US. I am renovating a midcentury modern home and I am doing it with the parrots in mind. Their cages are in a bird room for now, but it is too small for all four to get a view out the window. I have paid an architect to design a separate bird room for them, air conditioned, heated, and shaded, but with walls of glass. These animals are so smart, so affectionate, and so long lived that I owe them the best life that I can. As a side note, my two rescues are extremely sweet and mindful. They have never bitten me. I was told that the nanday is mean, but even with the broken wing she came with, she is not. She will snuggle up next to me, laying her side, sucking on her foot. My little green cheek came to me in a cage the size of a shoebox. He was severely malnourished and was missing most of his feathers (they have mostly grown back). Both of these birds just light up my day. They seem happy and I am so glad I found them. If you ever do consider a bird, think about a rescue or rehome!