WHO said that

Owning a house has its ups and downs. In the fall we had a little leak in the roof. Water was finding its way through a vent hole... nothing a roofing professional couldn't fix with a little caulking.

Recently, we've had problems with our furnace. The temperature wasn't getting over 19C in the house. I bought a new thermostat, but that wasn't the problem. Long story short(er), today I seemed to have diagnosed the problem... water (condensate) wasn't draining properly from the furnace causing it to lockout and shut off the gas. I seemed to have cleared out the water drainage and things seem fine.

But just to add to the housing woes, we now have a little red squirrel living in our attic. I heard some noises in the ceiling the other day. Suspecting an animal, I went out to investigate roof from the backyard. First I heard the squirrel (I swear it sounds like those guys are laughing at you) and then it ran atop my fence, leaped onto a bush and then gracefully jumped onto my roof. After staring me down a bit, it entered my attic through a gap between my roof and the eaves. Now these little squirrels are really quite cute. But they're often your worst enemy on a canoe trip in Algonquin Park. They're incredibly persistent, really quite brave for their size, and very hungry. They are capable of gnawing full packs. A friend accidentally chop one in half with a machete while camping once (long story... he thought squirrels could move a lot faster).

Anyway, I had a wildlife control fellow drop by for an estimate. It'll cost at least $300 to get the squirrel out (humanely, not using a machete) and patch part of the roof, but more of the roof will need to be fixed once the ice on my roof thaws.

All in all I love home ownership, but it is certainly leading me down some adventures as an unwilling participant.

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