Old New Castle Characters

ONC characters are not limited to humans.  Meet Gus, the town cat.  

He wanders freely, and obviously is not underfed. 

He graced the front porch of 201 Harmony on our first day, and walked in the house when we opened the door.  

Be nice to Gus. 

(Photos courtesy of Kevin Dunn)

Joys of Home Ownership

Squirrels nesting in the heater vent pipe.  They were gently removed, along with their nest.  They returned via the heater vent pipe on the roof.  A new guard was put on the vent pipe; and a humane trap placed in the basement with a yummy attractive peanut butter treat.  Voila!  Success!  The little critters were once again released and this time couldn't return. 


Upstairs toilet was running every. 6. minutes.  24/7.  I called MSC who advised they had been to the house very recently and confirmed a toilet leak.  A new flapper was installed and problem solved.  Downstairs toilet flapper readjusted and cleaned; now it fills quicker. 


We prefer "soft" lighting in the morning so sconce lighting in the upstairs loo was a glaring and rude wake up call when they were flipped on in the morning.  Problem solved with a dimmer switch. 


Dining room light fixture installed (with some retrofitting).  Wired correctly, we were disappointed when it didn't come on when the switch was flipped.  Um, er...lightbulbs, yea.  AND a dimmer switch.  Perfect. 


Part of the roof was re-tarred to stop a possible leak; the roof and downspouts were cleaned out. 


Today, the basement was rearranged, items moved from storage to the basement and as needed throughout the house and FIOS is in the house!  We now have Internet!!!

201 Harmony....

And so our adventure begins.  We settled on 201 Harmony on Friday, April 13.  We went straight to the house and scooped/vacuumed up gallons of foundation sand in the basement around the edge of the walls and laid (no glue) indoor/outdoor carpeting.  It will help keep the dust down and it generally just looks so much better. 


We were humbled by the sheer amount of people who came by on Saturday to "re-welcome" us, and especially those friends who cleaned, lifted, fed, watered, trimmed, swept, etc.  Seriously...truly humbled.  

 Not happy that the bookcase fell over his head.

Happy to be cleaning? 

 How and where do they go?

 Connie in her element.  

 The cleanest courtyard!

Our gratitude is immeasurable.