At Last

The first day passed. Things seemed too good to be true.

The second day passed. Things were still good.

The third day passed. Things seem to be truly good!

Mist Cottage is a project. The house was in terrible shape when we bought it. We couldn’t get a mortgage for it, no bank would invest in such a building. We paid for it with lines of credit. Then we got to work. That was almost sixteen years ago. It has been an incredible amount of work, rescuing this quirky, very small house from the brink of destruction.

We are still focused on structural integrity, and as we age and slow down I realize we might not get around to improving the aesthetics of our home. It is very hard to renovate while living in a small house, add to that my health issues prevent me from helping with projects that involve lifting or strength.

Luckily Mist Cottage is livable, functional, as comfortable as a well worn shoe, and about as pretty.

One of the myriad of issues with the house were the original windows. They were single pane windows, with storm windows fitted over them. Time had not been kind to these windows. I called the living room windows “the terrarium”. In between the single pane window and the storm window insects proliferated, flies, wasps, Asian beetles, stink bugs… the list goes on.

In 2017 all of the windows in the house were replaced, the cost was subsidized by the Greener Homes Program. The program was a nightmare of bureaucracy, but I persevered, and we got our new windows at a cost to us that we could pay back over a few years. The windows have been wonderful.

Strangely though, insects continue to invade the house every spring, summer, and fall, ever since. We knew they were not coming in through or around the new windows, but where?

Over the course of springs Attila filled gaps in the siding, which reduced the numbers of bugs, but did not eliminate the issue.

This spring, after catching in the living room, a half dozen large stink bugs, as many wasps, and many more Asian beetles, I decided to revisit the issue.

There were some very big bugs getting into the living room from outside. They must be coming in through something bigger than a small crack. I looked around, and behind furniture I spied a forgotten hole in the wall, it had been used as an electrical outlet that was long gone before we bought the house. There was a metal box recessed in the wall there.

A few weeks ago Attila filled the metal box with insulation, then sealed it and installed a wooden cover over the opening, and sealed that too.

For a few days I continued to find large bugs in the living room. Then their numbers began to fall. Then about three days ago, on a sunny warmish day, there were no bugs to be found in the living room. I dared to hope that we had found the solution to the problem, but decided to wait and see if it was just a fluke.

Here I am, three days later, and still no bugs in the living room!

Several times a day I find myself scanning the walls and windows, in search of the little critters. Nothing, not one to be found.

Worldly

Weather

8°C
Date: 2:00 PM EDT Friday 24 April 2026
Condition: Mainly Sunny
Pressure: 101.4 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 8.3°C
Dew point: -3.0°C
Humidity: 45%
Wind: SSE 13 km/h
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“It doesn’t matter if people are interested. It’s about you taking your stuff and shouting out into the void.”
Jadelr and Cristina Cordova