Halloween parade in the Grove

[OT from cottage renovations]

the Grove's Halloween parade was yesterday afternoon.  a few snaps can be found in this image gallery: pics.livejournal.com/15_the_circle/gallery/0000673f . 

insulation

the past couple of days were seasonably cool, and although we haven't yet had the first frost the nocturnal lows have dipped into the high 30s.  from this it became clear that the new doors weren't doing much for thermal retention. 

this came as no surprise, so I acquired foam tape and applied it to the seams of the double doors in front.  the back door needed to have its seam insulation renewed, so I went ahead and did that too. 

despite severe misgivings about putting _any_ effort into the rear addition whose demolition I am so eagerly awaiting in the coming year, this afternoon I used some of the scrap lumber from this year's project to fabricate a lower band board.  installing it was a bit of a fool's errand because the structure was so rotted out it was quite difficult to find anything to attach it to.  the Zircon stud finder wasn't much use (since it never goes off around me at least I know it doesn't produce false positive readings) so I just lined up the nails with the ones holding on the cheap T-111 plywood siding and hoped for the best.  once it was in place I applied caulking compound with more than the traditional wish and prayer.  it's not just a joke:  that stuff is going to have to be structural. 
I also patched a couple of the holes in the siding. 

the current forecast is calling for warmer temperatures over the next few days.  but the calendar tells me that it won't be long before this round of insulation gets put to the test.