More about our birds. . . How we came to have the parakeet is a story in itself. Mother was out in the garden hanging up the laundry one sunny day and out of nowhere a blue & white parakeet flew right down and landed on Mother's shoulder. She nibbled lovingly on Mother's ear and mother said, "Well hello there" and the bird said, "Ooooh. Hello!" And Mother said, "So, who are you?" The bird replied, "Pretty Bird!" So, she kept her name. She never flew away after finding a nice home, having no desire to try living out in the big free world ever again. We never did find out from whence she came. I would like to add about the Mexican Love Bird. . . . . .that after cursing out the preacher and telling him to "Go to Hell!", and saying things like "Well, -uck a duck!", our love bird never said any of the really foul swear words ever again. Mother said it must have just been a cleansing thing for her, but I have always wondered just what Mother did to make her "repent" and come clean.??? And as for our parakeet, Pretty Bird? After her jello bath, she began saying, "Oooooh, Pretty Bird. Pretty Bird is a dirty bird!" We kids got so much fun out of her. She loved Orange Jell-O, not just for bathing but for eating it as well. She especially loved it when mother made it into a salad by adding grated carrots and chopped walnuts. Yum yum! She would walk across the table and sample everything. If she found something she particularly didn't like, she would make a mess of it and have a fit! So afterward she had to kept up during meals. She would fuss and squawk at us from her cage, demanding to be loosed at once! As you said, covering her cage was helpful in quieting her down. She would then say, "Good night Pretty Bird!" which would then of course, set us all into a round of giggles. ~Annie

I put up two boxes, expecting the blues to choose the typical NABS approved style but they chose the Gilbertson PVC model and Mama is incubating five eggs in there. This is her third try at nesting this year. The first two were total failures, for several different reasons I won't go in to here. I left the NABS box up and it was close enough to the Gilbertson that the bluebirds have been perching on it and defending it too. This morning early I saw a bird perched on the NABS box and without my glasses I thought it was Mama blue. I looked through my telephoto lens and saw it was actually a male HOSP, all puffed up and chirping. Then I saw him fly into the box and he stayed in there a few minutes. I went down to install the VanErt in that box and my worst fears were realized. My male of 5 years (the one with the broken toe) was dead in the empty box. There was lots of feathers in the box and they were all blue. All of the damage done to him was above the neck. His eyes and even his bill were gone. I took pictures, mostly because I take pictures of everything, I guess. They are probably too graphic to post here. I removed the corpse and installed the VanErt. In less than 5 minutes the HOSP returned and entered the box. I removed him using the clear bag method mentioned by Donna and Kathy. I disposed of him by swinging the bag against a post. I don't think Mama knows what happened. She in on the nest but peeks out a lot as if looking for him. It should be interesting to see how this plays out; whether she attracts a new mate or tries to raise these babies (assuming they hatch) by herself. I intend to help her all I can but I worry about her not having Papa outside the box and on guard for her. Dave

I apologize for being dense but Iam just lobbying for people to build to code.. at the least. Prescriptive minimums are not arbitrary. They are the intent of the code. I understand and approve of alternative compliance and performance modeling as I use it on my passive solar projects to get around the fenestration requirements among other details. I also understand its limitations and how widely misused and abused that it has become. Yes, houses and climates are complex and the people who created the software are largely the ones setting the prescriptive minimums and ventilation standards. They have done a marvelous job for the most part. The software and results can be amazingly accurate in the hands of the right professional. Its the occupant behavior variable that tends to throw some things off. For example, take leaving all the windows open with the heating and cooling running.. Be careful about using software or alternative compliance paths yourself or hiring those outside of their area of expertise. Hopefully, people can identify the correct team in their area to make the appropriate choices. I hope what we've covered here will help. Bungalow14 and others who may still be considering a vented crawlspace on the East coast. The paper trail of substantiation on vented crawlspaces is immense. The level of research and evidence of poor performance with vented crawls in humid climates, mainly on the East coast, is overwhelming. The building industry is notoriously stubborn about accepting improvements to the code. I find this to be especially true with older, experienced professionals with little education in building science. Advanced Energy in Raleigh has done a lot of good research for your specific area but unfortunately, the links they used to provide on it have been taken down. I strongly suggest you talk to a building science professional in your area before building an attached cave (vented crawlspace) below your home. I imagine that you could probably get in touch with someone about this at Advanced Energy. Have you considered Energy Star or NC Green Build certification? Here is a link that might be useful: Advanced Energy website homepage

The gambrel scheme would require a week of intensive design work that is probably beyond the capability of those who are helping you. As a fall back to avoid the unfortunate original design I recommend using regular gables as tack-ons at the sides and a real cross gable on the front and rearranging the front rooms so the windows work. Flaring the front gable shingles over the windows and at the bottom would add a great deal to the design. The house should have shingles and no corner boards. I would consider trim colors other than white. You might be able to dress it up a bit with more gables but the framing would be slightly more complicated.