Ribbit

There are a gazillion frogs outside our house. I'm not sure whether they are primarily located in the stormwater runoff thing that's sorta behind our house or if they are in the state park, which is right behind the storm runoff thing. Maybe they are in both places. Either way, they are LOUD!

Let me back up. It's finally getting warmer here after being in the low 50s during the day and upper 30s at night since the start of spring. We're now at 65-70 during the day & upper 40s at night. Our house is three levels. The furnace is beside our bedroom, which is on the third floor. The thermostat is on the middle floor, right at the top of the stairs to the basement. So all the cool basement air affects the thermostat, particularly because there is no door at the top of the basement stairs (there SHOULD be a door, it makes the most sense). Since the furnace is right next to our room and heat rises, our room gets toasty fairly quickly whenever the furnace comes on. After all, we're probably the first few vents on the furnace circuit & the furnace is sitting 5 feet away, so we get all the good hot air. Now, if you think about this, the basement is two floors away and mostly on the other side of the house, so the basement gets remnant heat that doesn't get spewed out before it gets down there. I'm not quite sure if it's even possible for heat to come out of those vents if you think about the physics of it. The home inspector said it does, but my personal test concluded: "nope."

In the winter, we'd keep the heat set at 60 when we were home. Yes, I get laughed at all the time about my "inhumane" thermostat ways, but I think we will agree that 60 degrees in this house feels different (warmer) than 60 degrees in the old house. Well, it probably comes down to the location of that stupid thermostat. Cold air from the basement stairwell is blasting the thermostat all day, so the furnace is always on. Even when it says it's 60 on the main floor, that's probably the temperature for that little spot. It's 62-64 probably elsewhere on the floor, and then upstairs in our room it's got to be 66 or so. When the furnace is on, our personal thermometer that we bought said that (since the heating of our house intrigues me to no end). And when the middle floor's thermostat says 60, the thermometer says the basement is 56-58.

Now that it's getting hotter, the heat's not coming on. The thermostat says 65 (morning) - 68/69/70 (later in the day). Our room is starting to get toasty (remember that I am perfectly fine sleeping in 56 degrees and actually prefer it). Our room is now in the 70s, and I don't want to turn on the fan for fear of leg amputation. Hey, it's a legitimate fear!

Opening the window brings two problems though. First my allergies. I seem to be allergic to everything outside, and there's a big ol' pile of everything in nature in our backyard. Second, the frogs. They are LOUD! There's so many of them that you can't hear individual frogs; it's a constant din of ... noise. From about 8pm to early in the morning, and then the birds take over where the frogs leave off.

I'm happy to live so close to nature, really I am. I just think it will take some time to figure out the temperature regulation in this house and learn to tune out all of the nature noises.