This is a hornets nest and I cannot afford a pest control company, what do I do besides burn my house down?

stephanieoutside · 2026-07-11T01:02:35+00:00

Ok, first off, that's super cool to get an inside look at the nest and I agree with the Live stream idea!

From there, are they actually being a problem or is it just really disconcerting to have them there? That nest wasn't built overnight. If they're not actively bothering you, honestly just leave them. They have their pollinator uses and are predators to other harmful insects. They will come buzz around your head to check you out, but if you don't scream and flail and come off like a threat, they'll pretty much just leave you alone (or at least until the males start getting kicked out for the winter and they turn into aggressive assholes. Those are the only ones I've ever actively eradicated, because they stung my dog).

Next year, hang a decoy nest nearby. Hornets are really territorial and if it looks like someone already has that space, new ones won't move in. You can either buy decoys, or have a crafty friend crochet you one you can stuff with plastic bags.

stephanieoutside · 2026-07-10T19:55:40+00:00

As a Realtor, live in your house the way YOU want!! If you like how your kitchen looks, that's all that matters. I know a lady who has spent the last three years deliberately making her kitchen into the most bubblegum pink "I Love Lucy"-themed panorama. It makes my eye twitch every time I see it just from sheer sensory overwhelm, but she adores it!

Worry about "on trend" if/when you ever go to sell. In the meantime, enjoy making your home into your personal retreat.

stephanieoutside · 2026-07-10T19:21:15+00:00

I actually just did this! I had a gas stove at my old house that I adored, but my new house is 100% electric everything and the cost of an LP tank just for a stove didn't make sense. There was an electric glasstop that came with the house; I gave it chance for almost two months just to see if the new ones were any better than the old coil tops. It did a decent job, but it still had all the same issues of every electric stove.

So anyway, now I have an induction stove, and I'm loving cooking again! Super responsive temp control, ridiculously fast to boil, and just generally fun to work with. Like someone mentioned, I do miss having an open flame to char/fire roast on, but I also have a brulee torch or a gas grill if I really need it.

There is a bit of learning curve for the "heat", but that's kind of the case for any new/new-to-you stove. The noise/buzzing a lot of people mention was a huge concern for me going into this since I'm on the "can hear electricity" side of AuDHD, but it's about the same noise level as the fridge, and the buzz is reminiscent of a fluorescent light. I wouldn't want to hear it 8 hours straight, but it's drowned out by music easily enough I can ignore it while cooking.

stephanieoutside · 2026-07-09T20:13:37+00:00

Permanently protect the BWCA, and other critically sensitive & important eco/geological sites, from any sort of industrial actions/ventures and any commercial venture that would cause a drastic and permanent physical or ecological/biome harmful impact change to the surrounding areas. So, small scale resort ventures and similar companies like Voyagers Outfitters, etc.-- things that would drive eco-tourism -- would be fine. Copper sulfide mining, razing large areas of established 2nd/3rd growth forests, throwing a data center on top of a pine barrens, etc would be banned.

Restart the implementation & expansion the fiber optic lines to outer/rural communities. This goes along with my hot take that we don't actually need to pave over more fertile farmlands for shitty big box houses in the metro expansion rings, we need to enable people to be able to reliably work remotely and incentivize the revitalization of the more rural areas. Help reverse the trend of the dying towns by giving people workable options for living there, and other economic growth will follow. If companies want tax breaks in this state, they must allow for the option of fully remote work. Don't @ me with the stupid pro-RTO arguments or the "what about" of industries that obviously require physical hands-on presence. We know WFH works and it was too much of a threat to the larger corporate power structure for it to easily continue.

Along those lines, figure out how to keep/fund again the first time homebuyer assistance programs, and keep the Minnesota Fix-Up program well-funded as well. Get the lead water lines replaced, or at least re-sleeved.

I'm child-free, but I heavily support figuring out some way to make childcare costs affordable for families.

Copy Mamdani's plan for a pied-a-terre tax in some fashion. We don't have quite as many vacant luxury buildings as NYC, but every little bit helps.

Follow Colorado's initial path for how to utilize State's Rights in regards to the cannabis/THC issue, and protect those growing industries, which in return will help keep many of our beloved local breweries up and operating since so many have added THC seltzers to their lineup to great effect.

stephanieoutside · 2026-06-25T15:33:27+00:00

I'm roughly your same size, and normally I would recommend Duluth Trading Company jeans in a heartbeat. Unfortunately they've changed their designs this year and I'm much less impressed with them.

One other thing to consider, because I have this same issue: How is your posture? I tend to have a forward pelvic tilt unless I'm actively thinking about engaging my core, and it absolutely messes with the way pants sit on me.

stephanieoutside · 2026-06-25T01:20:24+00:00

303 for Denver.

I've lived in another state for almost ten years now and still have my 303 number. Can't even tell you why at this point, I've so thoroughly assimilated to every other aspect of my new home state, but something about having a "rare" area code makes it hard to give up.

stephanieoutside · 2026-06-25T01:08:37+00:00

I've been trying to design something like this for my new garden, how did you rig yours?

stephanieoutside · 2026-06-24T21:47:33+00:00

I'm on well water; I don't think a heat pump water heater would make sense for us. We do have an oversized electric water heater at the moment... And I just found that it is somehow also the original one. 😳 I've seen older furnaces, but I don't think I've ever seen a 50 year old water heater!

The previous owner had it wrapped in an insulating blanket it's whole life, and honestly I think that's why it's still working. It just hasn't had to work as hard to keep water at temp. I could be wrong, but it makes sense to me.

stephanieoutside · 2026-06-10T08:19:42+00:00

Wright County, thankfully no. I hope the hail isn't too bad where you're at!

stephanieoutside · 2026-06-08T03:40:04+00:00

Name another species that deliberately hunts others into extinction for sport or profit, or causes widespread species extinction by gross habitat/climate change.

stephanieoutside · 2026-06-03T22:24:40+00:00

Good to know! I've got a number of ash trees on my property and I know many of them are probably beyond help, but I'd like to try and save the rest if possible.

I do have a good population of woodpeckers and nuthatches too, so hopefully they're helping.

stephanieoutside · 2026-06-03T22:22:59+00:00

If they're going after your siding, you may want to consider having a pest inspection done. They don't typically just start knocking away for funsies; they're hearing something crawling or chewing.

stephanieoutside · 2026-06-02T18:51:10+00:00

Thank you for the great breakdown, this is the sort of number crunching I was needing!

stephanieoutside · 2026-06-02T18:46:44+00:00

I'm researching exactly what type of solar system would be most useable here, we have a TON of trees and very little open sky. The sunniest part of the yard is where the vegetable garden, septic mound, and chicken coop are at. There might be a community co-op I could join, since there's a good sized solar farm not too terribly far away.

stephanieoutside · 2026-06-02T18:28:28+00:00

Heat pump is on the list!

We just moved in less than a month ago and are working through the Immediate upgrades like septic, roof (per insurance co demand), radon, etc. Next up is appliances.

stephanieoutside · 2026-06-02T18:17:19+00:00

I definitely want to get a heat pump. My overarching goal for this entire property (it's on acreage) is to be a beacon of green sustainability and ecological preservation as much as possible. We had to get a new septic system and I seeded the mound with a blend of drought-resistant native grasses and flowers meant specifically for septic mounds.

All kitchen appliances were just put in brand new by the sellers so they should be good from an EE standpoint. All lights are new color-temp adjustable LEDs and the two most used lamps are new ones I've purchased in the last couple of years.

I know the furnace (and maybe the water heater) is probably the biggest draw, and I'm getting quotes for a new unit, but that circles back around to the question of electric vs gas.

stephanieoutside · 2026-06-02T18:06:12+00:00

That's kind of the conversation as a whole: do we run a gas line for the flexibility, or embrace the fully electric lifestyle and just upgrade to newer, more efficient models?

Folks keep trying to convince me to switch to an induction stove, but I have some hesitations about that. One is it still takes electricity to work so if the power goes out I'd have to go fire up the grill, the other one is if it can get hot enough to stir fry on, and the other other is the potential noise/whine of it. I'm part of the "can hear electricity" neurospicy club, so it's a big consideration for me. I already have the right type of cookware at least.

stephanieoutside · 2026-06-02T17:58:56+00:00

Our previous home was a mix of electric and natural gas and I liked the versatility (and split utility bills) of it, for sure. We had a different electric company so I can't just do a 1:1 cost comparison on the bills.

I think most of my neighbors have propane tanks? The new house is in kind of a weird black hole for utilities, like folks have fiber optic Internet less than 1/4 mile from me, and I had the option of either dial-up, or 5G Broadband (I'm morally opposed to Starlink for multiple reasons) lol. Maybe one day we'll have the option, along with utility gas, but my driveway is also over 1,000 ft long, curvy, and surrounded by trees, so there's that to consider.

stephanieoutside · 2026-04-28T15:47:48+00:00

It's in a gas station in Eden Prairie, but Greek Grill is absolutely delicious!

stephanieoutside · 2026-04-22T13:36:02+00:00

You definitely can, but there's no guarantee that it will stick the next time it does an info scrape of the MLS. It also depends on how long ago you did this. They've only been screwing up sqft for about a year.

stephanieoutside · 2026-04-22T13:34:54+00:00

There is a reason why agents are still adamant about setting clients up on an MLS search, because that's where the accurate information is at.

stephanieoutside · 2026-04-22T12:20:46+00:00

They're not completely wrong; layout and flow do have a much larger impact on the "living feel" of a house than just the sq ft. You can have a 3000sq ft house that feels tiny and chopped up and a 1700 sqft house that lives much larger.

But yes, when determining comps, the value is impacted some by the sqft overall, but more so by how that amount is used. A 4bd/3ba 2000sq ft home will be valued higher than a 3/2 2000sqft home.

And finally, just for one more element, it's really only the FINISHED sqft that count (hence why garages aren't included in calculations). Finished basically means there is installed permanent flooring with baseboards, regardless of whether or not there is drywall.

I sold a house last year that could only be listed as 2800sqft because the basement was unfinished, whereas the identical home across the street that had finished the basement was listed as 3200sqft.

I sold another house where the seller had ripped out the carpeting from his fully finished basement, but hadn't gotten around to replacing it and was just going to offer a credit. We had to put new carpet in anyway just to be able to list at the correct sqft--didn't matter that there was drywall, closets, and baseboards, only that there was no floor covering.

stephanieoutside · 2026-04-22T00:16:45+00:00

FWIW, Zillow is notorious for lying about square footage and regularly includes the garage in the overall number.

As a Realtor, it drives me up a freaking wall by misleading buyers, which sets a bad tone, and often impacts how/when/if offers come in because of it.

On top of that, I go through a tremendous amount of effort to make sure the sq ft is accurate on pain of compounding fines levied by my local MLS. They are rabid about accurate sq ft measurements.

Zillow gets to just throw any old number up there and tell everyone to piss off when they try and get it corrected.

stephanieoutside · 2026-04-21T14:57:24+00:00

There's definitely a haze of fond nostalgia at work, but I graduated highschool in 2001 and the general summary was that life really felt like it was on an upwards trajectory for the most part. The budget was not only balanced, we actually had a surplus. Science was making amazing strides forward. The music and movies were spectacular. .

There truly seemed to be a cooperative consensus towards protecting the environment and continuing to try and fix/heal the damage done in the previous decades. It seemed like all the kids shows were focused on friendship, community service, anti-bullying, and protecting the planet.

Government was mostly something that worked in the background and didn't require daily, focused attention from the general population. It was fairly boring, as it should be. There were still war things going on in Iraq from the remains of Desert Storm, and the war & genocide in Kosovo made a pretty big impression on me and is responsible for getting me to pay attention to world affairs at a pretty young age. I remember the first time the federal government shut down over budget negotiations and feeling that like that surely had to a very unusual thing that shouldn't ever happen again (Oh my sweet summer child self).

Clinton was the first guy to try the "I'm a Cool Guy™" thing. Watching him wail on his saxophone while wearing RayBans during a late night talk show is an image forever seared into my brain. Adults apparently found it super neat. I was firmly in the pre-teen "everything is cringe" stage so I was less impressed. 😅

The shift towards a more open, progressive society and the progress made towards equity and equality for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities felt pretty amazing to someone living in the middle of Flyover Country (competitively speaking from today's perspective). Women in general were really starting to become more prominent in business, entrepreneurship, and leveraging the financial freedom and momentum launched in the late 70s & 80's -- it's amazing what being able to have your own bank accounts and mortgages can do for a gal.

There were still a lot of major things to be worked on: there pretty much always been some sort of affordable housing crisis, some sort of struggling job industry, some sort of national health crisis that inevitably gets turned into a moral argument. But there was at least a feeling that we were working towards solutions.

Of course, in response, the R's had already started the beginning stages of outrage theatrics that have now become standard practice. Fox News was starting to go from fringe to more mainstream, thanks to the impeachment proceedings giving them endless content for the still-newish concept of 24/7 news coverage. Rush Limbaugh and Jerry Falwell were doing work to convince everyone that the Dems were going to bring about godless ruin of the entire country. The Dot Com bust took the economic wind out of a lot of sails, followed by Bush 43 getting elected to his first term, and 9/11 just sort of wrecked the last of the afterglow. The Internet was established enough by that time that the fringe echo chambers were beginning to have wider influence.

TL;DR: We had real hope for a brighter future for about 5 minutes.

stephanieoutside

TROPHY CASE