I started winterizing last week. Actually, I just wanted to wash the outside windows and noticed the caulk was a little cracked on my first window. So I washed the window, pulled out a putty knife to pull off the old caulk. 45 minutes later, I'm still at it. Then I needed a little break. So I started to chip away at a fleck of paint. Then a whole load of paint comes off. Yep the whole frame around the window needs to be repainted. Actually after looking around, the whole house needs to be repainted.

Moved on to the back door. I removed the threshold plate and re-caulked the bottom of the door easily. Screwed the plate back down, but noticed a quarter-inch gap under the door when it's closed. I couldn't raise the threshold any higher, so I hacked the insulation on the bottom of the door to make a tighter seal. Now I now how that little copperhead snake got in the house last year. I also tighten up the insulation around the sides of the door. No telling how much energy that door has cost me.

After the door, I went back to the original window. It's sealed up nicely now. So this weekend, I was back at the windows again, when I noticed several ant beds around the yard. One huge one decided the weep holes around the base of the house were a great entry to my kitchen. I've been avoiding poison for various reasons (small kids, the environment, cancer fear), but now I had no choice. The ants are just the innovators that show the termites how it's done.

So I go around the perimeter of the house with Bug-B-Gone or whatever it's called. While doing so, I realize the rabbits must die also. They eat the grass down to the roots and poop in that devastated part of the lawn, as if to say, "Call the homeowners association Gestapo, I gnawed your grass to the roots so the weeds could grow and left thousands of pellets of your digested grass to fill the hole."

The armadillos left quite a mess too. Fortunately, they eat grub worms (pests) and aerate the soil with their digging.

So here's my question: What's the best way to get old caulk off my windows? I need to finish them quickly before I notice the house sliding off the face of the earth .