Rodent Problems? We have Solutions!

All righty then. So yesterday when Daniel called on his break I was still grossed out by said mouse. (See my last post for more info on that.) I asked him if he would come home early, thinking he would work a couple more hours and get home with some daylight still. (just an FYI his first break is at 11, lunch at 1:30, so I thought maybe lunch?) He said he would check his benefit time and call back, or call at lunch. Instead of calling he was home within 30 minutes. Sweet!

Meanwhile, I had moved the fridge, and tracked the possible entry as next to our back door where we had never replaced the trim. We really should do that as its getting cold and I am sure adding trim helps stop cold air from coming in.

I had also noticed that the temp solution we had done last year with Mama Cook was warped and leaving a welcome sign to our home. This was noticed a couple days before, but we hadn't done anything about it (read we only have time for these things on weekends as the sun is gone before Daniel gets home) My thought was affirmed when we looked outside and found pink snow! It might be somewhat hard to see, but its on the ground by the bottom of the house.



Operation close the hole began. We were somewhat cautious of potentially coming upon a nest, and praying we wouldn't. Just in Case, Alice was put in a safe place. Ok, ok. Daniel did all the dirty work. I stood inside with a broom and the door open. Just in case we had a runner, I could sweep him outside. And this is what we found.
Yeah, I forgot to take a picture of the tunnel in that hollow area behind the orange cord. It was very much a mouse tunnel to the inside. I immediately put in in the trash bin. As you can see the source of the 'pink snow' is this random pink styrofoam thing. Call it yet another 'good enough' solution from the previous owners. And as you can also see, Termite Damage! (Don't worry both sides of the duplex have been treated, and there was a second stud put in to help out with the termite damage.

Then we found it. The Stairway to Heaven!

OK, forgive the sideways pic, I don't want to mess with changing it as the baby is awake and wanting to play with the computer mouse (oy ANOTHER mouse). So we found tunnels and mouse poo making a stairway through our insulation. And we cleaned it out.
yummy. Right into the trash. Of course we cleaned out both sides, and put up new siding (which we had palnned on doing at some point anyway, but we didn't want to start a project when we the other side took FOREVER and a broken air conditioner to get done). So fast forward a few hours and some board cutting....

By 4pm we had this:
And it was caulked by yours truly. Note, the door trim is absurdly fat. Its 'cause Daniel wanted never rot. We will be replacing it with standard wood most likely. After we go to the beautiful Home Depot for Date Night. Yeah, spending even more money! (As a side note, Daniel told me we need to spend $400 less this month than last, that's totally impossible even if we don't buy trim from Home Depot. Hence, the spending more money comment was in fact sarcasm. The fact that I explained that is irony. And, that is the end of today's lesson.)

In fact, we have been really productive in the house department lately. Here is a picture of some of our handy work:
That was acquired from the curb, via the neighbor's $12,ooo remodel project including new cabinets. Granted, they are not the same as the rest of the kitchen, but I was wanting some shelves and this can hold our bulletain board and cute canisters. Plus its the only cabinets they didn't break down into pieces. ANd it was FREE! All we had to do was mark studs, and screw it in. Between that, and my caulking lots of windows, it feels like lots of house work getting done, and none of it was cleaning!

So, now that I have bleach, I have to put the baby in lock down and bleach the kitchen. If you wanna read something scary, look up the CDC.gov info on cleaning up rodent infestations. Yikes.