We did all the prep work in my previous post, and the flooring guy is coming out tomorrow to install sheet vinyl flooring. After that, I’ll clean up and reinstall the baseboards, and then we can start moving stuff back into the basement. Knock on wood.
Today we had a bit more excitement. A couple months ago, Mrs R noticed that a couple of our roof decking boards were rotten. I called a roofing company we’d had good luck with before; the owner came out, sent us an estimate, and he said that when he had a free day on his schedule, he’d send a crew out to do the work. I told him that I’d need a day’s advance notice, since there was some preliminary work I had to do: Remove a trellis, pull a bush away from the house, remove a light fixture.
The owner is a good guy, but his communication skills aren’t all they could be; this morning he called to say that a free day had come up, and how about today? I thought, well, I can do those prep things this morning; when are they coming out? Well, they’re on their way. I skipped my shower, threw on some clothes, and Mrs. R and did the prep things lickety-split.
The roofers came, did their thing, the work looks good; and the actual bill was $400 less than his estimate. So, good experience overall, but what happened to my one day’s advance notice?
Littlest R and her fiance came over today to help and everything is moved back into the basement and the cars are parked inside the garage again. This evening Mrs. R and I sat down to watch a movie in our newly refurbished basement rec room, congratulating ourselves. And halfway through Gamera the Brave we saw a mouse.
So we set a couple traps and retired upstairs to let events take their course.
No sign of the basement mouse after having traps set for two weeks; the little devil seems to have evaporated. However, I did have a streak in the garage, catching mice seven days running.
PS: Gamera The Brave is in no way equal to the spectacular trilogy of Gamera movies that came out in the late Nineties.
We actually had a disagreement about this very topic yesterday in my house. Boyfriend saw a rodent in the garage and wanted to put out traps (I say rodent because he described it as big and slow moving and hanging out by the back door which sounds more like rat than mouse, unless it was a sickly mouse). I debated that because mice (or rodents) could get in at any time through small spaces around garage door, why bother putting out traps unless they’re getting into the basement by way of garage and maybe shouldn’t we find out if so and where and seal that off instead? We went on to debate whether the garage is considered an interior room (100% boyfriend’s opinion) or exterior room (100% my opinion). It was a real courtroom drama up in here
Objection! If the attached garage is insulated and finished with drywall and has windows I say it’s an interior room. Ifs it detached or has none of the above it’s an exterior room. but your property appraiser may disagree.
The problem with giving up your garage to mice is that they get into your car and then build nests in the car’s heater, gnaw on things they shouldn’t (like wiring, especially on modern cars with soy-based wire insulation) and pee and poop all over. And the smell is just about impossible to get rid of. So my advice is to wage vigorous war against them in your garage.
but your property appraiser may disagree.