Random Blog Number 257

We're off to do house repair/stuff/maintenance on our old house, which has become the rental house.  Why do we have a rental house?  The smart answer would be because we make money with it.  The bad answer is because the house mortgage is upside-down and we can't afford to sell it.  This is very, very sad.

Anyway, tenants are moving out.  We are fixing little stuff.  (Hopefully.)  And voila, the place has a gazillion applicants already.  Weird, but good.  Let me tell you how much I loathe picking between qualified applicants.  One had five cats and one dog.  One had a credit score of 300.  (I didn't think that was possible.)  A couple others I'm not allowed to talk about.

I hope this isn't what we find but I wouldn't
be surprised.

And it's bad enough that I have to take care of that house, but also the house we're in.  The deck is still tilting.  I'm waiting for contractors to get their acts together.  Apparently it's too much to expect them to rush right over this instant with a couple of tons of dirt, blocks, and cement to save my ass.  I can honestly say I've never had this particular problem with contractors.  I feel like I'm waving money in their faces and they're saying, "Yeah, well, that's nice but we're busy with other stuff."  Really?  Seriously?  The landscaping/retaining wall business is so busy that you can not only not return phone calls but turn down thousands of dollars in revenue?  REALLY?

Color me Captain Confused.

When contractors go bad.

Just when I think we're getting ahead (I need to stop and knock on wood while simultaneously rubbing a rabbit's foot (which wasn't very lucky for the rabbit, now was it?) and maybe throwing some salt over my shoulder.) something else happens.

Upon effing around with the deck, we discovered that little black pooplets were falling down from the attic area on one side.  Previously there had been a hole in the fascia board and squirrels inhabiting the area.  We got that all taken care of.  Then we think, "Uh-oh, the squirrels are back."  We do everything we can about that.  More pooplets.  Then I notice that the cat sits on the ledge of the deck staring up at the ceiling as if the ceiling will give him the answer to the meaning of life.  Cat alert!  Ah-oo-ga.  The cat is staring at the ceiling.  Hmm.

Having had rats in the attic (of another house, thank God) before, we think, rats?  We do the thing that we need to do.

More pooplets.  Even more suspiciously, more cat staring at the attic.  Then other cats came to stare.  (Not really.)  (That would be all twisted to see a big group of cats sitting on my deck, staring at the ceiling.)

One day, HIM, the man to whom I'm married, shines a light up into the crack between the ceiling of the covered deck and the house's wall, and sees something moving.  HIM comes to tell me because he loves to share ickiness with me.  (It's a married thing.)  HIM says, "It's not squirrels.  It's not rats.  It's...(cue dramatic music here)...bats."  I squeal and threaten to move to a bat free country.  (Then twenty people told me on Facebook that bats are good and our buddies and I'm being a total twathead.)  (Maybe three people.  They didn't really say I was being a total twathead.  But they were thinking it.)

Okay, this wasn't really in our deck's attic,
but it is funny.

And yes, we have bats in our attic space above our deck.  We're going to build several bat houses and put them nearby.  Then in the fall, (after all the little baby bats can fly) we'll put lights in the little attic space to encourage them to move out.

By the way, Bing and Google have pictures of bat poop so that you can identify the thing that's living in your attic space.

Just so you know what it looks like.
God, I love sharing.

I can't help but wonder what's next?  Snakes?  Gorillas?  A horde of rampaging chipmunks?

I'll let you know.