We bought a 150 year old house to renovate a few years back.  We hired contractors to do the majority of the work.  What we have found over the years, is that it is a good idea to get involved and keep a close eye on your renovation projects.  What this means is that Shelly and I usually end up doing projects that most people do not like doing.

We will often do things like general cleaning, taking out garbage, sorting construction debris, painting trim, taking a part and cleaning light fixtures etc…

My wife Shelly and I consider ourselves lucky to be able to work well together.  When we are working on a project we are always aware that each fixture we clean or garbage bag we fill gets us closer to our life goals.

This particular project was going really well, then it happened.  We had to take on the job of cleaning the cupboards.  To set the stage when we purchased the house the only residents were insects and rodents.  Our plumber had already found a few dead rats while replacing pipes.

That being said what we found in the cupboards was a bit disturbing.  One of the lower cupboards had rat poop stuck to the bottom.  We are no stranger to rat or mouse droppings, they are quite common, but in this case it was smeared on the bottom of the cupboard.

There was only one thing to do, and that was to roll up our sleeves and take action.  We took turns scraping.  We will both admit it was pretty gross (even for seasoned renovators like us).  We managed to scape it all off then we had to sanitise with spray nine and bleach, then sand and paint.

It was a lot of work, however, in the end it all worked out.

Here is the summary of our experience:

1. Rat poop in general is disgusting

2. When you do not really think about what you are doing, it makes a disturbing job a lot easier to do (think about it as chocolate).

3. When you experience something disturbing with your renovating partner, it brings you closer together.  We are not going to seek out another experience like this, however, we do not regret the experience.

4. Shelly and I had a special bond before, now it is even stronger.

Until next time,

Design your landlord experience,

Michael P Currie

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Photo Credit goes Freestocks.org

You will want to also read this post about some persistent rats.