About a month ago, I found a little hole, about the size of a nickel in the eaves over my back patio where some conduit was removed, mmm, maybe a year ago. I texted one of my DIY consultants and he said to just fill it with any kind of caulk, even the kind I use to fill in the trim pieces around my kitchen window and door.
As you know, I was waiting for a rainy day to do the work on that trim, and then I needed to wait for a dry day to drag the ladder out and fill this hole before something got in there and made things worse.
Um, sort of like this:
When it comes to home maintenance, I know that a little water can turn into a lot of water pretty fast. But I didn’t know that a tiny little hole on the exterior of my home could turn into this so fast. So lesson number one: “Do it now,” needs to be our motto.
I admit, when I think something (or someone) is living uninvited in my walls, or my attic, or my garage my mind goes all awry and I start to panic. I mean, actually, I panic a little when anything goes haywire because I immediately see dollar signs. But I gathered myself up long enough to send out an SOS on Reddit to see if some helpful person might know what had made that hole its home. I thought it might be either bats or tree frogs because there was some kind of guano below the hole and we have lots of both of those around here.
Big mistake. I only got two replies, both of them snarky; one about cockroaches, and one about someone’s ex-wife living in there. I didn’t know Reddit was full of distinctly unhelpful persons.
Lesson number two: Free advice is worth about the same amount that you pay for it.
So now I’m faced with yet another decision to make in a life that just keeps unraveling: do I just patch it up or do I call an exterminator? I’m pretty sure if I just patch it up, whatever is in there, will exit in some other, more unfortunate way–perhaps through my bedroom ceiling or the attic access in my yoga room.
But the thought of calling an expensive critter ridder to do something that I could probably just suck it up and do myself doesn’t feel right either. I mean, whatever it is, has to be able to fit through that hole, so it’s smaller than I am. And that makes me feel brave.
This situation seems a lot like the first time I taught Freshman composition and my mentor reminded me that I at least knew more than first-year students, so I had that going for me. Remembering her words and that fact that I am clearly bigger than whatever it is, gives me confidence that I can handle this sitch myself.
I know for sure that I don’t want to kill it. After a very bloody incident with a mousetrap this winter, in which I heard the trap go off and found no mouse, but only several rich, red blood splatters, I switched to humane traps only. So if anyone out there (not you Reddit) knows what this probably is and how I can nicely ask it to please leave, I would still appreciate some free advice.
Meanwhile, since it’s ninety-eight degrees in June in the mid-west, I will ditch my outside work again, and go back to finishing the trim in the kitchen. Oh, and I finally called a tile guy to come and put in a backsplash for me so soon I can finally post some after pictures.
DIY Recovery 