It has been an absolutely crazy couple of weeks. More plot twists than a mid-90’s season of Melrose Place. I’m not sure if I’m coming or going right now.
For the past 18 months or so Mrs. GF and I have been renting and living in a fairly non-descript, older house. Like all houses (especially older ones) it had its issues but for the most part was acceptable. Our story of woe began about two months ago when we started to notice sounds and certain “remnants” that would indicate that we had some sort of rodent visitors. We called our land lady, a sweet older woman who has always been very quick to help when things went wrong. She recommended a few things we could try ourselves to rid the house of these pests and said she would have someone come out. Days went by, no one came out, and the problem didn’t seem to get any worse…..until about two weeks ago when these little rodent buggers started having a house party every night in our attic, walls, and floors. The noise was such that Mrs. GF kept thinking that we had actual villains breaking into our house. In fact, two Sunday evenings ago as I waited at baggage claim in the Knoxville airport, I got a teary a call insisting that we had an intruder in the house. As if this was not bad enough, the next morning I got a text stating that a foul smell had begun to develop in the house. By the time I got home on Tuesday afternoon the house was totally unlivable. The smell of death was so overpowering that flies had begun to form around the windows and it took every bit of restraint to not gag when we entered the house. Mrs. GF and I packed up Dog and headed for the Lake House (my parent’s home 15 miles away). The next day our land lady had a very thorough and expensive exterminating crew over to the house. They sealed every possible entrance, placed traps, and (most importantly) removed a dead possum from the attic. Whew! Problem solved, right? Not so my friends. We returned to the house to find that while the smell was not quite as over powering, it still lingered in the house. Over the course of the next several days (all while staying at my parent’s) we would return to the house and attempt to air it out by opening all the windows and doors, using various odor absorbers, and cleaning as thoroughly as we knew how….yet the smell would not be conquered. On Saturday when we returned to the house (total days we had been displaced at this point: 5) we discovered that mold had formed along a wall that separated the kitchen from the bathroom. We had long suspected that there was a build up of water in this wall so while the mold was certainly appalling, it was not totally unsuspected. Well as Popeye himself would say “I’ve stands all I can stands and I can’t stands no more!” The mold was the final straw and after a very long conversation Mrs. GF and I decided it was time for a move.
This is just the beginning of the fun. This particular move could not come at a worse time, both financially and from a timing stand point. Due to schedules, etc… we had to find a place immediately. Fortunately, Mrs. GF is very good at internet research and we were able to find an acceptable place and execute a lease all on that very same Saturday. This left me feeling a little, how you say…over a barrel, since we still had an existing lease on the House of the Damned. The following day we had some negotiations with our land lady who suddenly went from sweet grandmotherly type to stone cold business woman who tried to bilk us out of thousands of dollars to break the lease, rats, mold, and stench be damned. We finally came to a compromise that I think satisfied neither us nor her, but would make the issue go away. We spent the rest of yesterday moving all of our furniture to the new place and thanks to the diligent help of my parents, were able to spend last night in the new place. The new residence is what is I would call a Luxury Apartment. Very different from any place I have ever lived and certainly from a house with a yard. Dog is still learning to walk on a leash. With that said it is just so new and clean and vermin free that we slept the sleep of angels in our own bed last night. Additionally, because it is gated, Mrs. GF feels very secure when I am out of town for work (as I am the rest of this week) and I can feel free to booze it up in various cities of the Southeast United States without worrying for her safety. There is a lot left to do in the next week or so to be completely out of the old house and rid ourselves of the whole smelly mess, but we’re moving in the right direction.
For the past 18 months or so Mrs. GF and I have been renting and living in a fairly non-descript, older house. Like all houses (especially older ones) it had its issues but for the most part was acceptable. Our story of woe began about two months ago when we started to notice sounds and certain “remnants” that would indicate that we had some sort of rodent visitors. We called our land lady, a sweet older woman who has always been very quick to help when things went wrong. She recommended a few things we could try ourselves to rid the house of these pests and said she would have someone come out. Days went by, no one came out, and the problem didn’t seem to get any worse…..until about two weeks ago when these little rodent buggers started having a house party every night in our attic, walls, and floors. The noise was such that Mrs. GF kept thinking that we had actual villains breaking into our house. In fact, two Sunday evenings ago as I waited at baggage claim in the Knoxville airport, I got a teary a call insisting that we had an intruder in the house. As if this was not bad enough, the next morning I got a text stating that a foul smell had begun to develop in the house. By the time I got home on Tuesday afternoon the house was totally unlivable. The smell of death was so overpowering that flies had begun to form around the windows and it took every bit of restraint to not gag when we entered the house. Mrs. GF and I packed up Dog and headed for the Lake House (my parent’s home 15 miles away). The next day our land lady had a very thorough and expensive exterminating crew over to the house. They sealed every possible entrance, placed traps, and (most importantly) removed a dead possum from the attic. Whew! Problem solved, right? Not so my friends. We returned to the house to find that while the smell was not quite as over powering, it still lingered in the house. Over the course of the next several days (all while staying at my parent’s) we would return to the house and attempt to air it out by opening all the windows and doors, using various odor absorbers, and cleaning as thoroughly as we knew how….yet the smell would not be conquered. On Saturday when we returned to the house (total days we had been displaced at this point: 5) we discovered that mold had formed along a wall that separated the kitchen from the bathroom. We had long suspected that there was a build up of water in this wall so while the mold was certainly appalling, it was not totally unsuspected. Well as Popeye himself would say “I’ve stands all I can stands and I can’t stands no more!” The mold was the final straw and after a very long conversation Mrs. GF and I decided it was time for a move.
This is just the beginning of the fun. This particular move could not come at a worse time, both financially and from a timing stand point. Due to schedules, etc… we had to find a place immediately. Fortunately, Mrs. GF is very good at internet research and we were able to find an acceptable place and execute a lease all on that very same Saturday. This left me feeling a little, how you say…over a barrel, since we still had an existing lease on the House of the Damned. The following day we had some negotiations with our land lady who suddenly went from sweet grandmotherly type to stone cold business woman who tried to bilk us out of thousands of dollars to break the lease, rats, mold, and stench be damned. We finally came to a compromise that I think satisfied neither us nor her, but would make the issue go away. We spent the rest of yesterday moving all of our furniture to the new place and thanks to the diligent help of my parents, were able to spend last night in the new place. The new residence is what is I would call a Luxury Apartment. Very different from any place I have ever lived and certainly from a house with a yard. Dog is still learning to walk on a leash. With that said it is just so new and clean and vermin free that we slept the sleep of angels in our own bed last night. Additionally, because it is gated, Mrs. GF feels very secure when I am out of town for work (as I am the rest of this week) and I can feel free to booze it up in various cities of the Southeast United States without worrying for her safety. There is a lot left to do in the next week or so to be completely out of the old house and rid ourselves of the whole smelly mess, but we’re moving in the right direction.
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