House Woes - Or Why I Hate Raccoons!

Okay - This isn't really our house.
But it is the only thing we HAVEN'T had to deal with.

We live in a rural area, as the bear postings have made perfectly clear. We have raccoons and critters around all the time. I understand sharing the woods with them, but I draw the line at sharing the house with them. Call me civilized. They haven't accepted that as fact yet.

Since we moved in with my mom this summer, it has been one house issue after another. I haven't blogged about it because they have been the kind of things that happen when regular maintenance is not done. Because I was walking into repair after repair, and had some specific concerns, we scheduled a home inspection. I thought it would help me know what all I dealing with and help me prioritize things. HA!

I am going to make some handyman a very wealthy man. There is a VERY large list that needs to be taken care of.

A few weeks ago we had the pest guy come out and re-screen the vents around the foundation. It has to be done or the darling little critters will move in around the nice warm hot water pipes for the winter. Cunning little things.... Now we are talking, stainless steel, heavy duty wire here. The raccoons have already dismantled one screen. I have a year warranty, so the pest guy is coming back out tomorrow to repair the opening. The damage they have already done under the house is another thing. The insulation is torn down and things I don't even want to think about.

Raccoons are not cute and cuddly. They are destructive and dangerous. They have been known to kill dogs in the area.

The gutters have been cleaned. The offending overhanging limb has been removed. But before the man left, he brought to my attention that the wooden retaining wall, behind the house, isn't doing much "retaining" any more. It's starting to surrender. It is tilted and bulging. Yikes! It looks like a fat ladies foundation garment about to explode! Which would put the hillside right into my mom's bathroom.

The biggest issue on the inspection was the house foundation, which is sinking on the southeast corner. In a big way. I wasn't going to deal with it until we have to face selling the house, but with this new issue it bubbles up again as something that needs to be addressed. The same company who can do the retaining wall also does foundations. So - after Thanksgiving - they are going to come out and take a look at it and tell us what it will take to correct the situation.

All this brings back the old Sunday school song, "The foolish man built his house upon the sand..."