things change fast

 So, after feeling disappointed after calling literally five roofing contractors and being told by each one "unless you have an actual leak, we have no time to take on more jobs," I decided to call a construction/roofing outfit that seemed to be a bigger outfit, that advertises locally, and that I've seen in the area.

I know, I know: advertising doesn't mean it's GOOD, but they've been in business a few years and the fact that they offer numerous services (they also do gutters and siding and general construction) made me hopeful - maybe I pay more than I would hiring an "a guy and his truck" service, but you know? If I can find one outfit that can do everything, that makes it easier on me.

Well, I have an appointment tomorrow for the guy to see what needs to be done. I'm HOPING I can just have him evaluate the exterior stuff (roof, siding and trim, cover for the crawl space, gutter) and that he doesn't also want to look at the indoor work this time. Because I'm not ready.

But I did kind of panic and think about how messy the closet where the attic access still was, and how bad the walk in closet still was. (The kitchen, while not GREAT, is not bad).

Also, we had a power outage on campus over the weekend and the printers had gone offline, and to get them talking to our computers again requires IT. I had called IT this morning (before I called the contractor) and they said they'd come out, but then, around lunchtime, I kind of freaked out - the printers weren't back, what if the contractor said it was non-negotiable that he sees ALL the work to be done all at once, there's no way he's going to look at the home-office closet and not recoil in horror at the mess (this was Mouse Central when I had the mouse problem last year, and also where the opossum got in - through the attic access panel). So I decided to clean the home office and finish by cleaning the closet.

It took me four hours. The room is better though my former desk in there is still piled with paperwork. I did hazmat suit up (mask, chemical-spill gloves, heavy shoes, old clothes) and got the mouse droppings off the closet floor, and threw LOTS of stuff away. The room is probably cleaner than it's been in 10 years. It had been a guest room, I haven't had an overnight guest since 2002, there's been a little mouse damage to the box spring in there, so eventually I'll need to replace the mattress and box spring if I want to keep it as a possible guest room. But first I need the attic access sealed off better so things DON'T get in any more. 

I don't know for sure how it got so bad. Well, I was gone for a good long time in summer 2019 when my father died, and after that was in no frame of mind for dealing with much for a while. Then there was the pandemic, and a couple of ice storms, and I think mice came in more during those. And they're good at hiding! I didn't know I had them until I noticed damage and then droppings in out of the way places. I think the worst problem was in fall 2021. I've got traps everywhere but it's been a while since I caught anything.

At any rate - that room is cleaner. I did fill a few more boxes in the walk-in closet and sewing room and while it's not GREAT it's better. What I really need it just to be able to fill trash bags with stuff and get rid of them, but one wheelie bin fills up fast. (I've been told it's possible to rent Dumpsters from the city, but they park them in your drive, and I want to be able to keep garaging my car, so I'm not sure how that would work). 

I guess though this is going to be the motivation to deep clean and do a lot of pitching of stuff. I've already done a lot of pitching of stuff, but I could do more. I'm frankly amazed at how much a clown-car for yarn and fabric my house was - and that was in the areas that didn't have the mouse problem.