purple room vents: RATASTIC

I am always horrified by how much money just simply flows out of this house. Every time I turn around there's another bill to pay or insurance or a house project that needs doing or something to do with a vehicle. But those things I just mentioned, you at least get a return on it. You get something for your dollar. But.....

As I mentioned somewhere before we had a problem, a really big problem with rats. I needn't go into it again. And I do believe I did mention I hired a vermin guy to come in and take a look at the sheds and decide what needed doing.

So the rat man divided the job in two. Firstly, for 300 dollars he got rat proof wire netting and hammered it up and over every single possible opening in the sheds. He did an absolutely fantastic, worth every dollar, job. Then for 450 bucks he was going to come back every week and check the traps and reload them if necessary.

It wasn't until three weeks passed by that it dawned on me that he hadn't been back! I have to unlock the sheds for him and there had been no unlocking. And I had already paid him!

One of the things he had mentioned to me was that as soon as possible he was moving to South Dakota. There was a girlfriend there and a very tired and disdainful attitude about Port and BC in general. And now I was pretty sure he had used my 450 to help finance his escape.

So I emailed from the website, I emailed from an actual email address on the website, I phoned and left messages....to no avail. When I went looking for more info on the company I saw an address in an area I wasn't real familiar with. My next move was to take huge Mr. Man with me and see if Ratman had done a runner. But before I could do that, Monte made a pretty graphically correct negative google review. It was a very polite and well worded one, but he made it pretty clear that this was a company not to be trusted.

Well that worked! I got a pretty frantic call from Jeff, otherwise known as Ratman, apologizing ten ways to seven, explaining how he has been super busy and we had just slipped through the cracks. He couldn't have been more sorry. And to top it off his boss was not happy with it all. Man! I thought he was a single worker, no staff. Plus I hadn't received any paperwork or receipts, my bad.

Long story short I talked with the boss the next day and sorted it all out. Later that day Jeff popped around with a cheque for 450 bucks and he did a check of the traps. He is also popping around next week to check again and to leave little bags of rat deterrent to put in our vehicles. Monte removed the review and I left a good one. This guy did two four year tours in Afghanistan. And he is apparently the boss's number one employee. A simple mistake, that had me going for a while there. Kept me awake for a couple of nights!

I am also hiring my handyman again to fix the burst pipe in the shed from freezing, the front gate that has fallen off and replace my kitchen faucet. One great thing about this house is the water pressure. It gushes with huge force and delights me every time I do dishes. It is strong enough to clean stuck on food on plates! How often do houses have that nowadays? Never!!!

So this morning I was getting the house all clean and ready for the housekeeper when suddenly the pressure from the kitchen tap dropped to about half. I panicked!! I ran around to bathrooms and laundry rooms checking pressure there. There was still lots in those places. So I have concluded that the old, loose, basically busted kitchen tap is at fault. Grrrrr.... I need a new tap. I just don't know how to change it. I don't even know what kind to buy, except I am pretty sure it's just called a one holer. So many things. I miss Spod!!!!!! He knew all about this stuff and could do it. Crap if I tried to change the tap I would go down and under the sink and never be able to get up again.

I also want a new tub. The one I have is olive green, stained and very 70's. At least it matches the turlett. Plus it isn't very big. I just know if I planned to get into that thing, I would have to keep my phone handy. I'm pretty sure the fire department would have to be called to help unsuction me. I would like a tub I can actually use without fear.

Well enough complaining today. Sorry bout that! At least I got my money back on the rat fiasco!!!! Take care people, stay safe and TTYL

'You know you're big when you sit in the bathtub, the water in the toilet rises.' Art Donovan