Friday, January 9, 2015

Mouse in the House: When Owning a Home Isn't Quite As Much Fun

Along with all of the awesome things about owning a home, like gaining more space and no longer having to deal with rent increases, come some not-so-nice things, like unexpected repairs and unwanted critters trying to escape the winter cold.  

It was late three nights ago when we first heard the scampering coming from the vent above our microwave. At first, I hoped it was just my imagination or something else, but obviously, it wasn’t. Two semi-sleepless nights and a few stomach grumbles later (I’d been afraid to spend more than a few seconds at a time in the kitchen), a pest control expert came out to investigate.

The only mouse I ever want to see. (via Babble)
Upon checking the kitchen, utility room and yard, he found evidence of one lone mouse that had entered our home. For a fee of $189, he then set up four bait stations, two indoors and two outdoors. If the mouse hasn't already left, it will take the bait, become dehydrated and leave our house to find a new water source. Pest control will come back in one week to check the bait stations. He did say that this is the smallest mouse infestation he's ever seen, and that we caught it early, so that is very good news!

Have you dealt with this type of situation before? What's your most hated thing about being a homeowner? 

15 comments:

  1. Ick! We haven't had to deal with mice, but dealing with the rats at our home warranty company has been not so pleasant.

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  2. Oh no!! I feel your pain! When we were in our last house (built in 1954) one night we could hear this scratching from behind our stove. So we pulled the stove out and there was a small opening at where the baseboard was. We noticed a piece of dog food had slid under there and right where the hole was we could see the tiniest of mouse arms trying to reach the food. So he couldn't get in but he was trying so hard to slide the food to him. WHAT? It was crazy! We patched the hole super fast!
    Jayme @ Her Late Night Cravings

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    1. Oh, yuck! Luckily, I haven't had to see the mouse yet, and I hope I don't. Glad you were able to quickly patch the hole! Have a great weekend!

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  3. UGH definitely the not fun part! I had to pay a plumber $300 yesterday to do some work in our shower...booo

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    1. Ugh, it seems that home services of any kind are just so expensive! I hope you all have a great weekend! Stay warm!

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  4. Oh, yuck. We had to have the plumber out yesterday to fix a minor leak. Definitely wished I was sending the bill to the realtor or agency for reimbursement.

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    1. Yeah, that would be nice! I do miss being able to just call the maintenance guys at our old apartment.

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  5. we had a mouse once as a kid. my dad accidentally stepped on it. i'll never forget that!! I'm scared of all rodents, thanks to laura ingalls! she wrote about a mouse chewing her hair or something and it always scared me.

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    1. I remember that excerpt from the Little House books! I'm scared of rodents, too, along with all kinds of bugs.

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  6. That is my biggest fear since I hate, hate, hate mouse with a passion. You can't sleep well with them around at all. I had them in my apartment that I shared with my little sister. We got a cat and that was that, never saw them again.

    I hated having to repair the roof. SO expensive and I just wish I could spend the money elsewhere, like on decorating, haha.

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    1. I'm with you about the mice! Thank goodness the one we had is gone now. We also signed up for a bug and rodent prevention program to make sure it stays that way.

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  7. We used to have the glue mouse traps set up strategically and looking at full traps was not so fun. I'm glad you only had one and hope it stays that way!

    xoxo,
    little luxury list formerly Chic 'n Cheap Living

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    1. Yuck! Glue traps would really gross me out! I also hope our house stays mouse-free from now on.

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  8. Haha I love that you used a picture of Mickey Mouse. It's def one thing that isn't fun about owning a home, dealing with little things like this and home repairs and such. Luckily Mike is handy, because I am NOT! We had a really horrible bee infestation last year in our bedroom attic! It's just a crawl space but the bees found a hole from the outside and there were tons of them getting in and stinging me from time to time. Mike covered himself in protective clothing from head to toe, bought about 10 cans of bee spray and crawled up there and killed them!! It was crazy!

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    1. LOL! Yeah, Mickey really is the only mouse I ever want to see. That bee situation would have completely freaked me out. Bees are probably the one thing I hate more than mice!

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