I had a very large ‘to do’ list, and only got through part of it with the most important being that the home loan forms got signed, witnessed, and sent off to Virgin Home Loan’s solicitors.
A day of packing and even more packing. The garage is a mess. I hope it comes together in time for the removalists. Emptied a sideboard that was in the garage. That was where the old stereo and my old uni notes were stored, but rats had taken up residence. I wrapped the stereo in plastic and old sheets to keep the dust out, but all it was doing was keeping the piss in close contact with everything.
I had to throw out a lot of urine soaked photocopies. But then, if I haven’t used then in all this time, I’d be unlikely to use them at all.
I've just noticed the tags I've selected: I seem to have inadvertently placed rodents and solicitor in the one posting. I wonder if there is a message there. Freud might have been proud.
Showing posts with label rodents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rodents. Show all posts
16 June 2008
22 April 2008
Another Melbourne visit
Just back from another Melbourne trip. With daylight saving gone it became a very dreary drive, but the audio books I took were great. I should have been listening to them ages ago. They keep you alert and some of the stories are so entertaining. It seems to shorten the drive.
It was a bad week with so many bills to pay. Some of them were late, some huge. The car insurance had gone up by $100 – great. It has left us short, and the cost of petrol edging up steadily doesn’t help. If for nothing else, my time in Melbourne gave S a rest with my help during my visit with the house tidy up sessions, prior to each open inspection.
The neighbour’s cat, Abo, seemed to have taken up residence in our place. I wonder if that’s because S has been feeding it and its owners hadn’t been.
I got the garage cleaned up and made a bit tidier, and some boxes of stuff were put into our storage space at Eltham. I spent some time rearranging the stuff that’s in storage to allow space for even more things if need be. Our little spot is now one-third empty; it seemed full before the tidy up. It’s amazing how much you can get in there if you pack it correctly. I should have done this much earlier, but there never seemed to be the time with so many other priorities.
Our fish is still dangling on the hook, but with no acceptable offers the property is still on the market.
It was a cold drive back to Canberra. I wasn’t going to turn on that smelly heater unless I had to. Some mice or rats had taken up residence in the car heater some months ago, and to say it smelled a bit was an understatement. The extra clothes alternative worked fine: two long sleeved skivvies under a hooded pullover, and a blanket over my knees. I must have looked a sight. It was pathetic, really.
It was a bad week with so many bills to pay. Some of them were late, some huge. The car insurance had gone up by $100 – great. It has left us short, and the cost of petrol edging up steadily doesn’t help. If for nothing else, my time in Melbourne gave S a rest with my help during my visit with the house tidy up sessions, prior to each open inspection.
The neighbour’s cat, Abo, seemed to have taken up residence in our place. I wonder if that’s because S has been feeding it and its owners hadn’t been.
I got the garage cleaned up and made a bit tidier, and some boxes of stuff were put into our storage space at Eltham. I spent some time rearranging the stuff that’s in storage to allow space for even more things if need be. Our little spot is now one-third empty; it seemed full before the tidy up. It’s amazing how much you can get in there if you pack it correctly. I should have done this much earlier, but there never seemed to be the time with so many other priorities.
Our fish is still dangling on the hook, but with no acceptable offers the property is still on the market.
It was a cold drive back to Canberra. I wasn’t going to turn on that smelly heater unless I had to. Some mice or rats had taken up residence in the car heater some months ago, and to say it smelled a bit was an understatement. The extra clothes alternative worked fine: two long sleeved skivvies under a hooded pullover, and a blanket over my knees. I must have looked a sight. It was pathetic, really.
04 March 2008
The magic of plastic
The car has been out of action for a few weeks. Fortunately my landlady has been giving me a ride to and from work, which has been really good. We both work at the same company. So it’s convenient. S thinks house share arrangements are destined for failure, and after about six months things start to fall apart. I’ve been in this arrangement for approaching that amount of time. Anyway, if all goes to plan my landlady expects to sell her house and my accommodation from under me within a few weeks. Anyway, Cooma Diesel rang to say the turbo had been repaired and was ready to pick up. So that meant another early morning bus ride to Fyshwick for me. And, oh wonderful credit card, the magic plastic saved the day; I could actually pay for the repair. A significant experience with this second trip, besides the turbo being nice and clean, was that when I got off the bus with it, I had to lug it from the bus stop to the workshop. It was only a little more than a 1 km walk, but by the time I got there, my arms felt as though they were about to fall off, and I felt as though I’d walked ten times that distance.
Our real estate agent was trying to talk S down in price, but she stood her ground. Setting the price to suit ourselves would allow us the opportunity to test the waters. To see how many bites we get from the punters. But the agent, no doubt, just wants a quick turn-a-round. Sell it within a fortnight, then move on to the next property, and the only way you can do that is to have a reduced selling price. It’s understandable from a real estate agent’s perspective; they only have eyes for their commission.
There is now a 2 metre wide pathway through the garage. That’s the best that can be done. There is a smell coming from the garage side board. Opps! That’s where the rats had taken up residence. I thought I had cleaned it.
Our real estate agent was trying to talk S down in price, but she stood her ground. Setting the price to suit ourselves would allow us the opportunity to test the waters. To see how many bites we get from the punters. But the agent, no doubt, just wants a quick turn-a-round. Sell it within a fortnight, then move on to the next property, and the only way you can do that is to have a reduced selling price. It’s understandable from a real estate agent’s perspective; they only have eyes for their commission.
There is now a 2 metre wide pathway through the garage. That’s the best that can be done. There is a smell coming from the garage side board. Opps! That’s where the rats had taken up residence. I thought I had cleaned it.
20 February 2008
The last tidy up
It was an intensive few days in Melbourne. S had been advised by our stylist to make some changes to our house, the general theme of which was to reduce the clutter. So, we rented some space from the Fort Knox storage facility in Eltham and went to Rent-a-Bomb for a van to cart the stuff. It was a bomb to be sure, making my EXA seem like a luxury vehicle. Driving the thing was an interesting experience. It was difficult to tell the difference between 2nd and 4th gear, and at the first set of traffic lights in this thing I pulled the hand brake on and had difficulty releasing it. So, without really panicking, but feeling a sense of tension I worked at it. It doesn’t take long before the people behind you start honking their horns.
Anyway, the van rattled along and it did the job. We ended up putting the good desk in storage (we had two of these monsters), along with the chairs we’d been asked to get rid of, the box seats, filing cabinet, table and a few boxes packed with stuff. If you pack these storage facilities carefully, with stuff stacked well, it’s amazing just how much you can fit inside. After about two van loads the storage room still looked mostly empty.
The stylist said she had an arrangement with Fort Knox to give us a discount, but when we mentioned this they claimed ignorance, saying they didn’t know our stylist. Now that’s interesting. Someone was lying. Anyway, they gave us the first month free. Perhaps we just looked honest. It all helps.
S had done a surprisingly reasonable job of the painting, considering some of the work was very awkward, and she doesn’t like painting. I just couldn’t keep on going when I was at it a few weeks earlier. Anyway, I touched up some gaps on the ceiling that seemed to be missed, and fixed up the gaps in the cornices, which all turned out okay. I find it amazing how interior paint (flat or semi-gloss) can blend into the existing paint without showing any tell tale marks. Doing this might be a quick way of freshening up the place, with the minimum of effort. If you don’t have time to paint the whole place, and you can’t wash off any scuff marks that have developed over the years, just paint over the marks. It does a great job, and you’d never know there was a touch up, unless of course the paint is very old and faded.
We removed the lounge room curtains as we had been advised by the stylist, as well as removing the fly screen doors, and they went to Fort Knox. This seemed like a very strange thing to do, I thought. But it worked. This house was a bit unusual in that the front entrance had two standard sized glass doors that swung open, kind of like French doors, only larger. So with both doors open wide and no curtains hanging it left the lounge with a wonderful open feeling. The vista from the floor to ceiling windows, which occupied the entire length of one side of the lounge, was spectacular, and with the doors open it had a pleasantly inviting feeling. It brought a surprisingly pleasant atmosphere to the room, and made it very light inside as you’d imagine. Though, the effect was kind of cold and exposed at night, but was fabulous in the day. Anyway, the punters only come during the day, and it was done for their benefit.
Lots of little things were done. We dusted the lounge ceiling to get rid of the cobwebs (cathedral ceiling), got the whipper snippering finished, repaired the nest of tables, a bit roughly I must say. We removed the various boxes that were cluttering the place, and removed the wall hanging, which all went into storage. The amount of dirt that was impregnated in the wall hanging over the years was amazing. Tiny pieces of brick and cement must have been falling from the ceiling. You wonder how it happens. I got some boxes packed and into the EXA for the trip back. I also took the small filing cabinet with me, so the car was well loaded.
We got rid of a spare mattress from under the bed. Perhaps it should have chucked out, but why do that with stuff when it’s still good. People throw too much away. It went into the caravan for storage. It was a very neat fit in the caravan, standing on its edge in the walkway of the caravan.
I was disappointed I couldn’t clear an outside drain that was at the side of the house, and there was the smell of something dead somewhere out there too. Bugger. I hope the blockage had nothing to do with the smell; thinking something might have crawled down the drain and died. The smell of something dead is the last thing we needed when the punters come round.
I got most of the garage sorted. It’s funny how the stuff builds up in sheds. I was surprised by the amount of rat and possum crap all over the place, the smell of which was almost overpowering. Which was all very disappointing because I had some good things stored in there. I had a stereo amp, turntable, notebooks and textbooks carefully wrapped in old sheets, plastic wrapping and in cardboard boxes and the little blighters had used as building materials to build their nests. Their little teeth marks were everywhere, as well as the holes they had made in the timber sideboard to get to where the stuff was kept, there were nibble marks everywhere. Of course the cardboard boxes were no trouble for them. This material and the pages from my textbooks must have made lovely nesting material for them.
We were beginning to get ruthless in sorting through what could be kept and what gets dumped. That’s a lesson on starting the job in plenty of time. It takes a lot of time to go through your old stuff, and you do become distracted in looking through things you haven’t seen in years, reminiscing in old notebooks that you had at school or wherever. It can be difficult to decide whether to keep or discard them.
So, in the end a lot of work had been done, and although the place was cleaner, a whole heap of a mess was left for S to put out in the rubbish. A lot of work was left to do before the photographer came. Still feeling unhappy with the selling price. Considering talking to the agent with a view to increasing it.
Anyway, the van rattled along and it did the job. We ended up putting the good desk in storage (we had two of these monsters), along with the chairs we’d been asked to get rid of, the box seats, filing cabinet, table and a few boxes packed with stuff. If you pack these storage facilities carefully, with stuff stacked well, it’s amazing just how much you can fit inside. After about two van loads the storage room still looked mostly empty.
The stylist said she had an arrangement with Fort Knox to give us a discount, but when we mentioned this they claimed ignorance, saying they didn’t know our stylist. Now that’s interesting. Someone was lying. Anyway, they gave us the first month free. Perhaps we just looked honest. It all helps.
S had done a surprisingly reasonable job of the painting, considering some of the work was very awkward, and she doesn’t like painting. I just couldn’t keep on going when I was at it a few weeks earlier. Anyway, I touched up some gaps on the ceiling that seemed to be missed, and fixed up the gaps in the cornices, which all turned out okay. I find it amazing how interior paint (flat or semi-gloss) can blend into the existing paint without showing any tell tale marks. Doing this might be a quick way of freshening up the place, with the minimum of effort. If you don’t have time to paint the whole place, and you can’t wash off any scuff marks that have developed over the years, just paint over the marks. It does a great job, and you’d never know there was a touch up, unless of course the paint is very old and faded.
We removed the lounge room curtains as we had been advised by the stylist, as well as removing the fly screen doors, and they went to Fort Knox. This seemed like a very strange thing to do, I thought. But it worked. This house was a bit unusual in that the front entrance had two standard sized glass doors that swung open, kind of like French doors, only larger. So with both doors open wide and no curtains hanging it left the lounge with a wonderful open feeling. The vista from the floor to ceiling windows, which occupied the entire length of one side of the lounge, was spectacular, and with the doors open it had a pleasantly inviting feeling. It brought a surprisingly pleasant atmosphere to the room, and made it very light inside as you’d imagine. Though, the effect was kind of cold and exposed at night, but was fabulous in the day. Anyway, the punters only come during the day, and it was done for their benefit.
Lots of little things were done. We dusted the lounge ceiling to get rid of the cobwebs (cathedral ceiling), got the whipper snippering finished, repaired the nest of tables, a bit roughly I must say. We removed the various boxes that were cluttering the place, and removed the wall hanging, which all went into storage. The amount of dirt that was impregnated in the wall hanging over the years was amazing. Tiny pieces of brick and cement must have been falling from the ceiling. You wonder how it happens. I got some boxes packed and into the EXA for the trip back. I also took the small filing cabinet with me, so the car was well loaded.
We got rid of a spare mattress from under the bed. Perhaps it should have chucked out, but why do that with stuff when it’s still good. People throw too much away. It went into the caravan for storage. It was a very neat fit in the caravan, standing on its edge in the walkway of the caravan.
I was disappointed I couldn’t clear an outside drain that was at the side of the house, and there was the smell of something dead somewhere out there too. Bugger. I hope the blockage had nothing to do with the smell; thinking something might have crawled down the drain and died. The smell of something dead is the last thing we needed when the punters come round.
I got most of the garage sorted. It’s funny how the stuff builds up in sheds. I was surprised by the amount of rat and possum crap all over the place, the smell of which was almost overpowering. Which was all very disappointing because I had some good things stored in there. I had a stereo amp, turntable, notebooks and textbooks carefully wrapped in old sheets, plastic wrapping and in cardboard boxes and the little blighters had used as building materials to build their nests. Their little teeth marks were everywhere, as well as the holes they had made in the timber sideboard to get to where the stuff was kept, there were nibble marks everywhere. Of course the cardboard boxes were no trouble for them. This material and the pages from my textbooks must have made lovely nesting material for them.
We were beginning to get ruthless in sorting through what could be kept and what gets dumped. That’s a lesson on starting the job in plenty of time. It takes a lot of time to go through your old stuff, and you do become distracted in looking through things you haven’t seen in years, reminiscing in old notebooks that you had at school or wherever. It can be difficult to decide whether to keep or discard them.
So, in the end a lot of work had been done, and although the place was cleaner, a whole heap of a mess was left for S to put out in the rubbish. A lot of work was left to do before the photographer came. Still feeling unhappy with the selling price. Considering talking to the agent with a view to increasing it.
02 January 2008
Working holiday
I spent a bit too much time having fun. But the weather was very hot at times so we went to the movies a lot. Got two rooms painted. Shell Cove was a strange colour that looked different on ceiling and walls which seemed to vary in colour between rooms. It looked pink in one room and yellow in the other. How is that possible?
I had never used a paint roller before, but it wasn’t so scary after all. Rollers leave a mottled finish on the surface that I dislike that the brush doesn’t, but you can cover a lot more area much faster with the roller. Over the years, we got into the habit of painting the walls, ceiling, cornices, and skirting board different colours, and wished to continue it. It looks good when done nicely, and when selling your property if your place looks good it will attract the punters. When I say different colours, the colours have to blend. The colours must be shades of one another. Perhaps a very, very light yellow on the ceiling, with a deeper yellow of the same hue on the walls and the cornice and skirting board in a mustard to make it stand out, but it too has to be of a colour that fits appropriately with the other two. So, painting the wall and ceiling was easy, but the cornices nearly broke my back in the painstaking work that it was with fine brush strokes and keeping a straight edge between the different colours.
S got me a video game for Xmas – Doom. I got hooked and spent hours at it. I shouldn’t have, but I was on holiday so I don’t feel too guilty. I don’t think Doom is a game you can win, and it was kind of scary if you let yourself become engrossed in it.
I was looking in the roof space for some cardboard packing boxes. After we unpacked from the move to Melbourne we had kept the old removalist packing boxes. We stored these fire hazards in the attic space. They store well when flattened out, and surprisingly after about 15 years in the attic still seemed remarkably well preserved.
While I was in the attic I saw about 4 or 5 rats climbing over the bricks at the far end of the house. There was no scurrying away when they saw me. Mamma rat and her children or friends stopped dead in their tracks, looked at me for a moment, looked away, and continued on their way as though I hadn’t been there and casually went about their business. A couple of rat traps were purchased; we got cages that captured the little blighters rather than killing them. Three were caught within two days, though we couldn’t decide whether they were baby rats or large mice. We released them away some distance from the house and they scurried into the bushland. They ran like the blazes.
I had been reading some material on the web and had made a few phone calls about rats and how they are controlled. One of the more interesting things one of the commercial contacts said to me was something along the lines of wherever you are at any time, on average, you will be within 10 metres of a rat, and it doesn’t matter where you live or work; they will be there. Some of the poisons used to kill rodents sound nauseatingly unpleasant. There seems to be no regard for animal welfare in their development. From preparations that cause rats to thirst to the extent they will drink until they are dead to chemicals that induce bleeding both internally and externally. These animals will suffer an agonizing death. My solution to remove them harmlessly will at least provide some nutrient to the local wedge tailed eagle or other wild life interested in eating them, but at least their death will be relatively quick. And if some of them get away to live in the wild, that’s fine.
Looking back I recall watching one of our cats sitting on the lawn looking up at a tree. This was a cotton palm tree. As an old cat, she was content to watch the rats. I didn’t know it at the time but these trees are a lovely refuge for rodents. One evening I crept up to the tree and could hear a lot of rustling between the large leaves that was more than just the wind blowing.
I had never used a paint roller before, but it wasn’t so scary after all. Rollers leave a mottled finish on the surface that I dislike that the brush doesn’t, but you can cover a lot more area much faster with the roller. Over the years, we got into the habit of painting the walls, ceiling, cornices, and skirting board different colours, and wished to continue it. It looks good when done nicely, and when selling your property if your place looks good it will attract the punters. When I say different colours, the colours have to blend. The colours must be shades of one another. Perhaps a very, very light yellow on the ceiling, with a deeper yellow of the same hue on the walls and the cornice and skirting board in a mustard to make it stand out, but it too has to be of a colour that fits appropriately with the other two. So, painting the wall and ceiling was easy, but the cornices nearly broke my back in the painstaking work that it was with fine brush strokes and keeping a straight edge between the different colours.
S got me a video game for Xmas – Doom. I got hooked and spent hours at it. I shouldn’t have, but I was on holiday so I don’t feel too guilty. I don’t think Doom is a game you can win, and it was kind of scary if you let yourself become engrossed in it.
I was looking in the roof space for some cardboard packing boxes. After we unpacked from the move to Melbourne we had kept the old removalist packing boxes. We stored these fire hazards in the attic space. They store well when flattened out, and surprisingly after about 15 years in the attic still seemed remarkably well preserved.
While I was in the attic I saw about 4 or 5 rats climbing over the bricks at the far end of the house. There was no scurrying away when they saw me. Mamma rat and her children or friends stopped dead in their tracks, looked at me for a moment, looked away, and continued on their way as though I hadn’t been there and casually went about their business. A couple of rat traps were purchased; we got cages that captured the little blighters rather than killing them. Three were caught within two days, though we couldn’t decide whether they were baby rats or large mice. We released them away some distance from the house and they scurried into the bushland. They ran like the blazes.
I had been reading some material on the web and had made a few phone calls about rats and how they are controlled. One of the more interesting things one of the commercial contacts said to me was something along the lines of wherever you are at any time, on average, you will be within 10 metres of a rat, and it doesn’t matter where you live or work; they will be there. Some of the poisons used to kill rodents sound nauseatingly unpleasant. There seems to be no regard for animal welfare in their development. From preparations that cause rats to thirst to the extent they will drink until they are dead to chemicals that induce bleeding both internally and externally. These animals will suffer an agonizing death. My solution to remove them harmlessly will at least provide some nutrient to the local wedge tailed eagle or other wild life interested in eating them, but at least their death will be relatively quick. And if some of them get away to live in the wild, that’s fine.
Looking back I recall watching one of our cats sitting on the lawn looking up at a tree. This was a cotton palm tree. As an old cat, she was content to watch the rats. I didn’t know it at the time but these trees are a lovely refuge for rodents. One evening I crept up to the tree and could hear a lot of rustling between the large leaves that was more than just the wind blowing.
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