Plumbing Disasters and Tap Dancing Rats

The Invasion

The animals are moving into our roof with the onset of winter and I often find myself unable to fall asleep or wake up in the night to birds and rats in the roof space tap dancing on the pressed tin ceiling. The previous owners didn’t finish putting down the insulation. I don’t know why. This lack of insulation makes the front two rooms very cold very quickly. So we had to get that sorted.

Light bulbs filled with water

 

Last week I actually fell asleep early on Wednesday night but was woken an hour later (groan!) by Hubby. There was a leak in the roof and water was dripping down into the kitchen via the light fitting. I stumbled into the kitchen and sure enough, the light bulb was half filled with water! Needless to say it shorted out the light so we turned it off and I taped it up so that Kidlet wouldn’t turn it on in the morning. 

Turns out the original plumber who set up the water heating system scrimped on $30 worth of copper piping and we ended up with a hot water tank sitting in an open tray of water which catches the overflow and drips. For the want of a small brass fitting, the leak grew as the Silastic (Silicone and plastic preparation, great for filling gaps) used wasn’t enough to hold the flow of water. The open tank was full of dead animals and millipedes (yuuuuuuuuuck……). 

Fortunately the leak wasn’t too bad and we managed to fix it properly the next day. 

Some tradesmen make me really incensed! They know we’ll probably never go up into the roof space to inspect their work so they pull a swifty and spend what they save on a quick trip down the pub no doubt, without regard to the future problems they leave behind for the customer. Argh!  I apologise to honest tradies for my cynicism.

Paper suits and annoying birds

So this morning it was time to go up there again and put down the insulation. I discovered paper suits don't stop you becoming extremely itchy.  And what extra items were discovered up there? Four pairs of jeans and a bunny rug. Huh? But at least there is now proper insulation in all the rooms of the house. 

We still have a bird problem in the roof. Starlings have nested, getting in through the roof in multiple places. Argh! I hear them scratching around at sunset, roosting for the night. I’m thinking one of those sonic devices might help. Until we can find all the holes and plug them with bird wire or something.

It never ends…

So here's a cute pic of Harry to brighten your day!