Bats in the Belfry......part 2

So Wednesday, after taking daughter to an appointment and back home, I leave for our house.  Thinking, thinking.....always thinking.  There is the opening behind the washer....an interior wall where the drain hose and water supply hoses are connected.  It's an opening about 30" high and 28" wide.  Above the 30", God only knows what's up there.  This needs to be closed off.  What kind of sheet-wood do we have laying around?  How should we cut the holes for the hoses?  What's the best way to close it off and still have easy access in case?  How am I going to present this to BH to make him agree to do this?  (I know he's very, very tired and doesn't want to deal with it anymore).

After a few minutes home and a cup of coffee, he and I are talking when I spring the latest idea on him.  Right away he thinks of some wood he has and he wants to get at it right now.  He finds the exact piece, wide enough, just need to cut about 12" off the bottom.   So we proceed......

He figures out the holes to be cut; I tell him I know where the box of screws are for attaching.  We gather some insulation, steel wool and duct tape.

2 hours later we're done.  It's sealed.  I'm a happy woman!  Now we sit on the deck and wait for the exterminator, discussing questions we want to ask him.

3:30, the Inspector arrives with an assistant.  We explain in detail what's been going on and what we've done.  We ask questions.  This guy is very understanding and gives us a lot of information, some of which is not exactly what we wanted to hear!  And he proceeds with the inspection; we follow behind, hanging on every word.

Start at the top, he says.  They can get in here, here, here.  They nest, they hibernate, they incubate......all year long.  You want to seal this, this and this.  Then he gets the ladder and goes on the roof.  I tell him about this horrible screeching noise a few weeks ago, sounding like metal scraping metal or fingernails on a blackboard....that went on for about 15-20 minutes.  Yeah, they could have found a way between the walls and that's what I was hearing.  Anywho,  he inspects all the vents on the roof.  There's openings.  You want to seal these and put screening over the vent openings.  If all this doesn't alleviate the problem, then continue at the bottom of the house......replace all the skirting.  He was very thorough and while some of his statements peaked my anxiety, we were armed with much more information and the necessary actions that needed to be taken.

An hour and a half later we said our good-byes, thank you, thank you's, good luck, make sure you get that taken care of now, and they left us.

We've been sleeping with all the lights on since Sunday, and I have to stay up as long as possible, till I can't keep my eyes open, before we go to bed.  BH stays up with me.....no, I mean stays in the room with me......he dozes in the recliner while I watch TV.  I wake about 5:00am and he dutifully gets up with me.  We sit in the family room, watching TV, sometimes he dozes, until the sun is up in the sky.  Then I can confidently turn off the lights and start our daily routine.  And open the windows.  Yes, all the windows get closed when the sun starts to set in the evening.

Thursday, we had some errands to run.  Hardware store....more duct tape, more "Great Stuff", more steel wool.  It was hot Thursday.  And we were exhausted.  We agreed BH would get on the roof Friday to take care of the necessary repairs.  And Friday, he did.  While I went from room to room with my tubes of  "Power Grab", sealing up every crack, space and hole no matter what the size.  I don't care if you couldn't get a sheet of paper through it, it got sealed.

And I made supper.  First time we've had a decent meal since Saturday. Had "take-out" 3 times, and of course, BH was on his own one night.

Today I woke up at 4:00am.  Decided to let BH sleep in.  Turned the light off in the bedroom.  All the rest of them stayed on.  Thought I would do some spinning.  Maybe that would calm my nerves.  It helped some.  Still walking around, eyes darting, still aprehensive.  But I keep telling myself I've got to get over this.  Little steps.......

To be continued...........