For those that don't know I've spent the weekend in a remote country town called Spring Ridge (don't believe me that it's remote then google it) with my 66 year old mother and my Aunty in her late 50s to clean out their father's house as Jack (Granddad) is now unfortunately suffering from dementia and we've had to put him into care.
Mark (my brother), Mum and I initially went there in late November last year and it was quite a horrible experience, it was about 48 degrees the house had no insulation and a tin roof and my dear Grandfather had seemed to not discard anything (apart from food) for the past 40 years, I really didn't understand that you could hoard so much. That time we thought that we got through a lot but as it turns out, we really only scratched the surface, we locked it up when we'd done what we could and walked away for hopefully the last time (it truly was a horrible time).
As a condition of the pending sale the house needed to be empty, damn!
So Mum and I headed off to clean it out, as we'd left the keys with the locals and told them to help themselves to whatever they wanted we hoped that all we had left to do was a couple of cupboards and maybe some clothes, then give the house a good clean and should be done.
I went there hoping for the best but expecting the worst.
It was worse than I had expected.
I won't go into detail but imagine this........
A house that has been sealed up for 10 months with a pantry full of food and a nice little mouse population, then add in some water damage just for some spice.
Then imagine walking into that smell.
Then realise that you have to work through that for 2 days.
Every surface in every room was covered in mouse droppings.
If I never smell a mouse again in my lifetime it will be too soon.
Looks kinda cute. When we got mice (living in a garden shed, in the country, as we were, Mitch was very clear that they had to go. I still think they look kinda cute....
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