Tag Archives: Termite

Fumication!


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Is it horrible of me to think of this as the Darth Vader house? Where termites die die die!!!

Yes, I am thinking evil and morbid termite destruction thoughts.

Anyway…. I must say I am impressed with how well they tucked the tent in behind the vine on the trellis on the left. I know my neighbor didn’t want to lose that, but she also couldn’t cut it back as easily as I could cut back my plants. Plus, I was honestly not the least bit concerned about some of those old bushes getting gassed along with the termites!

Oh, there I go being morbid again.

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Meanwhile – THIS is what I traded in termite central for.

Renee coined the term “Fumication” and boy was it ever!

May I just say that after a week of mentally ticking off item after item that needed to get done before this tenting adventure, that I was a tad bit *stressed* by Tuesday morning?

I think that taking the cats in on the way to work that morning did me in – Chip went into his carrier without too much struggle and I put him in the car. He whines, but it’s just generic meowing.

Amber? Oh Holy Drama Hell Batman! I gave up after three attempts to get her in her carrier, put everything else in the car I needed to take with me to the vet with them and then I just picked her fat, howling ass up and put it in the passenger seat next to me. She cowered down, with Chip in his carrier on the floor in front of her and I drove the two blocks to the vet with my hand on her screaming head trying to calm her down to NO success. I swear if cats could scream to the point of losing their voices, she was going to do it!

Once at the vets, I got someone there to get Chip and then I carried Miss Howling Pants (in my ear the whole time thank you very much!) back into a temporary cage. She kept up the vocal protests the entire time I was in there filling out the paperwork for them. I swear it was like dropping off a shrieking toddler to daycare. I have no doubt she stopped crying the minute I left the building.

You can imagine that by the time I got checked into my hotel that afternoon, I was THRILLED to be ALONE. Both boys had made their arrangements and were safely in their respective places and I totally unwound. Walked around the grounds, spotted a great blue heron in a tree outside my room:

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Caught up with friends on Facebook, chatted for awhile with one and then moseyed over to the restaurant for a leisurely, yummy dinner topped off by this pretty, but, sort of odd take on creme brulee:

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Macaroons topped the creme brulee tucked in a chocolate crust. Eh.

I slept from 9-6 that night. Actually, I cannot even be sure I made it to 9pm! Clearly, I was in need of sleep. I woke up to this lovely sunrise over the golf course.

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After work I met The Boyfriend at Fidels for some crab burritos and Corona:

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Now we are home and all is well. Two hours after bringing the cats home they are eating and drinking and back in their normal routines. A little quieter though since their claws were trimmed so they can sneak up on us. Also a little thinner maybe? Due to the fact that they didn’t eat much or that, in Amber’s case especially, the bath and grooming might have removed some excess fur!

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Anyhow, all that matters is that the termites? They dead!

Bwahahahahaha.

Fun with termites!


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First of all, yes, that is an Andersen Kitty Calendar from Love and Hisses on the wall. The ever Gorgeous Corbie is keeping an eye on the shenanigans for me this month :-)

So, termite tenting week is here. I spent Sunday cleaning and bagging after spending Saturday getting the backyard prepped. 27 took care of the side and front yards for me and also found me a deal on a nice hotel for the two nights. It’s a team effort around here :-) 16 had to clean his room and has to pack up all his things and make arrangements to NOT walk home from school for two days.

The cats will be going to their own hotel – aka, our veterinarian’s boarding facility. It means extra cost for me, but it also means 100% peace of mind because then I can go to work and not worry about them cowering in a strange hotel room all alone and risk a random hotel employee ignoring my Do NOT clean the room request and opening the door letting them out.

Plus, I’ll ask the vet to clip those claws and bathe them – oh, they are going to be SO MAD at me!! But, they will also have constant attention as they will be the only cats boarding there this week so they will even get more room than usual.

Oh hey – I ran a personal best 9.14 miles on the San Elijo trails yesterday! It was my last really long trail run until probably mid-Feb so it felt GREAT to do that. Two hours solid, 13 min/mile average which is a nice easy pace. The new camelback the girls gave me for Christmas is perfect for these runs and I think I balanced my energy bean consumption before and during the run just perfectly. No bonking. It was gorgeous out there too, but I didn’t want to stop to take pictures – had to just keep those feet moving no matter how slow!  It was pretty cold at first, but thankfully there was no measurable wind so once the sun broke through it warmed up to a very comfortable running temp.

I have another just for fun K9 5k event close to home on Sunday. Coach Tanja is loaning me one of her dogs. There is some debate about who will be dragging who around :-)

That’s it from termite land. Well, I should say, soon to be Dead and Gone termite land. It’s time to evict those damn freeloaders!

 

 

Worst Sales Rep Ever?


Today was supposed to be round two of termite inspections. Get another quote, then another tomorrow and then pretty much pick the lowest bidder (after double checking the company ratings on Yelp and the BBB).

Am I playing off the companies against each other? Of course!

Do they know that? Of course!

I was honest from the start with all of them that I was shopping around, that I had someone loaning me the money for my half who would have some say in the process, and that I have a duplex partner who also has a say in the decision.

Company #1 I know because I have used them over the last 8 years for rat and ant control. They never missed an appointment, billing was always smooth and the treatments worked so I was happy with them. I found out later that I could have gotten better deals, but all I cared about in the end was that the pests were gone! So, I used them as bid #1 knowing that it probably be high, but also feeling like I could trust them.

He spent 45 minutes going around the building, thoroughly inspected everything and wrote up quotes as I wanted for both the tenting and the dry rot wood replacement on my side.

He came across as not overly pushy at all, very knowledgeable and trustworthy.

Yelp and BBB ratings are bad though – especially for termites. Ouch!

Company #3 is coming tomorrow and is connected through a friend who I know and he has already out bid Company #1 just on the specs I gave him. By a pretty nice margin too! But…he did that forgetting I had another company still to consider. Ooopsie on his part….but he still comes by tomorrow to do his inspection and his company has good reviews so he has the inside track for sure.

Meanwhile company #2 was scheduled for today between 3-5. I had to lend the car to 27 so he could renew his ID at the DMV before checking in at his new job Thursday…so I asked him to pick me up at 3. We live 10 minutes from work and NO company is ever EARLY on those two hour windows, right? Even if he called at 3, I would be there in 10 minutes. TEN.

Sales rep calls at 1:30 and says he will be there at 2:45-3. I tell him I can’t leave work until 3, but I will be there NO LATER than 3:15.

His response? “If you have an appointment between 3-5, then you are supposed to BE there from 3-5!”

Oh really? I mean, yes, I agree but….did you really just lecture me? Over 10 minutes?

So, I told him that he can get there at three and start walking around the right side of the building if he wants and I explained about the duplex and that there were other companies bidding, that I wasn’t the only one making the decision yadda yadda.

He asked who company #1 one was and I told him. “Well, I can’t outbid them…but..I’ll still write something up I guess”

Gee buddy, don’t sound too excited.

So we agreed I would meet him at 3:15, but he could get started at 3 on my side.

He calls back at 2:15 “Well, I just don’t know if this is worth my time since I know I cannot outbid the other company which is frustrating since they cheat and don’t use enough gas when they bid so low and then I have to go back and fix their mistakes…not that I am trying to get them in trouble or anything…..”

Uhh….so I asked him if wanted to cancel since he was (again) sounding like he didn’t want the job.

“No, No, I’ll meet you, just wanted to put that out there since you seem more concerned about price than quality.”

WTF? Honestly if this company had not been the one that the BF had recommended and he wasn’t paying for my half I would have told this guy to shove off right then and there!!

But no – I left work at 3…and passed his truck sitting on a side street at 3:15. I figured he would come up to meet me from there. I left the garage door open so he could see I was home…I went to get the mail…I saw my next door neighbor and talked to her about the process and she was fine with him going over to her side to measure….and he didn’t roll up.

I went inside and checked my cell phone – no call. I waited until 3:45 and then I called the company to find out where he was. He finally calls me at 4 – “Oh, I was there. I checked it out and left a quote on your front door” WHAT?

So basically – I didn’t need to leave work early to meet him. He spent a grand total of MAYBE 5-10 minutes doing…what I don’t know (16 reported that the truck was at the house at 3pm when he walked home from school but he never saw the guy)…he left a quote sheet (for almost DOUBLE what company #1 left) with NO details or analysis. He clearly didn’t test the wood or do anything like what the first guy did to inspect the extent of the infestation….in other words, he wasted my time and did the bare minimum and wrote up a crap quote and bad mouthed the other company I had contacted all to what end?

And the kicker? He says to me after telling me that he dropped off the quote already: “Well, once you choose Company #1 and then have to contact me to fix their mess we can talk about pricing on the dry rot wood replacement!”

I don’t think so.

 

Limbo


I do not like limbo.

No, not the dance – I was actually once quite good at that :-)

No, I do not like being “stuck in limbo” as the expression goes.

It is, of course, the lack of control that is quite frustrating.

Before I launch into the complaints – one bit of very good news – 16′s concussion seems to have healed. It was almost like that visit to the neurologist after the MRI was the final corner. He started scoring much lower on his symptoms around the middle of last week and then he went in Saturday specifically to fill in a ’0′. Even though he probably wont play football – the team won Friday night but plays the #2 seed this week and chances of winning are rather low – he at least wants to get back to being able to list weights and run with the team after school and during PE so he will start the “gradual return to activity” process this week. Cognitively he has been 100% symptom free for a couple of weeks now and no further academic support has been needed at all.

Anyway…..

So the house needs to be tented for termites and we are in the process of getting bids. My neighbor doesn’t really care, but since I am borrowing money from the BF to get my side done, that means that he has an interest in which company we choose. Which is good, because he drives a hard bargain and will end up saving money all around for us. But, it’s also nerve wracking because it means more termite company visits and then coordination between all interested parties to choose who we go with and then when it is done.

This is all complicated because I have the cats. I need to find a place to go for 3 days and 2 nights (usually a Wed-Fri). It needs to either be a place where I can relax about leaving the cats for the day while I go to work, OR, it needs to be timed so that if I have to not go into work that it will be OK and that I should have internet access to potentially work from wherever we will be.

Even though I found a fairly close hotel that will allow the cats and is less than $100/night, I am not sure some dumb fool from the hotel wouldn’t go in the room even WITH a DO NOT ENTER order and then the cats would race out. Nor do I want to lock them in a bathroom if I have to leave. Chip is enough of a nutjob to stress himself right back into bladder problems again.

Then there is a GOOD complication, but a complication non the less. 27 got a temp job – yay! It is up near where I work (mostly yay!) BUT…the hours will most likely be really odd because it is a customer support job for a retail vendor that needs folks maning phones during the holiday rush order season (Nov-mid Jan). As an example his first day of training is actually an evening shift 5:30-9:30 on Thursday night this week. Until that is done, he wont know what hours/days he will be working. So neither of us can really go stay those two nights any place too FAR away since we need to share the car. 16 can go to his dad’s but it also means he cannot walk home those 3 days once school is out. He HAS to hang out on campus until his dad can pick him up.

So yeah, timing is going to be stressful and right now I just don’t know how it will all fall into place.

I mean, I know we will make it happen and it will work out, but right now I cannot SEE that for sure, so…limbo.

Same goes with my “female” problems. We know what it is (fibroids) and what to do (outpatient procedure) but I cannot schedule it right now until the termite thing is done. Plus, it will be another lost day at work AND I will need to arrange a driver which is probably easy enough actually once we know 27′s work schedule. If he cannot do it, I am sure that the girls will help out – BUT – limbo!

So, one week later there is still a feeling of apprehension/anticipation over things I cannot entirely control – sorta like the election last week :/

Oct 27 – Termites!


 

Isn’t that pretty? That’s termite sawdust…inside the door frame of my french doors. They are pretty well established in the trim around the whole house. Door trim, roof eaves – everywhere. My shared wall neighbor had her house painted and these same trim pieces replaced and they were just covered in bugs and pretty much crumbling in their hands.

So, that’s how my Saturday started – meeting with the painter and him showing me on my side where the damage is more visible – knowing full well that just because some places don’t look as bad, you know they are there.

So you might say I have a case of the creepy crawlies right now.

Doesn’t help that while I was looking around the house after he left, I moved an outdoor foot mat and uncovered a family of crickets. One of whom I later found IN the house.

No wonder the cats have been freakier than usual!

Given the obvious infestation I am just going to have to bite the bullet and tent the place sometime in the next two months. The painter will come in January and finish my side of the outer walls, replace the damaged wood trim, paint my stucco wall and stain my side of the new fence.

Meanwhile I am going to vacuum every corner of every window and door frame and take multiple showers to remove this feeling that there are things crawling all over the place!