Today we tackle the area of the house I keeping eluding to, but keep avoiding. You are about to find out this has been for good reason. I told you this one deserved a story of its own. Well here it is… the workshop junk maze. What fun will we find at the centre of the maze once we wind our way through?

Let’s start this story with a little reminder as to why we waited on this one. As you may recall from Asbestos, Mold and Rats – Oh My!, we had discovered that some furry little friends were making our workshop their home. Yes, sadly we had found evidence of rats in the workshop. But where were they coming from? And are they still there? I guess the only way to find out is to make our way down there and find out. To access the workshop you can enter two ways. Either through the basement or through outside double doors. The only way to unlock the double doors is through the inside of the workshop. So through the basement we go. Ok everyone prepare yourself as we are about to enter into the belly of the beast that hasn’t been fed for decades. Upon opening the door from the basement to the workshop you are greeted by a big cavernous abyss. I swear I can hear the house’s stomach growling and rumbling, with a cough and a sputter of years of dust and decay. It is in desperate need of a health check.

The workshop is a large space measuring around 550 Sq-FT. As you enter you are struck by a 4-FT wall of junk. Or maybe more aptly referred to as a maze of junk. As the only way to navigate the space is to weave between piles of junk to get to a desired location, similar to maneuvering a corn maze. In fact in some areas the only way through is to actually climb over items as the maze has no exit, as though it wants to hold you captive. I always thought mazes were fun as a child, but can honestly say there is no fun factor in this maze. In fact I am more scared about what I may encounter or what may jump out at me. The maze is comprised of an assortment of items, like: bikes, maintenance tools, chimney sweeping tools, food dehydrators, wood, metal, insulation, appliances, wood stove, welder, hundreds of glass jars, hundreds of plastic buckets and lids, furniture, buckets of rusty nails/nuts and bolts, portable toilet, cooking grills, just to name a few. At first the contractors coming to give quotes couldn’t even get in to take a full look and access the areas of concern.

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It has taken months to clean out the room with still more to go. But at least it is manageable and everything is accessible. It has taken two dumpster loads to remove the furniture, tools, dehydrators, small appliances and miscellaneous items. It took 4 SUV trips to the dump loaded with jars, buckets, rusty nails, nuts, bolts and recycled paint. And, one 16-foot U-Haul full of appliances, including: one fridge, 2 stoves, dryer, antique washer, and microwave. We still have more jars, and plastic buckets, a three wheeled bike with basket, and freezer full of food. And yes there is still more wood. However the work benches and shelves are pretty much cleared now, and you can easily maneuver around the space. It is like night and day. The house has actually taken a bit of a sigh of relief as it feels itself healing and stomach settling.

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As we worked through and cleaned out the maze, we were finally led to the center of the maze…. and yes the rats nest. We believe we have found where our furry friends have been getting in and nesting. Skin crawling again. As you see we found one corner of the storage room where it appears to have the remnants of all the rat droppings. We also discovered an opening in the wall, believed to be used for ventilation. It has a screen on it, that looks fairly new. Telling us that this was probably an opening outside that has recently been covered. It reminds me of the come and go pet door on peoples front doors. Saying welcome rats please come in from the cold and make yourself comfortable. And while here please enjoy some fruit, as the area also looks like an area that was being used as a fruit canning space. Which makes sense that this is where the rats want to call home, as the rats we have in this area of the country are aptly named fruit rats, for… ummmm lets see…. oh yes, their love of fruit. So a fruit canning area would be heaven to them! We have cleaned this corner out of the fruit canning equipment and from rat residue, without any signs of new droppings, so maybe with all the canning jars gone, so are the rats. Fingers crossed.

Our eight legged friends, the spiders, however are another story. The workshop has every surface covered in cobwebs. At every turn your are slimed by cobwebs. So a de-spidering is still required. This may require actual fogging.

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Sadly the junk maze leading to the rat situation is actually not the worst part of the story. Yes it gets scarier. We are now about to venture down the path of wet, moldy insulation with probably decades worth of mice nests. Everyone put on your respirators, this is potentially a hazardous part of the story.

We arrive at the house one beautiful spring day where all the snow is melting and you can feel the sun’s warmth on your face. I take a moment to stop and take a picture with my mind of the beauty of the area, listening to the birds chirping away. I can feel my body and soul start to relax as I breath in the spring air. As I move into the house with the sun shining through the windows and naturally warming the house I continue with my zen like moment, wondering through the house eventually making my way to the newly cleaned out storage room. You can still hear the birds chirping, a wood pecker pecking at a tree and the dripping noise of snow melting. Beautiful. But wait… that dripping sounds like it is above my head, not outside. Must be on the deck, I think. As I slowly awake from my spring hypnosis, I start to source out the noise. Oh darn… my happy escape quickly comes to an end as I realize that yes the dripping is on the deck, but it is also dripping into the storage room. I call my husband over to discuss the lovely revelation I have just had and point out the water sitting in the vapour barrier above our heads and then the dripping on the floor of the room. He too now has his ‘oh darn’ moment.

We had already planned on removing the insulation from the ceiling in this room to see what we were dealing with and redo it so we knew it was done properly. But we were not anticipating draining pooling water from the vapour barrier and removing soaking wet insulation that has probably decades worth of rot and I am positive also has decades worth of mice nests, feces and spiders. Ahggg… this is going to be messy. I think we may need more than hazmat suits for this one. Do they actually make fully hermetically sealed bubbles for these occasions? Skin crawling and stomach turning just at the thought. Too bad we got rid of that portable toilet… I could probably use it as a sick bucket right about now. Even the house is coughing and sputtering with me. Saying please save me, as its stomach ache begins to return!

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As we further investigate the source of the leak we discover that the water is coming from the deck cover that is not draining into the eavestroughs, instead it is running down the side of house, and into the workshop below. And based on how pliable the wood siding is, it is probably running behind the wood siding of the house as well. Now the existing siding will need removal and probably re-insulated before doing the final siding of the house. At least we had already planned on redoing the house siding. This confirms this was the right choice. What is with the water issues on this house anyways?

I have to say I feel like I have a little bit of a split personality these days. Excited about the renos and house transformation and then nauseous over the state of the house and all the issues we keep finding, after I think we have found them all. Stay tuned to see if we have or if more mysteries are lurking around the bend.