A piece of advice...

For any other home owners out there... (Warning Reader Beware: some gross and graphic details below)

So when we first bought our house, Matt thought there was a slightly gross smell in one of the rooms in the basement. We could never figure out what it was, but we never spent much time down there (pretty much only stored boxes) so didn't worry about it too much. Well every time we went down there though it drove Matt nuts, so we figured during this basement remodel and demolition we would figure it out.... and boy did we!

We have never seen a mouse since we have lived in this house. That said, apparently the previous owners did.... and the way they decided to solve it is where my advice comes in.

You know those mouse traps that snap close? Yeah they freak me out and are probably disgusting to deal with once they have caught a mouse. Probably also what the previous owner was thinking... so instead they decided... "hey, why not try poisen tablets?".  Doesn't seem like the worst idea right? The mice eat it, die, and you dont have to deal with those messy mouse traps. WRONG.

Poison tablets were tossed up into the "drop" ceiling in one of the basement bedrooms. The mice of course proceeded to eat it. This is where is gets bad. They then probably took about a week to die... making a HORRIBLE mess throughout the insulation (just think if you were poisoned what would happen). Luckily this was contained to one room. When we (and again by "we", I mean Matt in this horrible instance), pulled out all the insulation in the ceiling... debris came falling down that I wouldn't wish on anyone.

After all that and about 5 old petrified mice later....ewww good lord they had to have been up there about 5 years!... the smell was gone! Thank the lord.

Now I hope we never get mice while we are actually living in this house, and I hope nobody else out there does either. But if you DO.... learn from this and just use the old fashioned mouse traps.