Are You Squeamish?

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

My garden has been taken over by scaffolding. Most of you know that we have had renovations here on our kitchen roof.

This is the point that I put a warning on this post. If you are squeamish do not go any further.

This is the roof that has held a terrible secret for six years. The roof that has caused me so much misery, often to the point of making me despair. The cause of all the noises, the smells and the frustration of not being able to get to the source of the problem because a pitched roof was built over a flat one, making it impossible to investigate let alone do anything. The cause of rows between Harry and me. The roof that has been the reason for my feeling trapped and not even having the option of moving away from the problem. The roof that has made me feel like running away. The roof that I have blamed for ruining my life over and over again.

And this is the start of the discovery of just what it was that was making my life such a misery. This is the hole that was revealed once the fascia board was taken off the side of the roof, on my neighbour's side. There was no sign of the hole until that moment. This is only one of the holes that was found.

This is my last warning for the squeamish not to look any further.

The men had decided to cleanse the roof from the outside in and took off the tiles and felt and also the flat roof, leaving the kitchen ceiling directly under the scene above. This is what met our eyes..... rat runs. You can see the way that they have chewed up the insulation and they had also started on the wiring and had stripped several wires of their plastic outer casing. Fortunately, the wires were not touching. I hate to think what might have happened if they had been.

This was number one body that was found amongst the chewed up insulation that had obviously been used as bedding. There were five of the pesky rodent bodies hidden away at various points in the roof. No need to show them all, as after you have seen one, they all look the same!

Photostory Friday is hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek where you will find some great entries.

Was I Too Hasty?

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Was I too hasty in my last post, telling everyone how well the underpinning was going? I think so. You see, we turned the corner and immediately the problems started to happen.

Several fat pipes started to go under the kitchen that we didn't know about. Is this where the rodents are getting in? We will now have to get a firm to check these pipes with CCTV.

Next problem the snow starts to come down faster making it impossible to work. The forecast is snow off and on all week, this doesn't look good. No concreting can be done today and I have a gaping hole under the kitchen.

Sam, my son, has hurt his arm. It has been painful ever since he started digging. He had to go to the minor injury A&E at the local hospital and found that he has damaged a tendon. It will need a weeks rest.

So now I have strange pipes running under the kitchen (over a hundred years old), who knows what state they are in, a gaping hole under the kitchen, a son with a hurt arm, snow and a husband who is not strong enough to do things by himself.

Can things get any worse........ no don't tell me the kitchen could cave in! I need to go out and have a little scream.

That is better. In the mean time I can look at part of my undisturbed garden and wait for the birds to come back. They have been frightened off.

Photostory Friday is hosted by Cicely and MamaGeek.