SNAFU*

Last night we pulled down the third bedroom's acoustical-tile ceiling in anticipation of our dumpster's arrival this morning.  We were hoping that all the insulation would be in good shape like what we saw during our exploratory demo:

I keep trying to figure out what those light-blobs are, and I think I'm going with "friendly ghosts."

Unfortunately, this was pretty much the only part of the ceiling where the insulation hadn't been completely devoured by our pals the roof rats.  WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS EXTREMELY GROSS.  DO NOT SCROLL DOWN UNLESS YOU WANT TO SEE SOME TRULY NASTY SHIT.  SERIOUSLY.  DON'T DO IT.  Consider yourself forewarned.

--proceed at your own risk--

 

--what you are about to see cannot be unseen--

--you should really watch cute kitten videos instead of looking at this--

--you're going to regret it if you scroll down because it is really truly gross**--

**Actually, honestly the rat shit doesn't even bother me anymore.  I mean, I'm, like, aware that it's disgusting, but after a whole year of living in this formerly infested house I'm pretty blasé about it.  Roof rats don't carry hantavirus, and all these turds are really old, and I just don't care that much at this point.  Which is probably why I was okay with whipping out my phone to take a bunch of pictures of feces.  Quick anecdote to 1) show how far I've come in my relationship with rodent shit, and 2) give you another opportunity to back out if you're still not sure whether or not you want to see what I'm about to show you:

When we lived in New Haven, our apartment was the second story of an absolutely beautiful house that'd been built in the 1890's.  It was in an awesome neighborhood (if you're familiar with the area, we were just a block down Orange Street from East Rock Park) where we could walk to bars, grocery markets, downtown, parks, everything.  The apartment had high ceilings, two huge bay windows, a butler's pantry, thick original moldings, a private screened porch, old glass doorknobs on six-panel doors, gorgeous glossy hardwood floors, the works.  I loved it passionately.  Anyway, one day I was standing in the butler's pantry talking to my mom on the phone and idly dusting the countertop, and I noticed these little black bugs hanging out near my potatoes.  I picked one up and then, realizing that what I was holding was actually not a bug but was instead a mouse turd, I screamed into the phone.  I skipped work and disinfected the entire kitchen.  I cried the whole time.  Flash forward to now, when there are inch-long rat turds raining down from the ceiling, and all I want to do is take a picture.  Life is funny.

Okay, are you ready?

Nice nest, huh?

Captive rat turds dangling from the insulation.

 Hi there, rat holes!

 This was the biggest nest.

 

 Pile of contaminated insulation.

 Ick.

So after we pulled all the old insulation down and rolled it up into a giant burrito using the plastic drop cloths I'd put down on the floor, we carted it out to our dumpster.  Which is now full of poop.  So, yeah, we'll be re-insulating before we drywall.

*Which is my all-time favorite acronym-- Google it if you aren't familiar.