Welcome back friends! When I last posted, we were making our way through the breezeway. Now we are ready to tackle the main part of the house.

The house itself is a big rectangle. The area we’re working in is 22′ across and 60’+ long. Only two windows were placed along a wall that is 60′ long! One is a tiny herb window, which we think would have been the kitchen window and a bay window, which we think would have been in the dining room. The lack of windows on the main floor and no windows in the basement leaves the house at a nice temperature controlled 70 degrees. All the cool air in the basement stays trapped in the house. Our renovation plans include alot more windows! We’re hoping to find some house plans in all this stuff that would help us see the vision that the builder had.

The first thing that we had to do before any clean-up started in the main house was critter patrol! Thankfully we’ve had no run-ins with any living raccoons inside the house. Mice…yes, but raccoons…no. Two of the raccoons that had been living in the house perished, right in plain sight. Must of had too much fun! It wasn’t a welcome sight and it surely WASN’T a welcome smell! My brave father-in-law got a big shovel, scraped up the carcasses, and threw them in the dump trailer.

Since I’m on the subject of critters, raccoons tend to be curious animals. There are open floor vents on the first floor that lead to the AC unit in the basement. A few raccoons went exploring down the vent and now they’ve died somewhere in between. We can tell this because there’s a big bulge in the duct work in the basement ceiling and a puddle of drips on the ground below it. I know, disgusting!

So now that the raccoons on the first floor were taken care of, we were ready to get started. We put on our masks and gloves, put a liner in the trash can, and backed up the dump trailer to the house.

I would guess that the boxes used to be stacked nicely. The blankets were folded neatly and the furniture did not have mice living in the drawers. (It sure would have made clean-up a heck of alot easier!) Time has passed though…alot of time. As raccoons made their way into the house by climbing up the trees and getting in through the soffits, everything has become a disheveled mess!

In about an hour’s time, we had made it about 15 feet. By day’s end, we’d made it to the bay window which is about halfway through the room. We’d come across plumbing/heating supplies, pvc pipe, household goods, boxes of toys, and even a wedding dress. Sadly though, the dress was torn and covered in urine stains. We were able to salvage a few items like a nutcracker and two unopened bottles of Bacardi. SCORE!

The boys were a big help but became quickly sidetracked when they found a box of toys that were still in good condition.

I feel we’ve made some good progress. We’ve got a full dump trailer and empty stomachs. Time to go home!