Return of the possum ... or is it? Dun Dun Duuuun!

I had to call an animal eviction firm again. A smell began to emanate from our basement that was less than pleasant. As the dutiful father, husband, and supposed man of the house, I was required to poke my head around in the ceiling of the basement. My search was for one of 2 thing: a dead animal or a live one. Do not ask me which I preferred because I still don't know. While I didn't find anything living or dead, I did spy something to horrify me. After our last encounter with wild life, I felt I had done a good job making sure the little buggers would stay out. Apparently, the little buggers scoffed at my silly notion of securing the house. There ... in the ceiling ... right where the previous possum had made his home ... there was a brand new, nice and comfy, bedded with leaves and insulation, nest. WTF!!!!!!!!! How the hell did he get in this time? I think I need to step up my prevention efforts now.
The good news is that it does appear the nest had been unused for some time (much like Dantooine). I may have hindered their ability to get in the house by blocking a major hole they had dug under the deck. Who knows? The animal eviction guy gave me some pointers on filling in the remaining areas with dirt and rock and monitoring for any activity. *sigh* Looks like I may have to try my hand at concrete work again.

Handymanny weekend!

The nerve of some people. I have a perfectly good post I've been wanting to write since Monday. Then these people come along and demand my time just because they give me a paycheck. Don't these people understand I have more important things to do than earn that paycheck? Now, on to my post ...

As Debbie alluded, I had a pretty handy Sunday this past weekend. I knocked out two projects that have been on my to-do list for a while, and one other project that popped up just this weekend. The newly added project involved fixing the guest bath tub faucet. Apparently, two screws had come loose and one of them was impeding the faucet handle, causing an occasional drip. I took off the faucet handle, tightened the screws and put the handle back. Well ... OK ... I did the handle thing twice because I put it on upside down the first time, but there's no need to go there.
The second project was to fix the sliding closet doors in the playroom. We have a patio door lock on them so Lauren can't get into the closet. This is required because we're pretty sure if Lauren wanders in there, she will be lost forever. Anyway, the lock was scraping the door leaving this wonderful silver line. This job required a screwdriver to remove the stopper from the door and a hammer to bang the living crap out of the lock to knock it back a few microns.
The final project involved insulation, I know you all are just wishing you were doing this instead of me. This was the final step in the Possum Entrance Elimination. When the little feller made his home, he made himself right at home in the insulation. With that, I felt it best to remove the old insulation and put in some new ones. This presented the opportunity for a new tool. I got myself a staple gun with the forward press trigger. I needed this to attach the insulation to the sub floor and keep it off the ceiling tiles. The insulation installation (ooh alliteration!!!) went very well and now, all aspects of the possum entrance project are complete. YEA!!!!