If You Give a Mouse a Cookie....Apparently He Will Build a Giant Nest in My Travco!

This is more disgusting than the dead birds, both of them put together.  After finding some small mouse nests in the passenger side walls and ceiling we figured what the hell, take it all down.  It's a good thing we decided to because behind the other wall was the biggest mouse nest I have ever seen.  I ripped the wall out and started to pull it away, it was stuck on real good with liquid nails or something because it did not want to come down.  After only a few busted up knuckles I got it off in only two pieces.   I'm no baby but this made me gag, real bad.  I can handle all kinds of stuff but this put me over the edge.  It was all good until I started knocking the mess down with a broom, that really stirred up the stink.  I'm taking a little break right now to catch my breath.  Oh and by the way I was wearing a face mask, one rated to filter chemicals.  Yeah, it was that bad, but it could have been worse, at least I haven't found any dead mice.....yet.

That is so much mouse.

VURPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!

Mostly Gutted

#1 Door lock

Some Pictures of the Demolition

Notice the nicely sanded wall...it only took THREE days.  So much nasty brown paint and shiny shellac. It's all gone now though.  I am going to finish it with a light blonde stain and satin finish.

These walls were originally staying but I found some water damage under the window and upon further inspection found lots of smelly mouse nests.  Walls were definitely coming down after finding that.

We took down the cabinets and found another dead bird.  It didn't smell until I picked it up, the stench of death was so horrible.  There was nothing dead in the bottom cabinets, so that was a plus. 

The bird was in that section to the right where the wires ran through.  I can't really figure out how a robin managed to get up in there, must have been through the 2 inch space behind the counter top.

 

 

 

 

 

Little by Little, Piece by Piece...

So, the weather finally doesn't stink and work has resumed on Rosie. 
#1 -Our door handle didn't work and there were no keys so I thought I'd order a new door handle...not so easy.  Apparently, it has been discontinued and if you find one that has been refurbished on Ebay it's big $$$.  So I decided to take the one we have apart and fiddle with it to see if I could at least get it working.  Low and behold after dismantling it I discovered that the springs were still good and it just need to be realigned.  Yay!  From my previous research I saw that new lock tumblers and keys could be ordered and began my new search.  O.K. so not the best solution but these particular door handles can be opened with keys that do not belong to it.  I am not really worried about the security because it also has a deadbolt and decided to go through my "old key bucket" and after a little bit of trial and error found a set that worked.  Fixed for 0$.  Awesome!

#2 -She won't start. Hubs is working on it.  Getting frustrated but working on it.  He has replaced the coil and ballast resistor.  Next up is new cap, rotor, plugs, wires etc... full tune up.  It ran great, sat for about 4 weeks and cranks but won't start.  There was a fair amount of mouse/squirrel poo on the motor so we're are not ruling out rodent sabotage.

#3 -I thought that the dark brown paint and super shiny shellac that had been put on most of the woodwork was pretty darn ugly so I figured I'd just strip and sand it easy peasy.  What a pain in the butt.  I started with the wall outside the bathroom.  It has taken much longer than anticipated.  I finished it (mostly) today and will hopefully be able to stain and seal it tomorrow.  I want it a light blonde color to go with my mid century theme.  The rest of the woodwork, cabinets and around the fridge and closet will be sanded and painted to lighten everything up.  I will be starting that project by the end of the week.  I also took the wood off the inside of the front door and will be making a new piece that will look a little nicer.  Pics to come tomorrow.