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Ball Tazeman posted:We went ahead and are trying out a new mouse trap.  That's a good looking mousetrap.I have a similar model, and, as a word of warning, don't be surprised if it tends to maim and play with the mice it finds instead of outright killing them. Also probably goes without saying, but make sure any of your old mouse traps aren't still active in areas the new one can access. Blowjob Overtime fucked around with this message at 13:59 on Jul 22, 2021 |
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Jul 22, 2021 13:44
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This is a great thread, and you're doing much better than you think you are.
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Jul 22, 2021 13:47
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Blowjob Overtime posted:
One of mine threw a mouse at me, while the chonkier one watched me. Cats gonna cat. They do end up being a good deterrent though, and that one is a good looking mousetrap!
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Jul 22, 2021 15:37
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TheMightyHandful posted:This is a great thread, and you're doing much better than you think you are. I needed to see this today
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Jul 22, 2021 16:53
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So kitten problems are taking over for the time being. Holy poo poo I guess I expected a baby, but I’ve never had a kitten and she is a handful.
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Jul 23, 2021 17:38
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I started looking at our bank accounts and all the repairs we still want to get done and am having a little bit of a moment. Also the kitten is cute as hell, but it definitely added a lot of stress. I don’t know if I mentioned it in this thread but I started my new job which, while it pays better, the stress level is pretty insane and like, most places right now, is very understaffed. Pretty much everything is at a standstill right now due to work stress and kitten. I’m afraid to leave her home alone so I’m at the house most of the time just napping and watching TV because she cries if I go to do work where I can’t be seen. I have just one corner of the living room that’s left to be painted but I can’t even get to that. I wish my brain would quit telling me that I need to get everything done right now.
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Jul 24, 2021 20:19
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fwiw, I'll echo everyone else who has said you have a solid hold on all this. Problems identified, but nothing critical that needs attention yesterday. I know it sucks seeing it all every day, but getting it all addressed is a marathon, not a sprint. I'm a bit biased and nostalgic after having our 17 year old kitty put down a couple months ago, but I don't think you're going to regret a single second you put into getting to know that kitten instead of sweating in the yard. Not to say they're always easy (ask me about ours breaking a loving mirror six hours before my alarm to go to the airport and leave for a week), but a year from now that kitten will be a full grown cat who you'll be happy to see when you get home from a stressful day at work.
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Jul 26, 2021 02:22
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On days like today, where I go in to an anxiety spiral over the house and the cat, I come and read the nice positive comments everybody leaves. Anyway, it’s messy because of the kitten stuff but our living room is mostly painted and decorated.  
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Jul 27, 2021 00:56
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We definitely need more kitten pictures House is looking good too! We're 13 years in now, and it's definitely a marathon, not a sprint.
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Jul 31, 2021 21:47
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Every time I look at a new picture in your updates the house looks cozier and more homelike. You are doing this house a big favor and making it well-cared-for and peaceful. The interim is horrid, but I want you to know how much progress is visible. Speaking as a lifelong gardener, plants just decide to die. This is something you have to live with as a gardener. You can do everything 'right' and the plant just decides that it hates you and it's going home to Gaea. You must not The thing is, every year the yard gets a little nicer, there are lots of little nice surprises like your lilies of the valley, and it can be a lovely room of your house. If it doesn't give you anxiety, late summer is a good time to dream over plant catalogs and think about what you want in the long term. Even when you're looking at things you can't afford or that won't grow in your climate, it can be soothing to know somebody can. Some of my favorites for this (I'm on the West Coast, so that shades my recommendations): https://oldhousegardens.com/ https://www.forestfarm.com/ https://www.anniesannuals.com/ Even when a nursery's shipping fees are way too high for you to buy plants there, you can read their descriptions of the plants and think about where to find the close to you.
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Aug 1, 2021 01:46
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You guys are the absolute best! I’ve been feeling a lot better the last couple days. The cat stress is subsiding a bit, I’m easing more in to my job, and home starting to feel like home. Here is the kitten. She’s amazing and talented.   My dad and myself tried to fix the washer end of the washer/dryer combo unit so that we don’t have to run the laundry downstairs, then back up to dry. We got the temperature regulator working but it seems like whatever was causing the old belt to get chewed up is happening to the new one. It screeches and smells like burning when I run it. So we’re almost there. We’re still working on breaking down the old front porch and trying to figure out how we want to rebuild it.
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Aug 1, 2021 03:02
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This is a kitten thread now 
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Aug 2, 2021 19:19
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Ball Tazeman posted:This is a kitten thread now 
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Aug 2, 2021 20:44
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Went downstairs for the first time in a while to find 2 mice in traps. I’m frustrated because I really don’t know where they would be coming in from at this point because we’ve sealed everything off like crazy. The opposite end of the basement straight up just smells like piss. It could be the weird floor drain but this would be the first time it smells this bad. That kind of set off my anxiety pretty badly, I feel like these issues are never going to go away. I’m going to have mice and poo poo smell forever and I hate it. I’m even more frustrated because I felt like I was finally adjusting and getting better…
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Aug 4, 2021 23:05
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Ball Tazeman posted:Went downstairs for the first time in a while to find 2 mice in traps. I’m frustrated because I really don’t know where they would be coming in from at this point because we’ve sealed everything off like crazy. In my previous house I'd catch one mouse per year, never could find how they got in. In the new house I've caught two mice so far, it's a poured concrete foundation and newer siding, no idea how they get in. The way I look at it is I spend an hour trying to keep them out while they spend 24/7 trying to get in. Weird basement smells suck, but I've done some diluted bleach down a floor drain and it cleared up any ickiness.
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Aug 5, 2021 01:20
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Ball Tazeman posted:Today was not a good house day. I’m feeling really trapped. Found out there are still mice and they have been hanging out, making GBS threads and leaving seed husks in my vanity. We were woke up by the sound of them in the bedroom the other night and optimistically wrote it off as house sounds. Nah they’re in the office and bedroom now. I’m just tired of it. I was just starting to get comfortable, but at this point I’m just exhausted. I switched to working nights and it sucks. My coworkers have constant outward disdain for me. I turned 30 a few days ago and it was just really really sad. Reading your thread and cheering you on. We had mice when we bought our house (in West GA) that would nibble our fruit in the middle of the night and poo poo on our counter. Very frustrating. We tried humane traps and caught a few and released them in the woods, then snap traps. After six months we still couldn't leave fruit out. They went away when we started feeding the neighborhood feral cats. The cats took care of the mice - one even delivered me a mouse carcass early before I left for work once. If you have any neighborhood cats it might be worth leaving some cat food out for them and inviting them into your yard. We also had them in our crawl space, so not sure how relevant this might be for you, but who knows! edit I see you got a cat. Should have read more before replying, lol. You're doing great - home ownership is the best worst thing. skylined! fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Aug 5, 2021 |
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Aug 5, 2021 02:12
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You continue to do better than you give yourself credit for. Your kitten is the cutest.
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Aug 5, 2021 13:35
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I finished all the wall painting we have planned for now by marathoning it last night. Couldn’t sleep because I swear I kept hearing mice in the bedroom. Also This morning J found out that -somehow- the kitten managed to pull all the steel wool out of the baseboard radiators that we had placed to keep the mice from coming upstairs. Also, would anybody have an idea what this poo poo is? I found it in the bowl this morning as some had flaked off and dissolved. I know they had blue toilet stuff in the tank when we moved in but this is much brighter and flakes up like paint. Is it some sort of corrosion? 
Ball Tazeman fucked around with this message at 14:43 on Aug 5, 2021 |
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Aug 5, 2021 14:33
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Ball Tazeman posted:Also, would anybody have an idea what this poo poo is? I found it in the bowl this morning as some had flaked off and dissolved. I know they had blue toilet stuff in the tank when we moved in but this is much brighter and flakes up like paint. Is it some sort of corrosion? Could be the remnants of whatever blue poo poo they had in there in the first place. They might've just been dropping a tablet into the tank and that would be what's left of the tablet.
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Aug 6, 2021 08:27
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So a few updates, mostly to keep myself organized. I went around the house to really inspect for any mouse entry points since I haven’t been sleeping due to the mice being back. Well I found this.   So we have some entry points to take care of. I’m not sure what we do to fix the underside of that siding and most likely it’s like that all around the house. So this has become our top priority. In a perfect world where we make a decent wage, I would just have the house resided but that’s not happening anytime soon. I also got in touch with a very nice local exterminator who gave me some good advice and will come do an eval when he’s in the area. 1. mouse proof this motherfucker We also have the front deck/ramp pulled apart so we kind of have to finish that soon. It will probably be a extensive weekend of work and ~$400 in materials. To be honest I’m not looking forward to it considering there is most likely dead animals under there and it’s just not pleasant work in general. 2. Finish the g drat porch Yesterday we got a quote for replacing the 2 failing windows, the kitchen picture window and the bathroom window. It will be expensive, about $2000 w labor but it’s something that should be done sometime in the near-ish future. 3. Window replacement whenever, it’s backlogged for like, 3 months. Also, I’ve noticed that from the constant mouse infestations over the years/vomit from the drunk who used to live here/piss from the dogs that used to live here that the hallway and office carpet are just covered in piss stains and mouse poo poo that is just smashed in and dried. We shampooed the carpet when we moved in but the office carpet constantly stinks so badly that I don’t even want to play games or sew in there. We have some spare laminate flooring in the basement and have had our eyes on some affordable darker laminate that would look pretty nice, at least for the office and hallway for now. Eventually doing all the rooms because gently caress carpet. 3. Yank that stinky poo poo up and replace Lastly, have some cat pics.  Relaxing with my partner  Training her to ride the catpack.
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Aug 7, 2021 16:25
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Oh I also have some comparison shots since I went wild trying to get all the walls painted. It’s been difficult to get to with the kitten around.     
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Aug 7, 2021 16:33
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Oh I forgot the living room!   
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Aug 7, 2021 18:23
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Old carpet, even if it's keep reasonably clean, gets pretty gross. But carpet marinated in vomit, animal piss & poo poo, is something else. I'd rip that crap out as soon as possible, even if you can't put new flooring down yet, just getting rid of the stinking carpet will free you from the mental drain that a room you can't you use because it stinks too bad too. Excellent cat too.
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Aug 7, 2021 21:40
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Ball Tazeman posted:Couldn’t sleep because I swear I kept hearing mice in the bedroom. Also This morning J found out that -somehow- the kitten managed to pull all the steel wool out of the baseboard radiators that we had placed to keep the mice from coming upstairs. I'm sorry, but it's very funny the kitten is actually taking steps to make your mouse problem worse.
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Aug 7, 2021 22:08
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Blowjob Overtime posted:I'm sorry, but it's very funny the kitten is actually taking steps to make your mouse problem worse.
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Aug 7, 2021 23:44
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For flooring - we ended up buying from these people. It was a pretty good deal, we a big order of a discontinued style for pretty cheap. Sure, we can never buy it again, but we got a couple extra boxes just in case! For the smell - have you tried anything like Nature's Miracle yet? From the sounds of it it's going to be very soaked in, but you might have some success if you can soak the existing carpet/padding in it. I'd also consider treating the subfloor with it once you pull up the carpet, and also consider putting some sort of odor blocking primer on the floor before you put anything on top of it. When we started pulling up our carpets, we just bought some cheap area rugs (there's a place near us that's sells them for cheap... they totally aren't falling off the back of a truck and the money ending up in the guys pocket....) and just lived with those until we could get the flooring in. Area rugs on bare concrete was way better then the existing carpet, and it sounds like your carpet is in significantly worse shape!
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Aug 7, 2021 23:46
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A story in 3 parts   devicenull posted:For flooring - we ended up buying from these people. It was a pretty good deal, we a big order of a discontinued style for pretty cheap. Sure, we can never buy it again, but we got a couple extra boxes just in case! We have put a ton of natures miracle, vinegar, and baking soda. It doesn’t even really smell foul, just like….wet. My theory is that the drunk dude in that room spilled a lot of beer and it took the hoppy fermented smell. Treating the subfloor with primer is a great idea. Blowjob Overtime posted:I'm sorry, but it's very funny the kitten is actually taking steps to make your mouse problem worse. Ball Tazeman fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Aug 8, 2021 |
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Aug 7, 2021 23:54
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devicenull posted:For flooring - we ended up buying from these people. It was a pretty good deal, we a big order of a discontinued style for pretty cheap. Sure, we can never buy it again, but we got a couple extra boxes just in case! Eco 88 is even better, recommended by my veterinarian friend. Give it multiple treatments and let it sit for literal days. It took 3 days, but it got cat piss out of my brand new sofa, lucky for the pisser. It's on Amazon, probably available other places too.
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Aug 8, 2021 02:00
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Nice job on the bushes! I have seen that video of a guy destroying his rear window pulling out a stump too many times to be brave enough to try that. Also if the smell is bad check what the subfloor is like, if it is ok I would just rip up the carpets and live like that for a while then get carpet when you can. CancerCakes fucked around with this message at 21:28 on Aug 12, 2021 |
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Aug 12, 2021 21:26
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My partner and father pulled up some deck boards and found a massive mouse opening to seal up. So we got a quote from an exterminator and it looks like we will be getting their help. I found more seed husks in an area of the house that I thought was secured. We got some copper mesh and shoved it down the heating pipe holes as packed as tightly as possible. Sprayed urine destroyer around the perimeter of the holes to make it less appealing to kitten, since I’m assuming years old rodent shitpiss was making her want to explore there and yank out the steel wool. Put some bait and traps around outside as suggested by the exterminator. Also about a month or two later we finally finished the casing for the too small bathroom fan. We found a drop ceiling tile and cut it to fit, glues it up there and caulked around it. Looks great. I think the idea of pulling up the carpet without a replacement plan isn’t the best idea, we looked at the subfloor from underneath and it’s pretty knotted and had a lot of openings since it isn’t just a piece of plywood. So I ordered some urine destroyer for carpet cleaners and may rent a steam cleaner, since we only have used a regular carpet shampoo machine. Hopefully that will help until we can afford some decent laminate. Kitten is adorable.
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Aug 15, 2021 05:37
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Ball Tazeman posted:My partner and father pulled up some deck boards and found a massive mouse opening to seal up. This is great news! Mice can't teleport, if you find the holes they're using and seal them that will keep them out. They're pesky devils but they don't have access to home depot. They can't get through steel mesh and steel mesh is cheap and easy to work with.
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Aug 15, 2021 17:35
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My brain is just bouncing around right now. Should we do flooring first so that we no longer have to deal with the lovely carpet? What about the window install? It would be nice to have a decent front window for winter but it’s going to be very expensive. But also I want the stinky carpet out so I can use the office and the subfloor isn’t nice enough to just yank it up without a replacement. I’m at a stalemate with renovations now and I hate it.
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Aug 18, 2021 22:19
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Ball Tazeman posted:My brain is just bouncing around right now. Should we do flooring first so that we no longer have to deal with the lovely carpet? What about the window install? It would be nice to have a decent front window for winter but it’s going to be very expensive. But also I want the stinky carpet out so I can use the office and the subfloor isn’t nice enough to just yank it up without a replacement. I’m at a stalemate with renovations now and I hate it. You can always cover the window in plastic and then put a big blackout curtain in front of it to keep the the heat in, gross flooring seems more important for peace of mind.
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Aug 18, 2021 23:59
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Window plastic is fairly awesome, we used it on the lovely windows in our last house. Cat #1 would tear it up so we had to use the outside window plastic. Cat #2 didn't even notice it so we did it indoors last winter. It's cool how you can actually feel the difference immediately. I'm a carpet hater, I've got zero square feet in this house. My mom just had LVP installed and it really looks nice.
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Aug 19, 2021 02:35
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So I have actually had time to do work and gather my thoughts recently. I did a second run of the carpet shampooer with some urine destroyer and that makes the carpet tolerable enough to live with until we can afford flooring. The subfloor isn’t good enough to live with. Ran some urinate destroyer along the baseboard heaters to get rid of mouse smell and keep the kitten from investigating the heater quite so much, then was able to shove some copper mesh down all the pipe holes. One particularly big hole I threw a copper flange over and it seems pretty mouse and kitten proof. Got a couple helpers and ripped up the porch ramp in a couple hours  Today we got the posts in! Extending the porch out a little bit and putting in steps. Even though it’s a hot mess, I feel like it looks way better having the front of the house more open and visible.  Also. 
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Aug 23, 2021 23:02
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I can’t wait to plant flowers next to the front path next year.
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Aug 23, 2021 23:07
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I powered through feeling like absolute garbage today and finished laying the deck boards! Railings shouldn’t be too bad. It already feels so much more inviting than that half assed ramp with the overgrown cedar bushes. I did find all the holes overnight, I don’t know what animal would have made them, I’m hearing moles or voles. We hired an exterminator for our mouse problem so I will probably ask him next time he’s here.  I had a nice cry over a comment that my friend made when I revealed that PO had put drywall over the plaster and lath. They offhandedly said “that’s mold waiting to happen” and basically lost my poo poo and had a meltdown because I’m afraid we have mold and will have to replace all of the walls. I love owning a home. It extra great because if I was renting I wouldn’t know or care about that. Anyway I took my cat for a walk for the first time 
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Aug 29, 2021 00:13
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Good kitty! I love your front door, BTW.
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Aug 29, 2021 00:17
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Ball Tazeman posted:I had a nice cry over a comment that my friend made when I revealed that PO had put drywall over the plaster and lath. They offhandedly said “that’s mold waiting to happen”
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Aug 29, 2021 05:19
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I have to agree. Sheathing walls in 1/4" drywall rather than replacing it all is common lazy renovation practice and isn't going to cause mold to grow anywhere there wouldn't be mold growing anyway.
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Aug 29, 2021 06:40
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