Anyone who has spent any time around renovating probably has some stories to tell about the wild stuff they run into
be it a bad part of town with a fire in the floor heater, strange stuff in a crackhouse, or whatever.
Well, the other day I got a call and it’s left me scratchin’ my head and wondering if I should do this or not, but I probably will just for the thrill of the tale.
You know all those stories about some catlady somewhere who dies and leaves a 100 cats in a house?, well, this doesn’t involve animals but it’s worse. Well, I did see some animalshat in there but not like a catwoman story.
It was literally like something out of an EdgarAllenPoe book, complete with huge draping spiderwebs only the house isn’t an old vicky but a ’70s style single floor slab complete still with the ’70s decor. Actually rather shocking and I don’t shock too easily.
I’m half tempted to buy a skidsteer instead of trying to find one to rent, it’s that bad.
Some people have hidden problems no one knows anything about because they can cover it so well. Sad but true.
A hint, a two car garage on one end of the house, and a second smaller onecar garage next to it opening from the utility room
so I was able to kick junk away and pull open the door from that utility room when I was searching for the breaker box to shut off the juice and make sure the gas was shutoff.
heh, the fridge was still running and that was absurd. It was like the house had been shut up for ten years and nothing but trash ever entered into it. Absolutely bizarre.
So, I open the door to the one car garage and there it was…
a 4 1/2 ft high pile of solid trash wall to wall stacked tight enough that the trash didn’t fall when the door was opened.
You could see it layered in there like terra sediment in a ground core sample.
I can’t tell you about everything as I might be arrested or something for not divulging a health concern as it’s in a middleclass neighborhood.
It’s the worse I’ve ever seen.
I think I need an award.
half of good living is staying out of bad situations
Replies
how about The Not Barfing When You Really Should Award?
Actually I did leave the place a few times to gag a bit.half of good living is staying out of bad situations
What do they want you to do? Were is the owner.Mr friend is renting a house in a small town. When he moved in the frezzer was unplugged for a while and the landlord plugged it in shortly before him moving in. well 2 years later they have not cleaned it out. He duct taped it closed. I pity the poor sucker who has to deal with that.
Been there, done that. Fact is, that stuff is easier to handle when it's frozen - just dig in the night before trash pickup, dump it in the bin while it's still frozen.
Greg
duct taped it closed
Ha, that is a good one.
I peeked a bit in the fridge by cracking the door a tad after kicking away enough trash where it could be opened
and was amazed when I saw the light came on.
They want to save the house as structurely it's solid but man, we are talking absoute bizare here. Mental illness behind the scenes.
Right now I'm thinking a large dumpster and a skidsteer to start cleaning out the garages so the stuff won't have to be handled.
Then have a team funnel everything into the garage again and another dumpster or two.
Then check inside a few walls for mold and if none then see the shape of the drywall and if it can be salvaged.
Were talking haz suits and masks here. Words are hard to descibe once you get past the amazement of it all.
Could have been worse. Could have been dead critters in there but then again, who can tell.
Is this the shoeman of old?
I need a snorK* just thinking about this
half of good living is staying out of bad situations
Edited 4/20/2009 10:07 am ET by rez
You could take a couple of pics for us before you start. Why keep all the good stuff to yourself? C'mon, I want a chance to barf, too.
You want his camera should catch a disease?!
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View Image Intimidation is the sincerest form of battery
there's gotta be a ton of stuff in there that only you could use rez...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
"Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints"
rez,
We have some neighbors who need an "intervention". They collect things, animals, antiques, stuff.
Our neighborhood is pretty nice, middle class and pretty well kept.
They are out of town, and we are looking out for their 4 small dogs and 2-3 cats. They just closed off the tiled kitchen and adjoining tiled family room and put down an old scrap of carpet for dogs to do their thing. Cats in a bathroom with litterbox. The big dog is at a kennel. Stinks obviously....
The rest of the story.........the house is so full of stuff it's unbelievable. The 2 car garage is full, 8x10 shed, a 4x8 canvas shed for one motorcycle, a 14 foot enclosed work trailer, a 3 bike mototcycle trailer, a double carport over the corvette and another motorcycle and more stuff. Oh they also have rented space somewhere.
They never miss estate sails and garage sales is a Sat. thing....
I hate clutter and my wife collects more than I like.
Pete
The city has left him notices several times and stuff gets moved around some.
Had a Landlord tenant leave the worst mess in one room. They kept dogs in the room and did not remove the poop. What made it worst, they added three layers of carpeting. Can't shovel carpeting with dog #### in between
Use a cartridge respirator instead of a mask. It helps greatly with the smells.
I bought a house where the owner's son, slightly mentally disabled, had been living. The sheetrock between the studs had holes bashed in it about 4-1/2' high and the cavities filled with garbage.
Edited 4/20/2009 2:09 pm by splintergroupie
that wsn't garbage... that was adding R-Value
p:)
two come to mind.
one while carpet cleaning ... lady said she had some pet stains.
we get there ... literally a formerly beige carpet in the LR/DR combo ... turned brown from the cat poop ... with piles and piles all over, some nice and fresh ... most old and dried hard.
boss took one look, and said we're outta here. She asked if he couldn't "help" who should she call ... he said a psychiatrist.
other was a guy who lived in the apartment next to mine back in trade school. Old building with long shared front porch ... first floor so you could see right into the apartment. We'd never noticed ... one day for some reason was on his side of the porch ... looked in ... LR filled with old newspapers and magazines ... mostly piled ... had to be 3ft high ... covered the whole room aside from a chair, TV and a path to walk thru.
We went to the side and looked in ... the kitchen ... countertop's covered in old food boxes, floor was same as the LR ... kitchen table piled high with more boxes ...
the piles that surrounded the kitchen table were as high as the table itself.
didn't see any food out ... just all empty food containers.
We made a mental note not to piss him off ... and really hoped he didn't take up smoking! Weird thing ... he was a plain looking older guy. Had a job ... wore old dress clothes to work. Looked to have a fairly normal if not sad little life.
and my roommate pointed out ... his old car was spotless!
old and worn ... but no scraps of anything in it.
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
I was on the Volunteer FD in CO. Call came in to a fire with occupant still inside - old man.Th e place was black with smoke so you could not see the light from the flashlight in your hand. doing airpack search and rescue when you have to feel your way is bad enough, but there was stuff in piles everywhere. Chief finally pulled us out.Once things cleared safe we found his body in a bed surrounded with magazines and newspapers stacked up to 8' high. in the kitchen it was only 4-6' high. Narrow path through the place. He had been smoking in bed, but coroner said it was a heart attack that killed him, and the smudge came after when he dropped the butt.
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Mantal health professionals can tell you more about what that person suffered from........
It's been probably twenty years since my brother called, saying that my aunt -- the only member of that generation on my mom's side of the tree -- had died, and he needed lots of help cleaning out her house.
We had all known that she had lived like a hermit for a couple of decades, rarely leaving the house, and NEVER letting anyone in (she would not even open the door more than an inch or two).
When I got to her house, I was floored -- best we could tell, nothing had left the house in those couple of decades. Not the trash, not the cat litter, not the old newpapers or magazines......... Not even the pet cats that had (mercifully) died somehow -- only one of which was in the freezer, which was no longer running.
(I know this is gut wrenching, but it fits the thread......)
Yes, you deserve some kind of award. So did my brother and I.....
Friend of mine grew up with two brothers in a small town near here. One brother was very successful in life, retired and moved away. The other brother never married, stayed in the family home and pretty much did only what he needed to do to survive. My buddy got a call several years ago from the brother who had moved away asking him to check on the stay at home brother. He drove out to the old isolated homestead which was totally overgrown with weeds and hadn't been painted in 50 years. He noticed a wallet and keys in a bowl on the back porch and a funny smell. He told me he knew what was coming but had to make sure. Keep in mind that this late July in south Florida. What was left of the stay at home brother was on the bed lying on an 18 inch high stack of newspapers that covered the room. He had been dead at least 3 days. The power had been turned off years before and the only water was a pitcher pump in the yard. He later hired a married couple to clean out the house. They filled two 20 yard dumpsters by hand.
I hate to say it, but I worked summers for a couple of years at my friend's dad's moving company. I'd say we saw various shades of this roughly once a month.
The old man told us about a couple he had to prep a bid for - a young doctor (MD) and his wife, lived a ways out of town on the Oregon Coast. She was there to show him around while the doc. was off at work.
He said he thought it was a little unusual that a professional couple had chickens running around on the front porch, but things really started to go bad when he had to take her word for it that there was a couch in the living room. Same with the dining room table - he guessed the size based on the pile of debris in the corner. The master closet in the bedroom was packed with clothes, sticky and dripping with mold ("He was fooling around with making beer" she said), cat and dog scat everywhere. Full size garbage cans in the kitchen overflowing with take-out containers.
Knowing full well that his bonus depended on coming within 10% of the actual weight of the load, he called it short before going into the basement (I laughed when he got to that part of the story, because we all knew he had a rat phobia). He told her, "I've seen everything we need."
He made a WAG and phoned it in to dispatch. He told them to have the out of town driver call him before the pick-up for some "key details." The driver called, and after hearing the description told him, "I've probably seen worse."
The next week he drove out to the site to catch the start of the show. He left when the goat ran out the door. He said one of his greatest regrets in life was not getting a picture of the driver at that moment...
-t
My worse case was an actual cat lady, very old and mentally gone. Essentially a bag lady. She had this ancient little house on the Hudson River, it dated back to the 1720's. There had been work done on it through the years but it hadn't been touched in maybe 35 years. This woman had come from a well to do family in the next big town over (Nyack NY), and her father had been Thomas Edison's right hand man during the famous inventor's hey-days.
Anyhow, a ceiling had fallen in and she had somehow gotten my name as someone who would be willing to replace the old plaster with sheetrock. I knew the place, but made a wide detour around it whenever I was walking down the River Rd of Grandview.
The second I entered the door there was a scuttering sound of animals everywhere and a smell beyond anything I can describe in writing. The bile & vomit welled up to the back of my throat and I stepped quickly back outside. I managed to keep it down and somehow found myself,( I think through pity more than anything), back inside the house talking to the old lady and looking at the repair to be done. It was a two day job that I could handle myself and I charged her a minimum for doing it. Mr. Softie here.
Next day I came to do the work, she was out so I took a deep breath and let myself in. Again the scuttering of cats everywhere.
After putting up some new framing, I decided to look around the place.There was an upstairs attic room and a basement living area with a kitchen in it. Poop and dried who-knows what was everywhere. Diseased cats ran everywhere. There was one that had its guts hanging out and it walked around like nothing was wrong dragging its intestines in all the ####. There were these giant river rats that had been freshly caught and the cats were feasting on these in the upstairs bedroom. I counted no less than 65 cats, and I know there had to be more.
I finished the job the next day, and she paid me the full amount in cash. Often I would see her on the road walking into town, about a 2 mile trek, and after working for her I would always stop and take her to where she needed to go, poor thing. She always wreaked of ####.
Eventually, she had to go to a home, had no children and relations were distant. She eventually died, and a #### couple bought the place and had it dozed. Best thing for it really. I think they even dug up a lot of the soil it sat on and had it carted off with the rest of the house. I wonder if the smell was ever fully gone. What became of all those God forsaken cats?
The old lady did tell me some stories though. Apparently she was quite the bell of the ball in the 20's. The author Toni Morrison was her next door neighbor, down a piece, and it was on the old lady's dock that Toni saw what she believed to be an apparition, which she had a short conversation with. It became the inspiration for one of her greatest novels, "Beloved".
That was almost 20 years ago. If that old river could talk, don 't you just wonder the stories it could tell.
What a grand tale you can tell, darlin'. It all played out in color in my mind's eye as i gobbled yours words up.
Back at ya in so many ways. You & Rez have helped answer a big question. Thanks.
What was the question, if i may be a nosy Parker?
I used the word "faces" too. Maybe its their online spell checker that does it.
I'll let you know.
Thanks guys. I don't feel so bad now.
Got a backhoe and a Kabota scooper lined up for when the time comes.
half of good living is staying out of bad situations
There was one that had its guts hanging out and it walked around like nothing was wrong dragging its intestines in all the ####.
Jer, I think you just won an award.half of good living is staying out of bad situations
rez
You have been living a shelter work life.
Those type of houses were a 2 or 3 times a year occurance when I did insulating for the LIHEAP program.
I have left houses many times with the bile rising in my throat.
I do some handicap remodeling for the state and I have run into a couple of houses that are really disgusting.
Rich
I am just in total awe of the words that are not allowed on this forum. It really staggers me and actually makes me think a lot less of Taunton Press.
You mean cr@p, sh!t, or ghey?
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Well, yeah in essence.The words I used that were blanked out in this order were
feesees, yerin, and ghey.I'm trying to be a little literate here and not use the obvious 4 letter kind. Those words, unless used very judiciously, usually defeat the effect you're trying to bring across in writing. The words I used are plain, proper, everyday words of the English language and American lexicon.
I fail to understand Taunton's purpose.But...I will continue on here because of folks like you.
Yer in with the in crowd
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Hi Jer,
I am just in total awe of the words that are not allowed on this forum. It really staggers me and actually makes me think a lot less of Taunton Press.
I really don't understand your point. Taunton Press cuts a few dozen or so words out of over 800,000 available in the English language in an effort to inspire a historically traditional line of decency and you admit that it limits your creative ability to describe such disgusting situations as this?
Taunton Press is simply attempting to hold up "Fine Standards"
It is "not" my intent to insult you in any way; I'm simply surprised that you would trade the title gentleman for unnecessary crudeness.
Dear kind Sir, what have I missed?
Pedro the Mule - These wet hooves slip on occasion but quickly regain their composure
Edited 4/21/2009 11:02 pm ET by PedroTheMule
These words that I used which were blocked, as I stated, are everyday words. They are used in elevated fiction and non fiction, and in text books across the English language.
I want you to know that I appreciate the intention of what you are doing by blocking bad language, the "four letter words", the "curse words" if you will. I agree with that. It keeps things civil and does hold things to a higher standard.
But...if you are a journalist, or work in the journalists world, it is in total frustration that one would come across censorship to this degree in a forum that is 100% adult and wants to converse and communicate on an adult level, in a decent, higher level.
Can we get around and communicate without these 'words?...of course, if one must, (and one must here). There's no argument there. These are NOT filthy, dirty and vile words or language. You cannot dispute that.
I understand that this is a computer program that does this, but does it not give you the choice of what words to eliminate? If not, then fine. I doubt that though. One thing I hope you don't eliminate is my freedom to express myself on this forum using the words that you decide are right to use. And my expression stands, I do think less of you. Done. I hope you can live with that.
Hi Jer,
One thing I hope you don't eliminate is my freedom to express myself on this forum using the words that you decide are right to use. And my expression stands, I do think less of you. Done. I hope you can live with that.
Well, I'm not sure why you are directing your frustrations at me. It's Taunton's choice not mine. I'm sorry you think less of me simply because I happen to agree with their choice, but to fulfill your hope - I can live with that.
I sometimes print out specific reply instructions from the forum. These instructions are provided to a couple of youngsters I work with after school as they are interested in the building trades. I would rather not have to edit what I find in this forum prior to working with children. I realize they are going to get the full load of language on TV, in school and in the world in general but I am not going to relay nor promote it myself.
I would also like to know that if they become interested in being a part of this forum that their parents would have no objections knowing they are researching the experiences of "Fine experienced trades persons".
Consider it a challenge to experiment with your fine education and experience to express yourself in a way that uplifts everyone that reads your posts.
Something like......
It ##### stinks in the garage.
or
The warmth of the moisture eminating from the decomposing unknown was suddenly stopped short of my lungs as the odor triggered a halting reflex of my toes being wrench up through my body in a fashion for which they were never intended.
Both have their place but one takes more than a 3rd grade education...my statement stops short of the really creative....somewhere around the 6th grade.
Pedro the Mule - I hope you can live with that
Here's your niche.
are you suggesting that he go write himself off?
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Now you're reading things into it i fully intended.
Uggh splintergroupie,
Now you're reading things into it i fully intended.
I meant what you knew....
Pedro the Mule - The road of good intentions
Dearest Piffin,
are you suggesting that he go write himself off?
All I can say is.....I'm touched by your concern....that was concern wasn't it.....hmmmm
Pedro the Mule - Tetched in teh hed uh littel
That book(s) has to be one of the most fun books of its kind. How many of them are there do you know? I remember when it first came out how popular it was with the academic, wine & fine scotch, leather elbow patch crowd. It was fun to get a bunch of them together and have someone who could read it (clearing my throat here), in different funny voices.
The Bulwer Lytton Contest. It Was a Dark & Stormy Night
Great memories.
A young friend of mine got an honorable mention for something about hair in a bar of soap. She got her master's in biology about the same time, but i HEARD about the B-L award.
oh....for some reason I thought you were from Taunton. LOL! Sorry!
Good response.
Hi Jer,
oh....for some reason I thought you were from Taunton. LOL! Sorry! Good response.
I was wunderin'....it's all good.....keep havin' fun!
Pedro the Mule - I'm too stubborn to admit you're wrong
Reminds me of an exchange in The Big Lebowski between The Dude and The Stranger:The Stranger: Do you have to use so many cuss words?
The Dude: What the @#$% you talking about?
The Stranger: Okay, Dude. Have it your way.
Hi Frozen,
Reminds me of an exchange in The Big Lebowski between The Dude and The Stranger:
I concur and to add to the topic:
I worked a framing job when I was 15.....back when you had to be responsible for your own safety instead of giving that freedom up to OSHA.....survival of the fitest took care of a lot of problems we have to live with today.
Anyhow, I digress, this job started with a backhoe burrying similiar byproducts as described earlier by others. The backhoe then proceeded to dig the footings......surrounding the burial grounds.....block was laid and I worked with the framing crew to get the house dried in....late August as school started back.....every afternoon I got to go into the hot steamy house and enjoy what continued to decompose below me. I heard that they ended up sealing the crawl space with heavy layers of plastic. Every now and again I end up going past the house and it's always for sale. I don't know but something tells me the plastic in the crawl space doesn't work.
Pedro the Mule - That placed smelled worse than a Mule Outhouse Overflow
I get the feeling that Taunton's view of BT is it is a helpful marketing tool that assists the reader's base by being here so they keep it
but that they have bigger fish to fry in the publishing of the mag
so in allot of ways we are just here running around off on our own to a great degree
and Taunton just let's who/whatever programmers they hire at the moment to do what they do as Taunton just goes on involved in the mag.
be 'Well, ain't that just ######' dandy. snorK*
"Taunton just let's who/whatever programmers they hire at the moment to do what they do as Taunton just goes on involved in the mag."That makes total sense. Thanks.
Nothing even close to the misery others have suffered...
But years ago we were shopping for a place in NYC. Went to view one place, had been listed for a long time, the price had been reduced several times. But this was during the down market in the early 90s when Manhattan took a pretty good price drop over the course of several years.
Needless to say, we walked into the apartment, the agent was already there. Windows were open, a fresh spring breeze was blowing through the place...but there was a faint whiff of ammonia. I could smell if, my wife couldn't...and of course the realtor noticed nothing.
Visited again, no odor. Visited again, a slight odor.
Needless to say, we made a very lowball offer which was accepted. Turned out the apartment above us, the guy was a shut-in cat herder.
Long story short, we found out that the guy upstairs was a computer guy, making good money, but he hadn't pad rent in several years. NYC has pretty tenacious tenant laws, the owner was never able to evict him.
We made a deliciously lowball offer on the cat herder's place which was accepted. We bought the upstairs place and "evicted" the guy in the middle of the night. While the entire place was filthy, two rooms were just horrible. One had almost 18" of cat bowel movements (can I write that?) and garbage on the floor. We ended up taking up all the flooring, some rooms were completely gutted, others we took the plaster off the walls up to chair rail height, about four feet. Encapsulated everything else and refinished the whole place.
Worked out well in the end.
Tangent: My mother is a pack rat. A clean pack rat, which lessens the impact, but she is the type that stores everything. Not much besides kitchen garbage gets thrown away.
Some of her dust bunnies are the size of wolves.
Years ago we did some insurance work on a smoked damaged kitchen...we specialize in refinishing/painting cabinetry.. We were working on a Nasty kitchen with heavy grease buid-up on everything with cock roaches running around us.During the spraying I had my head under the sink spraying out the interior box when I ran across a dead rat.
Not missing a beat I coated him with a heavy coat of catalyzed colored lacquer. The next day I removed the body and the shadow was the perfect outline of this big dead rat. The customers did not mention the missed spot.I am sure when they reach for the ajax they are gonna see the crime scene. stinky