It's hard finding trustworthy people.

One consequence of owning a house is you need to take care of it.  If the toilet backs up, it's your problem not your landlord's.  Fine, I accept that because I think the positives outweigh the negatives.  Anyhow, I have a mouse problem in my hot tub room.  At least, I thought it was just a mouse problem.  I contacted my real estate agent for a pest remover.  She gave me the name of a guy from the home inspection service I used that she had recommended.  I was surprised that they did pest removal too.  It turns out that he moonlights as a pest remover.  He's licensed, but it's not his full time job.  That should have clued me in, but I thought I'd give him a chance because I'm a nice guy like that.  I tend to believe that everyone will give his best.  I guess I'm a slow learner.

We agreed to meet at 5:30, but it turns out he showed up at 4:30.  I don't know why he got there early or what he did while waiting for me, but I'm not that thrilled that he showed up an hour early.  He placed some mouse traps baited with peanut butter and then we went to look in the hot tub room.  He placed more traps and then I mentioned that I could see the jerks in the ceiling through some holes they had chewed and that they didn't look like mice.  I raised the possibility that they might be squirrels since mice usually stay low and out of your way.  He immediately agreed and told me he would have to go home to get his squirrel trap.  Frickin' great.  I told him over the phone that the jerks were in the ceiling. 

On his way out to his car, he brought up the subject of my lawn.  I know it sucks, but I don't care.  I told him I take care of it myself and he mentioned that his son could mow it for $60 every two weeks.  Wait...what?  I told him that I wasn't interested in anyone cutting my grass and he gave me a pitch another few times until I walked away.

We also decided to push some pieces of D-con into the ceiling (before I raised the possibility of squirrels) and he asked if I had a knife.  I went back into the house to get one and heard him say, "Here's one."  I had to rush over to stop him from cutting poison with my bread knife on a cutting board.  I told him he was nuts to do that and he picked up another cutting board.  Christ on a stick.  What part of "don't cut poison in my kitchen" is unclear?

What really cheeses me off about this whole situation is it seems like he's more interested in finding or generating more work than the job at hand.  I can understand that he needs to feed his family, but I'm not as stupid as I look.  I should've not set something up once he said that pest removal is his night job.  Just about everyone my real estate agent has recommended has been a dud.  The notable exception is the sewer people she recommended.  Those guys did a great and professional job.  The mortgage broker she recommended was a dumbass and hasn't returned my messages.

I also asked her for a general contractor's information.  She recommended someone and I said I needed to evaluate exactly what I wanted done since I'll try to do as much of the demolition myself since it's pretty easy.  She wrote back asking if I contacted him.  When I said I was still thinking she said she'd give him my number so he can call me.  Heh.  Good luck since I changed my number.  I don't like pushy people and her attitude seems to suggest that she's going to get a cut.

I've learned my lesson and contacted some coworkers and friends for recommendations.  I need to get information from people I trust.  It sucks that I need to be suspicious since that's not really in my nature, but I don't want to get ripped off.  Fixing my hot tub room and insulating it could be a pretty big job so I want to make sure it's done right the first time.

I checked the squirrel trap after work this afternoon and the sunflower seeds (the bait) were gone, but no squirrels.  I guess some other dudes got to them first.  I put more seeds in so we'll see.