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Death of a Bathtub
And good riddance regardless of the cost
Our home in our new retirement community came with a whirlpool tub. We never would have bought such a thing, and in fact had intended to order a home with only a shower, but someone had specced this out for their ideal home, their mortgage fell through, the location was perfect, so we bought it.
The tub became a place for a wet towel rack. Iโd clean it once in a while, but we never used it. I wished that the would be owner had ordered a larger garage instead of a useless tub, but we made do.
Twelve years later, the mice arrived.
Mouseproofing
Iโd dealt with mice in our former home and in our vacation trailer. We are a few yards away from conservation land, so I knew weโd have curious critters. I also knew from bitter experience that plumbers and electricians make large holes for their pipes and wires, but seldom bother to consider that they are providing easy access for rodents.
So I searched out the holes, inside and out, filling them with steel wool and expanding foam. We had no mice for many years. Iโd check every year and spruce up any decaying foam; I thought I had beaten the mice for once.
But no.