My camera shoots fascistsNext scene: lower the snake through the window and into the bucket.
Here's me with my makeshift broom noose after I got the snake and crawled up out of the crawlspace.
I was all suited up because of the heavy dust and rat turds under there. It was ...a day.
So here's an interesting note on the rattlesnake under the house. Even though snakes can swallow some massive things, I'm pretty sure that packrat I evicted by hand a few days ago was far too big for this snake.
On the other hand, I was commenting to my builder friend here today that I haven't seen any mice in the house for a couple of years, despite there being gaps under the doors and elsewhere that mice can definitely get through. Even when I go away for a couple months, there is no mouse poop when I come back.
I think it's pretty reasonable to assume the snake was happily chowing down on them.
So, while I have evicted the rat, I also evicted the creature that was most likely keeping the smaller rodents away.
Maybe I can convince a gopher snake to take its place.
Michael took some videos of me pulling the rattlesnake out, that I will try to share later.
Just another day at the #RatShitRemodel
When I went back under the house, the snake had left its hidey hole and was now semi stretched out on the top of the foundation. It turns out it was a much bigger rattlesnake than I had thought originally!
I didn't want to lose sight of it, so I instructed Michael on how to make a noose out of of a broomstick. He did so and then I scooched back over to the snake and noosed it easily.
Then I crawled out with it, keeping enough tension on the noose to hold the snake while trying not to hurt it, crawled out through the joists and then stuck the snake through the bathroom window where Michael had a bucket.
Now that the sun is down, I'm going to take it a few blocks away to the edge of the desert and let it go.
The original location of the snake was farther back, where there was much less room to maneuver.
I scooched out of there super fast and crawled out between the joists in the bathroom. My friend who I'm working with and I pondered what to do.
My first thought was to get a bag of ice out of the freezer and cover the snake with it, coiled up as it was in that small little pocket. Once the snake got really cold, it probably wouldn't be able to move very fast. I got an extra-long-handled pointy-nose pliers and we put some plastic pipe extenders on the handles, to make them about 2 1/2 feet long. The idea was to chill the snake and then I would reach into the cavity with the pliers, grab it and put it in a bucket with a lid.
But...
#RatShitRemodel update!
Maybe should now call it #RattlerRemodel!
I was in the far back corner of the house, and had just hacked the last chunk of an abandoned gas line out from under the floor when I saw a little reptile head drop into a pocket in a cinder block that was protruding from the foundation.
"Oh hi lizard," I said and then moved my face closer to see what it was… and then bolted back immediately when I saw that it was a rattlesnake coiled up in there!
Remember, I'm in this crawlspace, belly crawling with very little room to move and seeing the snake 18 inches from my face in the light of my headlamp!
I spent the whole afternoon under the house in a Tyvek suit, belly crawling under the house with a cordless recip saw hacking out what felt like miles of abandoned water and gas line.
I was also trying to figure out where the main waterline comes in to the house, but still haven't. Most of the waterlines under the house are half inch copper, which functions adequately. But one section is only 3/8 copper that needs to be upgraded. The big problem is that it's all one system, including the spigots on the outside walls. By the time water is getting pushed through a garden hose, it has very little pressure. I need to fix this so I can run timers and drippers.
The #RatShitRemodel as of this morning. We had to remove the old subfloor to get to the plumbing. Doing so revealed that past leaks had caused some degradation in the joists.
The wood still has plenty of integrity, so we are going to sister new 2x6s onto the existing ones instead of removing them. Both of the vent pipes to the left have been removed. Neither was hooked up or functioning properly. We will replace it with standard, modern 2 inch ABS.
Each wall we open up is like an archaeology dig. We have fun trying to decipher the original purpose of each piece of orphan pipe, strangely placed hole or puzzling method of framing.
It all tells the history of the house and the people who have lived here and built it, as well as keeping a record of the styles and materials that were popular over the last hundred years.
But we are tearing it all out. I noted previously I feel a little wistful about that. 50 years from now, a future remodeler will not have this experience. They will only find the original framing and what we will be adding in the next week as we put it all back together.
It will be nice! Rat proof! Cockroach proof! Insulated! A new fancy shower. Nothing will leak. The toilet will flush properly.
But the ghosts that have lived hidden in the walls will be gone. And that feels a little sad.