Rats in the walls .......

the interconnecting door we found behind the kitchen units

the old kitchen units came out easily

The lady who sold the house to us had told us that there was some where an interconnecting door.  from the main house kitchen into the annexe lounge...........   We found it yesterday.

Now... give me an old house... a hammer and a wrecking bar ... and 30 minutes later we had the melamine kitchen units prized off the walls, the wall tiles shattered,  the  onyx effect worktops and the fake oak effect doors were in lots of  peices on the flagstone floor.  

 The two of us are now staring excitedly at a peice of hardboard the size of a door way roughly fitted into a door frame.  Grinning inanely ...we each get a chisel and begin levering the hardboard out of its frame.   Each nails pops out of the wood frame as we work our way down either side until the hardboard is loose.  We quickly  pull it out of the way,  joking about skeletons behind the walls...rats nests... and hidden family heirlooms....

What confronts us is a 7ft tall x 3ft wide door way,  about 2ft deep.  stuffed with old yellow loft insulation.  and in the insulation is many perfectly formed round holes...a little like tunnels. 

Yes..... tunnels......RAT tunnels .......

''Get a big stick !''  Stevie says... I find a long length  of 2x2 wood, and he begins poking the insulation fiercely.    No live ones darted out...so it was abandoned. years ago by the looks of it,  but  the nest was huge.  It wasnt just a little nest, it was massive... the size of a hotel for rats.  The yellow insulation was littered with droppings and  mumified remains of small animals.  It was revolting.   We got some of the large packing boxes and began gingerly removing the insulation, and filling the boxes then removing the boxes into the covered yard for disposal.   It was a horrible job.   I watched it all from the other side of the room .

x
Jo