Today I was able to put an end to a problem in my life and I think I owe it to you to explain what went down.
In August I discovered a big plumbing problem with my home. To address it I had a big plumbing job that practically replaced all the pipes under my home. This was back in September, and I hadn't been home that much in October since I was training in Seattle.
Naturally time progresses to November and there's a strange phenomenon in my home: noises in the attic at night. I think to myself, is it a racoon? I call pest control and a guy shows up to tell me that it's a rat problem, not a racoon problem. The guy even showed me pictures of rat dropping and other evidences of activity. I'm putting this in bold because we'll come back to this.
So I chronicled all of these in these writings: <#> <#> and after the last writing I put up a chemical trap and just hoped for the best. Since then I haven't been hearing much noise in the attic, but one day I woke up with an intense heartburn I hadn't felt in years. I was stressed! Especially after my wife told me that rats could lead to a house fire when they chew cables and such.
I needed to do something other than praying for the best. But at the same time I couldn't afford the cost of a complete eradication. This puts me in an interesting pickle, because the guy even showed me pictures and gave me evidence of activity so how can I not treat this while I'm practically praying that my house doesn't catch on fire every night? I don't have enough money to solve a problem I can't ignore.
So I reviewed the estimate. The total cost was going to be about $18k. The bulk of it was because they needed to completely replace the insulation, which I had just re-done less than a decade ago. I had no intention of replacing the insulation but what if there was a company that would treat this without changing the insulation?
I called another company and asked, but even they said they needed to replace the insulation. So I didn't even need to ask about their estimate because I knew that anything to do with insulation was going to cost an arm and a leg. My last resort was to just do the perimeter work of fencing the entries, so that all the rats inside the home would die from the traps and new ones wouldn't come in (this is a foolish thought, I'll explain in a bit).
I already had the estimate for the simple perimeter work, and if I was just going to do the perimeter work... Why not get a second quote? And more importantly, since I had great success with a local small business last time I had a rodent problem, why not search for a local small business this time? I opened up maps and found a rodent control company literally in walking distance from my house. They would meet me the day I come back from Hawai'i.
A wonderful gentleman named Shay came with a sturdy ladder and an industrial mask. He gallantly walked up the attic and came down with a very surprising music to my ears: "Billy, it looks like your situation is salvageable".
Basically his opinion was that there is no need for me to replace the entire insulation. Why? He justified it using the photos he had taken of my attic. But while the photos show the same thing as they showed since the last guy's estimate, the explanation was very different.
He said, "You see all of this insulation here? If you truly had an infestation, all of this white area would be covered in poop. But all we see here is just one. And take a look at this pipe and vent. Yes, you see footprints here but with a true infestation the pipe would be a completely different color, in this color of the urine. You see how this portion has a different color?".
It was a picture of the same situation, but the explanation was so radically different. What gives? So now I'm thinking, 'what if this guy is just saying this so I have to keep calling him for future problems?' and he dispelled that doubt straight away. Services with this company is a lifetime guarantee, and how it works is like this.
You decide to get the job done, and the entire house gets worked on in one day. He called it "shock value" for the rats. They will seal all the entries below and above the house and set traps ALL in the same day while the rats are out and about from the home. Then when they decide to come back, SURPRISE, FUCKA!!! You can't!
Then after a week or so, the guys come again to check the traps. And depending on how the traps look, the next appointment is set. If multiple traps are activated, the follow-up appointment is done in the next 4 days or so. If a few traps are activated, then the follow-up is done in the next 11 days. We continue this process until the traps have no activity.
My original plan wouldn't work because rats multiply super quick; so even if I had just a pair of rats that reproduce before they die with my bio trap, they would infest the house and furthermore they'd have nowhere to go to! Also he showed me pictures of what my trap looked like in the attic now. I put silicone containers of cornmeal and baking soda, and the entire silicon container was broken down with chew marks. That was great visual proof of what I was dealing with.
Since I've done my fair share of research around rodent control, this makes complete sense to me and gives me assurance that it is worth investing into. He tells me, "we don't want to bullshit you with random work because we'd rather give you a lifetime guarantee, and get a referral from you". Isn't that amazing, because that's practically how I operate as a small business owner myself!
And the best part is, the price is around $4600 and they take two payments. Voila. COMPLETELY lifetime rat-proofing for a fraction of the original estimate. My mom said consider this a lottery in winning the difference between the two costs. This conversation was yesterday, and the work was done today. Holy crap.
So in one day my rat days are over. The guys worked from 7AM to 4PM. In Korean Seon Buddhism there is a concept of "sudden awakening, incremental practice". This simple concept seems to imply a lot of things. Perhaps you need incremental practice for a sudden awakening? Perhaps it's declaring that there is no gradual awakening? Perhaps there is no awakening that makes practice obsolete?
Since this writing isn't a lecture about Buddhism, what I really want to say is the more you take a keen interest and curiosity about problem solving in your life, the more you will develop an eye for insight. And with that insight, when the right opportunity comes... You'll catch it in a heartbeat.
Billy Seol
July Life Coach
julylifecoach.com
