Although their gut told them not to move forward with making a purchase, they agreed to a $10,000 price reduction and took the house. Big mistake! The problems they had noticed went much deeper. The weak basement doorway translated into unfortified walls leading downstairs. The bouncy bathroom floor had been wet under the linoleum and about three inches up two of the walls. The flickering light switches were warning them of the outdated wiring which had to be replaced. In the end, their $10,000 savings only helped to give them a bit of consolation when they paid $27,000 for all of the remodeling! The five-bedroom house sat on pastoral acreage in the American countryside. At less than $180,000, it seemed a steal. But it wasn’t a bargain. Ben and Amber soon realized the dream home they had purchased for their growing family was infested with hundreds of mice. Throngs of field mice crawled beneath the outer walls. At night, the young couple said they would lie awake and listen to scuttling inside the walls. It was like living in a horror movie. The home was most likely the warmest place for mice to call home during cool and cold temperatures. In the spring and summer, the mice fan out across the corn fields bordering the property, but as the days get shorter and cooler, they return to the basement, interior walls and attic. It took months to seal the crevices of the older home and to trap and kill the mice still in the home. It will always be an ongoing issue to watch for.
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