Random musings on my vagabond existence in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania and wherever else life takes me.
The brutal cold weather this past month has given this semi-retired person a few blunt reminders about the unplanned hassles and costs of owning a second home.
When I built my dream mountain house five years ago in the untrammeled reaches of Pennsylvania’s Endless Mountains, I was careful to do whatever I could to make the place as hassle-free as possible. I made sure the house was well-insulated and had a good drainage system around the foundation so that no water could get in.
Other than a hot water tank, the house also has no complicated heating or cooling systems, relying on radiant baseboard units in each of the rooms for heat. To supplement those units, I put in a propane fireplace fueled by a tank out back, as well as a Mitsubishi mini split ductless system that delivers both heat and air conditioning on the first and second floors.
The Mitsubishi system is connected to the house WiFi, so as long as I have electricity, I’m able to monitor the house temperature on my phone, which is good since the house is a two-hour drive away.
Still, a house is a house and problems arise, which has certainly been the case so far this bitterly cold winter.
The first problem happened in early January when I came up to the house to find out the place had been invaded by a family of hungry, heat-seeking field mice. I’ve had issues with mice in the past—the house is built in the middle of a pasture field, after all—but this invasion was of a whole different magnitude.
In the two weeks that I had been away over the holidays, the little critters had somehow found their way inside and eaten everything they could find, including an entire jar of dog treats that I’d foolishly left uncovered in the kitchen.
There were mouse droppings everywhere—on the countertops, in the sink, under the sink, in drawers. The only cabinets that were left untouched were those without an access point. It was pretty disgusting.
Then I went upstairs and found, to my dismay, that the mice had been frolicking up there as well. There were droppings on my desk, the sacred place where I write with a view of the mountain. There were droppings as well on the night table in the master bedroom.
There were even—yikes!—droppings on the bedspread and pillows. Now, why would those darn mice be interested in running around on my bed?
Needless to say, I stripped everything, gave the house a thorough cleaning, and made calls. I was fortunate to find a local pest service guy who paid a visit the next day. It didn’t take him long to locate the source of the problem.
The installation of a new patio door in October had left a small gap around the outer base trim of the door. That tiny hole was enough for the mice to find their way inside when the cold weather hit.
From all the droppings, the pest guy suspected I had between 20 to 30 mice running around the house. Mice propagate rapidly, he told me, if they have a food source and a warm, dry place to breed. As to why they were in my bed, it was because they use thread from cloth in making their nests.
Yuck, yuck, triple yuck.
The guy set out a bunch of poison traps at strategic locations (sorry, animal lovers, but it had to be done), and within a week, the mice were no more. I then sealed up the hole by the door and voila—no more mice problem.
Life was good again, until two weeks later when I ran into another issue brought on by the severe weather.
The outside spigot in the back of the house froze one night when the temperatures plunged to below zero. It was my own fault. Not only had I forgotten to shut off the spigot down in the basement, but I hadn’t taken the hose off.
As I had to leave to go back to our primary residence, I removed the busted valve and put it in the car so I would know what spigot to pick up at Lowe’s back home. But I didn’t think to seal the hole where the line went into the basement.
Mistake.
When I came back a few days later, the water lines to the house were frozen. In the sub-zero temperatures, that one-inch-round entry hole was all that was needed to freeze the water pipes in the basement.
I immediately installed the replacement spigot, and after buying a roll of pipe heating tape at the local hardware store and running a space heater in the basement for a few hours, the lines thawed out and I had water again.
All in all, those two problems cost me a cool $300. My final surprise came yesterday when I got a $410 electricity bill for the past month. It seems those baseboard heating systems were kicking on at night when the outside temperatures went down to zero.
Who’s glad that January is over?
Me!
Live and learn. In the meantime, I have my fingers crossed that the recent warming trend continues. I'm ready for spring!