to want to cry?!! (Trivial but very, very annoying, and expensive!)

[lowrib]

We've been having a new kitchen and bathroom done. The job is nearly finished, the decorating has just been done. We've spent ages choosing the right paints and the last cost of paint has just been put on the freshly skimmed ceiling ... and then we found out we have rats between the floors between our flat and the flat above.

Not actually in the flat thank goodness, but they've chewed through the wiring and the lovely new, freshly skimmed and painted ceilings are most likely going to need bloody great big holes put in them - in the kitchen and the bathroom - to get to the wiring to fix it! .

It wouldn't have mattered so much if we'd found the bastard things a few weeks ago, but it's all been beautifully decorated now!

I think my builder / decorator wants to cry too! He was (rightly) really pleased with the job, and the paint on the last coat wasn't even dry when we found out it'd have to be trashed.

Grrr!!!!!!

Think I'm in need of a stiff drink!

That is not trivial,. I would be crying and probably booking a hotel room in a pointless tantrum.

Make that drink a large one.

Can't the flat above lift their floorboards instead to get to the rats? Might be a little less drastic that ripping apart your new ceiling.

And if they're sandwiched between a floor and ceiling, won't they just die eventually anyway?

I'd be crying aswell.

Have a triple brandy, how upsetting for you.

Rats!

They'll find a way out. They need to be exterminated.

Thanks for the sympathy everyone. And thanks especially for the brandy, BelleDeChocolateFluffyBunny, much appreciated!

The council are coming to kill the rats at the beginning of next week. I'm veggie, and shirked away form killing mice when we had them (I think the neighbours may have killed them all of in the end) but rats - euuugh!

Besides, we can't leave them running about - goodness knows how much more damage they'll do?! Fixing the damage they've done is not going to be cheap!

Good thinking about getting in from above Lyrasilvertougue. I've arranged to go upstairs and see if we can get in from above. It's definitely worth a try - here's hoping!

I suspect that, sadly, the idea that if we just leave them to it they'll be trapped and die anyway is a tad over-optimistic however! They must be getting from somewhere. I suspect I'll be spending the weekend looking intently at walls for holes. Oh joy!