Bugs and Pests

Darling is my hero, for a lot of reasons, but her latest endeavor perfectly displays her combination of velvet glove and iron fist.

I already posted about how well she handled having our current house completed before we moved in. She was relentless in her pursuit of quality work at the very best prices. She had a guy come and put a really fine fence around the back yard. She had workers renovate the inside of the house, painting, plumbing and flooring. I love the laminate flooring in this house even if it means I occasionally leave barefoot footprints across the surface. Maybe especially if I leave footprints. To clean the prints off the floor I put on a nice fluffy pair of socks and skate around the floor, buffing until it shines again. She found a good contractor to install the laminate flooring, though we certainly should not have watched it being installed. She erased a tree AND had grass put in the front yard. I didn't think the grass would survive, but the front yard looks fantastic. She had blinds installed and new trees planted. She even held a massive garage sale at the old house to get rid of stuff (we donated much of what was left).

On top of that, she monitors my health pretty closely and notices things I tend to overlook. I won't go into any more details than what I have already on my health, but she is certainly determined! AND she was key in getting our first book written and published (trust me, folks, she made it readable for the hoi-polloi).

She battled with cancer for the past year and mostly kept her spirits up, which is astounding considering how much pain she went through. She is currently helping to tend a sick friend from church.

Yesterday is just another example of how astounding she is when she handles life. We noticed we had a few more bugs around the house than we should. I sprayed Demon™ (no kidding, that's what it's called) around the house a few weeks ago and we shouldn't be seeing much in the way of bugs. Darling noticed some outside that made her curious and cautious. We had termites in the last house, so we're a little gun shy.

Darling had a pest control guy come out to inspect the house. This guy was from a company starting with "A" and ending with "ty" and if you want more specifics just drop me an email. After inspecting the house he declared we had termites and the house needed to be treated. He gave her a quote and said he could come treat it today. I've never known Darling to stop with a single quote, though. She made numerous calls to local pest control companies to get better (and worse) quotes for treating the house for termites. Finally she called the original guy back and he adjusted his price to something closer to the other bidders. That was a few hundred dollars saved.

Today when the technician came to the house she didn't let him start until he showed her the termites. He couldn't. "Well," he said, "there are signs of subterranean termites."

"Fine," said Darling. "Show me the signs." He couldn't do that either.

She sent him away and we will never use that company again. The company owner called and said he would drop the price another hundred dollars to treat the house. "He couldn't prove we had termites," she said.

"Well," he replied, "it's a preventive thing." She politely told him no thanks.

So she saved us quite a few hundred dollars, as well as the yearly maintenance contract, which costs $125. And, importantly to me, Darling identified a local pest control company that isn't entirely honest in dealing with people.

We still have some bugs that need to be taken care of, but she already took care of a pest.