Need to sell my appartment, but what’s that smell?

(this post was written on May 11. in Word on the PC, in the hope that one day I would have a blog where I could share it)

The first step towards getting a tiny house is definitely getting rid of the home I own in Kristiansand (south of Norway)!

The house is part of a vertically divided semi-detached house and has been rented out for two years to a family.

As I live in Oslo and the house is in Kristiansand, it was a friend who received the keys and went through the house for inspection after the tenants had cleaned out the house. There were a lot of broken things and a terrible smell, but when I visited on April 13. to see for myself, the stench met me at the door like a wall. It was a sour and nose-stinging stench. There are three bedrooms in a row on the first floor and the stench got worse the further into the hall I went. The floor in the innermost bedroom bulged and I just thought…

“You have to be kidding…”

Fortunately, I had work clothes with me and was able to borrow tools from my brother and with a circular saw I opened up a small square meter (10 sq ft) of the floor to see what it was like under the floor layer.

Totally destroyed insulation!

What has happened here? Looks as if the glava, styrofoam, moisture barrier and rafterboard have been put in a blender a couple of minutes and put back under the floor! Then there was nothing else to do but open up the rest of the floor and get an overview of the extent of the damage. As I only had two days off from work, I didn’t come close to finishing opening the floor this time.

READY FOR ROUND TWO – WITH BACKUP OF MY PARTNER IN CRIME ❤️

A week later I was back in Kristiansand, this time with my girlfriend Carine and we lived in Hamresanden Resort as the house was unlivable due to the insane stench.

The next day we got a good deal done. I also had an appointment with some builders so they could come and look at the damage and what it would cost to rebuild it.

I opened a case with my insurrance company who sent both an appraiser and Anticimex (rat expert) to map how much rat activity there is in the floor. And there was a LOT! The whole floor was full of rat sh*t. And they had eaten the moisture barrier and destroyed the glava so it was completely out of order.

There was a lot of floor-sawing and trying to clean a bit while we were at it and welcoming those who wanted to come and look at this creepy rat nest. We felt really cool with all of our rat-quiptment!

Then it was time for us to travel back to Oslo and we were well satisfied with the effort. Both feeling a little tipsy after having stood in rat piss for a few days and not quite knowing what to think of the whole situation of the house.. How is this going to end..? I seriously see no end..

Third turn + a blessing in disguise!

When Carine and I left, we had opened up the floor in the three bedrooms + one square meter in the corridor outside. This third trip I went alone and aimed to completely finish tearing up the rest of the three bedrooms as well as the entire hallway outside and continue as far as necessary.

Here comes the luck!

The area of the first floor is approximately 100 square meters (1150 sq ft), and after opening the floor bit by bit, I saw, to my great surprise, that only 45 square meters of the floor was destroyed, for the rest is cast concrete and in top condition!

Now the next job is to put the rest of the glava in garbage bags and drive to the garbage heap with everything inside the house and outside.

Fortunately, I was able to borrow my brother-in-law’s trailer!

I actually didn’t need more than two trips to the heap to get rid of it all!

Before and after:

So now I have done what I can in terms of getting rid of rat ruined stuff. The builder who stopped by shook his head a lot, because here there is so much to deal with that it is hard to believe. The whole house is built in an unusual way that is completely mind-blowingly dumb.

There is no ventilation in the stub attic, so things rot, the beams which are the legs of the house stand directly on concrete without a moisture barrier in between so water draws up into the building, the roof has to be replaced, the house “smiles” (sunk in the middle) and has to be lifted up on new posts, there is no ventilation against the cladding so it has to be changed..

The list is long.. And expensive.

And I try not to lose heart, but I can’t help seeing my tiny house disappearing on the horizon. In terms of price, the renovation for the whole shabang is around 7-800 000 Norwegian Crowns ( 70-80 000 dollars) which is money I neither have nor want to spend on this crappy house.

My insurrance company disclaims all responsibility.

After a lot of back and forth with the insurance company where I explain that rats have destroyed the floor and that 45 square meters have to be cast and that all of the construction will cost around 400 000 Norwegian Crowns. They agreed to pay for a couple of rolls of glava since that was what the rats had broken. The rejection document consisted of 108 pages and I am far from finished with this case!

On my way home to Oslo it was nice to swing by my lovely mother and get some chocolate and comforting words. I have the best mom in the world!❤️

Have you had anything in your life that has seemed totally impossible? How did you solve it?

Thank you for reading this post ❤️

🌈Irene

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