House (or should I say Mouse) Repairs

You may recall my battle with mice a couple of years ago. I discovered there was a water leak behind the siding from the roof, as the brilliant house builders and siding contractors did not seal up a hole at the end of a J-channel. This leak was happening since we had the house built over 20 years ago! Anyway, it had finally rotted the wood to a point that the mice could get in. We thought we had the mouse issue licked after we had a contractor replace the aluminum trim around the fireplace chimney, but just a week later I caught a mouse in the trap. I suspected more damage behind the siding and found it (Photo 1). I stuffed the hole with foam I saved over the years from various electronics purchases and setup the trail cam. That night a mouse showed up, looking to get in. Today, I took advantage of the nice weather and I set about the repair, first removing more siding, then cutting out the damaged piece of sheathing (Photo 2). The next photo shows the new piece installed and finally everything put back together! Let's hope we don't see any more mice in the basement! The webcam and traps will stay until we're sure.



Yesterday's photo: