Why Are Weird Things Happening?
For some reason weird things are happening around here.
Yesterday Steve drove us around the corner to get lunch and we came back here to eat it. We weren’t gone even an hour.
As soon as I walked in the door, I saw black spots all down the hall and into the dining room. I figured someone had come in and tracked it in.
So I got my carpet spot cleaner and went to work. It wouldn’t come up. Just spread outward. Like charcoal stains.
I called the office to see if a maintenance man had been in here and they said my keys had not been checked out of the office.
Last night I got on the floor again and scratched at a new spot. I could tell the spot was new because it is always dark. And the rest I’ve already tried to clean, and they’re now grayish looking.
Very Strange Occurrence:
I scratched the surface with my fingernail and ants spread out in every direction from that spot. Then immediately disappeared somehow right back into the carpet.
Then they just come up in a new spot. This is very strange.
I got in my car this morning and drove to the office. So I went inside and told the manager about this weird occurrence. And as luck would have it, the exterminator was coming this morning.
So within an hour, here he was at my door. At that point, there were about 20 spots on the carpet.
He sprayed the baseboards in the hall. I hate their doing this, but I don’t own the place. He said this was the strangest thing that he’d seen happen in over 20 years in the extermination field.
We can’t figure out why the surface spots on the floor are somewhat sticky and the stain won’t come out. He said maybe they’re coming in through the carpet glue.
So he went straight down to the manager and told her to have the steam clean guys come in to clean the areas where the ants had been seen.
You’d think they’d want to find the source underneath the carpet, but that’s not how it works.
Tomorrow the steam cleaner guys will come and try to steam them to death.
Kendra’s Weird Problem:
I think I told you a month or so ago that one of Kendra’s rent houses burned. The woman who lived there had let her renter’s insurance lapse by one month. Not a smart thing to do.
Anyway, now they’re fixing it so the young woman can move back in.
Problem is, there’s a steel stripper pole in the center of the dining room from ceiling to floor. The woman said she’d paid to have it installed.
Kendra said she didn’t care about the stripper pole, but they’d have to take it out so they could refinish the hardwood floors.
But guess what? No one can get it down. Kendra has tried, contractors have tried, the fire restoration guys have tried. And so far, they can’t get the darned thing down.
Every contractor that goes in there calls her laughing and making jokes.
Maybe they’ve found a solutions since yesterday. I haven’t talked to her. But it was her plan, if they couldn’t get it down, to just sand around the pole and redo the floors.
She put all this on Facebook to see if any of her realtor/house flipping friends had some idea about what to do. Of course all the comments were hysterical. But several gave her ideas of what to try next.
Some said put stadium seats in and sell tickets. Others said to go to a strip club and ask them. A structural engineer gave her some ideas to try. Some said check YouTube.
It’s Funny If It Isn’t Happening To You:
A friend named Kerry said to build a table around it. I guess to make it look like it’s supposed to be there.
One said: “OOOORRRRRR…you could just leave it up and it could be one of “those” Air B&B’s.”
A friend named Ben said: “You know you put that in before renting. Be your true self. Kendra aka Precious.”
Kendra has looked for screws or plates, and she has asked the tenant how it was constructed. The tenant said she paid someone to put it there but didn’t know how he did it.
I’m sure that he will be the next person Kendra calls.
She said she doesn’t care about the addition of the stripper pole as long as the rent is paid. But she needs to refinish the floor, which unfortunately is a problem with the stripper pole.
And can you imagine if Kendra decided to sell the house with a stripper pole installed in the center of the dining room? Families would walk right out the door. How would you explain a stripper pole to children?
So those are the updates on my daughter and I. My daughter with a stripper pole problem, and I have ants building hills from underneath the carpet.
Geez Louise.
My goodness, those ants in the carpet is the weirdest thing I have heard in a long time. I do hope that they can be eliminated … forever!
Omg, Brenda, today’s post was hysterical! Throughly funny read! Sorry, I’m not laughing at you… just the crazy situations you and Kendra are in. Are you ok from getting down onto the floor to scrub the spots? I hope you didn’t hurt yourself! Did you take pictures? You might need proof. Document everything! I was a little confused… when did you realize it was ants? Was it the very first black spot you cleaned? It sounded like the first set of now gray areas you cleaned, you didn’t notice it, until the next time you had to clean, and then the ants showed up. How didn’t they run when you started to clean the first spot? Anyway, I would have freaked out and called management to come deal with it immediately! As for Kendra’s problem, I think she’s awfully nice letting the same woman move back into her house. First, she burns it down, then she installs a stripper pole that nobody can figure out how to remove. She didn’t think to ASK Kendra if that would be ok first?! If the house burned down, how is it that that stood pole is left standing?! What are the odds?? Good, I guess. I would have been PISSED at the renter if I were her!!! Has anyone tried cutting the pole out in pieces? You two definitely win the weird prize, lol! Well, I can’t wait to hear what happens! Please keep us posted!
Just shaking my head but must say can’t wait to see how you and Kendra resolve this.
Oh my gosh that is so weird. It literally sounds like a bad dream!
Are you sure those were ants coming out of the carpet and not some other kind of bug – or mold? Last month, my mom walked into her mud room and there were millions of microscopic black bugs all over the wall. Long story short, she found out the source was certain plants she had planted by the wall of the house and they were coming in through the walls from those plants. I can’t remember how she got rid of them, but she didn’t have to call an exterminator – which she didn’t want to do because of the poison (she has a dog), plus the cost. Anyway, your apt management needs to find out where these ants are coming from, otherwise just randomly spraying isn’t going to do any good. I hope they can at least spray around your building. Can you keep Ivy containted to a bedroom for awhile if they spray in your living room and hallway? She shouldn’t come in contact with that poison.
And OMG on the stripper pole in Kendra’s rental house!! That is just nuts. Though I’ve read about women doing intense workouts on stripper poles – NOT stripping. Maybe that’s what the woman was doing but either way – in the dining room?! I say leave it up and wrap lights around it as a decorative feature. 😉
Well, well, Brenda…I have to say this is one of your weirdest posts! And I’ve been reading them for more than ???? years–five at the very least! Gosh, my life is pretty boring compared to yours and Kendra’s. The stripper pole is pretty weird and, I guess, hilarious..mostly weird, though. You just never know what people are really like, do you? Anyway, I hope the ant issue gets resolved. That is very strange. Seems like the carpet should be removed to really know what is calling those strange little critters. Can’t wait to see tomorrow’s post!
Crazy! At first I kept thinking I was reading striper pole? Which I really don’t even know what it is. And the ants, crazy. The house on 3 acres next to my Aunt has 12 people, 3 generations living in it. The teenage boys are riding 4 wheelers all over. I looked up the State regulations regarding how many farm animals are allowed in their residential neighborhood and they are clearly non compliant. The long time residents are disgusted and want to move. The worse thing is that the neighbors now have rats and mice in their homes. My aunt had towels chewed up completely in a kitchen drawer and a basement cabinet for nesting material. So sad. Good luck.
I’m not sure what is going on. Did you hear about Paris??? It’s loaded with bedbugs and the Olympics is coming up. Yikes. Good luck with all your issues.
I was eating lunch as I read this and literally spit out food when you I read about Kendra’s problem! Oh my word! That’s hysterical! What in the world???? That takes nerve to install something like that in a house that isn’t yours. Wow.
Stripper pole – maybe whoever put it in tied it into a beam in the ceiling structure and then patched the drywall and spackled over it and painted it, unless he (I assume it was a he who installed it) ran it all the way up into an attic beam! Is there some kind of circular attachment around the bottom of the pole on the floor that is screwed in? I can’t picture how a bunch of supposedly experienced dudes called in to remove the thing can’t figure out how the heck to do it. Personally, I’d take a sledge hammer and bang the bottom of the pole out of the way so the floor can be refinished and then reconnect the bottom of the pole to the floor when the finish is set. If it messes up the ceiling a little bit because of the tilt just do some spackle repair. Can you tell I’m no pro and certainly have no patience – YES! The ants are coming in from outside, obviously, unless you’re building is built over a now rotting wooden slab (doubtful). They need to put down bug killer all around the outside of the entire building for starters, rip up the carpeting and see what’s there. Cheap management doesn’t want to pay for what needs to be done to solve the problem. If you have ant problems, I find it hard to believe that other tenants aren’t also experiencing the same thing. Ask around. File a complaint with the Health Department or Building Inspection if need be. Nobody should have to live with such conditions and you’re certainly paying enough rent, plus you recently wrote that management is increasing the rent and some tenants may not be able to afford it. What – increasing rent for a place infested with ants????? Please don’t tolerate such treatment.
Oh Brenda,
just shaking my head regarding Kendra’s stripper pole! This is why I am no longer a landlord. I can’t wait to hear the fix for it. Regarding your ants, just completely bizarre. I can’t imagine what is attracting them now. Have you brought in a houseplant or statuary? Bringing in a small statue is how I brought earwigs in my house. It was awful! I had a good exterminator who introduced me to 20 Mule Team borax. That stuff is phenominal and works great on ants. I’m tuning in tomorrow!
Very strange story indeed…hope it gets solved soon💕
Well, I’m definitely stumped. Good luck to you and Kendra. I hope resolution is found for both challenges.
Any chance there’s mold in the underpad and it has started coming up through the carpet? I hope not, but something to consider maybe?
Oh my gosh Brenda your ant problem is a mystery to everyone! Kendra’s stripper pole problem is very entertaining to say the least. Ha Ha.
What exciting stories you had today! We have had the invasion of crickets here at the apartments where I live. It has been so hot, and the
hotter it is the more they chirp.
Once I lived in a house that had a phone in the garage, kitchen, living room, each of three bedrooms, and each bath. Lightning hit an outside box. The repairman asked me if I had installed it. That is funny. Then he asked if I knew there was a 900 “calling business” there. That also explained the many magazines that came in the mail with ads for clothes that I would never ever wear.
Thanks for the laughs.
Brenda, for the first time ever as your faithful reader, I simply don’t know what to say!
No one seems to know what to say. I sure don’t.