Raccoon in House

[Dean Hoffman]

A woman had a bit of a surprise.

[invalid unparseable]

Neighbor had a lot of cats and a cat door. His son came down one morning to find a raccoon eating the cat food in the kitchen.

[Marilyn Manson]

We have a cat door into the garage and then one into the kitchen. They got into the garage but for some reason never used the one into the kitchen. My camera shows them (family of 5) walking right past it multiple times. Same style door, so it's not like they didn't know how to use it. We were lucky.

The best part was the exterior camera view after we locked the garage cat door. They were crawling all over each other trying to get it open. "Let me try". "No, let me try." "Get out the way, I'll get it."

One of them stood on its hind legs, stretching as high as possible, trying to look in the windows. Really?

[micky]

LOL

I always thought those doggie doors had an inherent weakness.

Before I got here there was a string of burglaries by someone who would break the basement window, which is about 12" high and at ground level and crawl into the basement. I'd be afraid to do that for fear my body would get folded 90 degrees at my rib cage.

But the previous owner of this house had put in bars on that window. So close to the window you could only open it 1/3 of max. When I got around to moving the bars a couple inches, I saw the window was plastic, so I guess my house was burgled too.

[TimR]

I think there might be a code requirement to have basement windows be an egress though.

[Marilyn Manson]

It depends on the structure, the layout, and of course, local code.

Yes, you typically need 2 means of egress (primary and emergency) but neither have to be a window. Doors work really well. ;-)

If the basement isn't finished (e.g. housing mechanical equipment only) or if there are no separate rooms with doors, the rules *may* be a bit more relaxed (local code always applies).

Once you start adding doors between spaces, especially if you create a space that could be considered a bedroom, then the rules for additional egress means get more complicated.

[micky]

These windows woudln't be that anyhow, because they are 7 feet above the floor. I keep my brother's father's desk chair, from 1930, next to it, so I can reach the window and the top of the bookshelf next to it, but that's still not enough for me to get out the window. So I guess that rule doesn't apply here.

[micky]

All of these houses were built with a finished room (known in Baltimore as a club room) and a wall and door separating it from the room with the furnace and intended for the washing machine and dryer. There is a fireplace either in the basement room or the living room above it.

There is only one stairway up to the first floor here. I'm sure there are millions of houses like mine

Right. It's not a bedroom. I'm still looking for members for my club. And a theme.

But there is a rough-in in the basement for a toilet and a sink. That sort of encourages making it into a bedroom, and I would think some people have. In fact I slept in the basement the first summer, until I installed a roof fan and it was no longer too hot to go upstairs when I got home. Until my next-door neighbor's wife died, he was going to fix up the basement room as a bedroom.

[Jim Joyce]

It seems like your brother's father is possibly your father, too.

[Marilyn Manson]

What?

Just because the window in question doesn't meet the specifications of an egress window doesn't mean that the rule doesn't apply.

The rule defines the requirements. An existing (or even a non-existing) egress opening doesn't change when and where the rule applies.

[micky]

No, he wasn't my father.

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It either doesn't appy *here* or all these houses were built in violation of code.