Help Save Local Wildlife, Help Save Our Home
Our unique new home is infested by bats, and we need help! Through a series of misfortunate events, we now have a large Victorian home, with waterfront views, access to the state park, and a gigantic army of over 1000 BATS!
We're looking for your support so that we can:
- Salvage the home and make it livable again for our family
- Save the bats, by excluding them (alive) once their pups are mature
- Giving the bats an alternative home - by building colony size bat houses in the forest
- Create a space for hospitality - a rentable suite you can come experience
Our Vision
Peace with the ecology of our region. The bats have dedicated houses in Hoypus Hill Park, and our home grows to become a place you can come and visit (after a lot of cleanup and remodeling). The whole area is a conservationist's paradise, you can forage for berries, mushrooms, and many things from the sea. Come see the bat houses, learn about their natural history, and have fun with vampire themed paraphernalia!
Our Story
Being born and growing up in the PNW, we have been coming to Whidbey Island our entire lives. We are Tom & Mackenzie, recently moved from the busy streets of South King County to the place our family has been camping & fishing for half a century, beautiful Deception Pass on Whidbey Island. It took us over a decade for the stars to align, to have our first child and to move into a real house.
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In 2023, after years of saving, we put down an offer for a house - a beautiful house with a lot of character, in an absolutely lyrical neighborhood. It has easy access to hiking trails, the marina, with water views and incredible wildlife. We felt truly blessed to move into this wonderful neighborhood. The people, the place, it all felt like the perfect fit!
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Moving in with our 5 month old son, Robby, we were excited to give him somewhere magical to grow up. Proximity to several dozen state parks, the islands, and Skagit county meant a whole suite of nature-focused activities and experiences that would take hours of sitting in traffic to experience elsewhere.
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The interior was definitely dated, but it had a certain charm. With a slow room by room renovation strategy, we could afford to fix things up in affordable steps. We imagined a slightly more contemporary look, but still rooted in Victorian style. Being fans of the 'dark academia' vibe, our vision was for walls of books and a big family game room.
Then - moving from May into June - crazy things started to happen, the several plagues of Whidbey. Minor things, like swarms of caterpillars, the forest blooming into fields of stinging nettle, and intense physical illness - norovirus and respiratory infections. Fishermen descended and caught all the lingcod before we did. It all hit us, and at the same time... then the bats came!
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We joke that we wish that we just had ghosts. Every creak in the night was a possible home renovation challenge, which we found to be far scarier. At first we had guests up no problem, then in late may, they started to hear the noises. Scrawling, clawing sounds coming from the walls. Then one got into our bedroom while we slept. We have no idea how long it was there, just that we were all exposed.
After a mad scramble to get help, the Island County Health Department called the state, and recommended we all get rabies shots, even our 8 month old baby. $14,000 and 12 ER visits later, we all have the post-exposure series done. At night we went outside and we could see the bats pouring out of the attic roofline, in packs of 2-3, for over an hour.
Now, fun fact. Our home inspection report suggested evidence of rodents, and that we should check on the seller disclosure to see if it is a major problem. It turns out that estate sales have NO seller disclosure. As essentially first time home buyers, we had no idea, and neither did our agent. Also, bats are more closely related to whales than they are to rodents. Still, that fact was not enough to save us in any way.
After getting denied insurance and being told by some of the best real estate attorneys in the state that we have zero chance of legal success, we feel like we are nearly out of options. We've been told that simply excluding the bats will not be enough, and the damage has built up over a decade or more. The pest control groups found almost a dozen holes with feces, and told us it was the worst residential infestation they had ever seen.
To make the home safe again, from bat re-entry and from the mountains of bat feces (guano) in the walls, we need to consider ripping the attic down to the studs, redoing the entire roof, and building it back from scratch. This may end up costing over $100K, and as much as $150K.
How Can You Help? Bat Houses.
While we really would appreciate your charity, we want to be able to reciprocate. Instead of just raising funds without giving back does not sit well with who we are. We want to build something foundational, make it about the community, and create something of lasting value.
One place we have gotten some help is from the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Instead of just kicking the bats out, we would like to find a way to build bat houses in Hoypus Hill, a sub-section of Deception Pass State Park.
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Most bat houses are as small as a bird house. However for large colonies like they have in Florida required giant bat mansions. We are working with the DFW to figure out designs, size, placement, and permitting with the park.
What we need first - will be materials and labor! We are hoping to find volunteers and contributors who can help us put these together, and then we'll get the park service to put them up. High school shop class, boy scouts, girl scouts, whomever, please contact us!
Fixing Our House - and Making a Cozy Refuge
Our next big step will be figuring out how to reclaim our attic, and possibly parts of the lower stories. The bats not only got into the ceiling, but into the walls, and poo drips down. We will only know the true extend of the damage after we begin ripping out the drywall.
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Fortunately, we have lifelong friends who own a roofing company, Wilderness Roofing & Exteriors. They've been doing properties in the North Puget Sound and San Juan's for decades.
So long as we get the backing we need, or the possibility for mortgage alleviation and reasonable financing from our bank, we will work to find a way to make this work. Costs may be as high as $150K, which will be incredibly hard to fund, especially after we just poured our life savings into the down payment.
But with your contribution - it won't just be a donation - we want to HOST YOU! Come stay with us and tell us your story (once the home is remodelled). We will gladly provide a full photoshoot with no extra charge - and can offer other services in the area such as chartered fishing through our uncle:
