What on earth did the raccoon do to your attic that cost $1240?
Raccoons tear your shingles off, so rain gets into the attic. They also chew up the drywall to nest. Among other potentially expensive destruction ...
I'm awfully surprised that you were the first to catch that, after nearly 40 posts. It has been an ongoing problem dating back to when we first bought the house in '93. We rented out the upstairs and had no idea that we had raccoons at all. Our tenant never mentioned hearing strange noises because she figured--I'm not kidding--the house was haunted. In '97, when we were still renting out the upstairs, part of our roof collapsed. We had the entire roof replaced ($4,500). The roofer said at the time that he reattached our attic vents and screens because "varmint unknown" had dislodged or destroyed them. What the roofer failed to mention at the time was that the roof damage itself was done by said varmint. In '99 we converted our home back into a single family home ($7,000). As soon as we moved our bedrooms upstairs we knew we were NOT alone. A momma raccoon was raising a litter in the attic--again, she had dislodged the vents and ripped apart the screens. We had her trapped and removed, reattached the vents, replaced the screens, only to have her offspring move in, every autumn, like clockwork. Good money after bad. We are having the roof vents removed entirely and having a "ridge" vent installed. Absolutely raccoon-proof. The plus-side is that it will greatly increase air circulation in the attic as well as on the second floor, which will reduce our AC use this summer.
BTW, our idiot roofer could have done all of this back in '97 when we were having the roof replaced. Yet another lesson learned...research your local contractors very carefully. The lowest bid may very well cost you more in the end.