So for about 24 hours, we were convinced we were breathing in toxic black mold and that our house was a forever-unsellable poisonous nightmare. Not a pleasant feeling.
Fortunately, a guy from a local mold remediation company came over and calmed us down. He basically said, it's not that bad, you can clean it yourselves, if it were really toxic you'd be vomiting right now. He was a wonderfully decent guy who not only gave us 45 minutes of professional advice for free, he threw in a free jug of professional grade anti-microbial solution. I never want to have to use any kind of professional mold removal service but, if I ever do, I'm calling that guy.
So for the last several days we've been scouring, cleaning, bagging, rearranging, and burning. (Yeah, our neighbor has a burn pit and I've been indulging the pyro in me by burning the living heck out of some really satisfying stuff - a card table and chairs, old files, some old shelves. Burn, baby, burn.) We also bought a couple of dehumidifiers which we have going 24 hours a day. The basement smells better than it ever has and definitely feels more welcoming. We're still only about 80 percent done with the cleaning. We've got most everything wiped down and put away but we still need to put a few stragglers away and then sweep and mop the whole thing. It wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that the basement floor is like the length of a football field. Mopping it will be like swabbing the deck of the U.S.S. Enterprise. It's big.
(This is a shot of me cleaning the basement.)
As long as I'm on the subject, I should publicly own up to what caused the mold in the first place. We have extenders on our rain gutter downspouts - they're about four feet long and they carry the water away from the house and down the hill. Before we left for our family reunion, I mowed the lawn and took the extenders off so I could mow the Amazon jungle of weeds growing under and around them. After I was done with that part of the lawn, I moved on without replacing the extenders. Yep.
We left for five days and, while we were gone, it rained. Because water takes the path of least resistance, it went down around the foundation of the house and seeped its way into our basement.
The mold? My fault. Entirely.
And that sucks. It sucks to be the cause of so much stress and work and inconvenience. It's bad enough for bad things to happen but to be the cause of bad things happening? Way worse.
Anyway, as I say, we're nearly there in terms of cleaning and restoring. I'm grateful it wasn't as bad as it could have been. We lost a few precious things but, in the end, they were just things. Everyone's still healthy, we still have a home to live in. We are very blessed.
Anyway, in the spirit of making the subject of mold a little more pleasant, here's a nice ditty you all recognize from the Juno soundtrack by the band known as The Moldy Peaches:
6 comments:
WATAMESS ! (I mean the mold ... although The Moldy Peaches are a bit lacking in the personality dept. as well !)
S&D had mold in TX ... luckily they came in under the radar, too.
I returned to a moldy cucumber in the veggie drawer hiding under a bag of carrots. I did not have to don hazard clothing to remove it !
Glad it was not more serious.
The thought of mold stresses me out to no end. Dang midwest. Mold and basement flooding. Argh. I remember sitting at the window watching while a torrential downpour turned my backyard into a river and not wanting to go to sleep because I was convinced the sump pump couldn't keep up with it, or the power would go out, and we'd wake up and the whole basement would be a swimming pool that would never fully dry out, and mold would grow, and then we'd NEVER be able to move, ever again, unless we declared bankruptcy. (Anxiety much? I know.) Of course, this never happened, but the possibility always loomed. So I'm really relieved for you that in the end the solution was relatively easy to take and you no longer need to entertain the thoughts of bankruptcy. Or of living in a small Illinois town, breathing in remnants of mold spores, until the day you (prematurely) die. Cause that would be a bummer.
you guys need to get that mold dude a gift certificate to a restaurant or something, what a nice guy
glad things are looking a little less fuzzy at your house.
Was it ok that I could only stand 5 seconds of that video?
Mold is a big deal up here in the NW. Yukkkk. I assume your house innards are ok too.
By the way, your basement is beautiful.... and you look exceptionally handsome in that hazo suit.
Ack!! Mold is scary stuff.
Dehumidifiers are the best invention to ever hit the muggy wetness that is the midwest. I'm glad things are drying out now and that it wasn't as bad as it could have been!
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