The mold hold

August 20, 2010

The house has been on a bit of a mold hold this past week. The roofers were finishing up and we were attempting to get rid of some of the mold, which has mainly been keeping us out. Just remember, even if we don't post for a few days, we will be back......

Today we were in Columbia for Alok's job, so we stopped by an antique store. Here was our find of the day:






Alok on the floor in his suit taking the top off...it worked and we got it to fit in my car.

It's hardwood and about 125 years old. Pretty cool. Now if we only had a home to put it in....

The good news for the house is that the roof is finished!! So far, we are very happy with the work that JDS Construction (Jim Sanders) did for us. (It is storming out right now and we get gutters next week, so hopefully it holds up!). Here are the before and after shots:

Before:




After:




Vents in the attic

Nice, huh?

They also did a great job on these metal roofs, which were responsible for a lot of water damage:


This is the one that is responsible for the mold in the closet in the apartment


One off of the living room

The only place that is still driving Alok crazy is one board above the mold room. There was some rotted wood (shocking!), so they had to replace it. We have to get it sealed/painted to prevent leaks. In the meantime, Alok will slightly obsess over it.


You can barely see this, but that is window in the mold room. That board you see that isn't painted, needs to be sealed.

JDS also cleaned up our attic, which they were not responsible for (a ton of debris falls in the attic during the complete tear off and they cleaned it all.... it's actually cleaner than before!):


Notice those boards that are popping up? They popped up after the roof was fixed, probably due to the house shifting or heat release or something of that nature.

And look what is missing from our porch:


No massive air conditioner! WOO HOO!!

The last major thing that they did was plugged up the air conditioner that was going through the wall downstairs. Again, we've learned that air conditioners that aren't properly installed (aka everyone in this house) causes water damage.


Before

After

So, we're pretty excited to get those gutters on and hopefully have a leak proof house.

Alok also did some work a few days ago and uncovered those two hidden windows in the kitchen. Here was the room, before we moved in, prior to the windows








Pretty nice, huh?

So, all of that is the good news.

Tomorrow, Alok plans on working in the yard. It is pretty bad. Here are some pics now:

OK, that's mainly bad due to the plaster we ripped out










There were bushes/an ugly railing here, but we had them ripped out so that a dumpster could get in... and it looks better!






The bushes that were cut down. Hmmm.... what to do with them!?

There is also a koi pond in the yard (minus the koi) that we are filling in. As much as we love having a mosquito party area, we need to get rid of it. I literally have 7 new mosquito bites just from taking the pictures above. We want to do a cool outside area and fence in the yard (side note, any fencing ideas- these have to be able to contain a pet and be historically accurate), but that stuff will have to wait until the spring/summer. In the meantime, Alok plans on getting that cleaned up.

The more fun stuff is that we now have to tear out all carpet in the house. We were originally planning on leaving the carpet that was in the apartment (the carpet was almost new), but due to the lovely hidden mold, we need to get it all out. This wouldn't be such a big deal as it'll be nicer anyway without it, but here is what this area looks like now:



Yup, we moved all of our belongings onto the carpet about a week ago. So, tomorrow Alok and one of the neighbors are going to move this stuff into the garage. (we have a hard working, 20 something next door that has a full-time job but is always looking for work and even worked on our roof) . Ya know, backing the moving truck up to the garage and emptying it that way would have been a bit easier. But, it was full of the roofer's stuff and hindsight's 20/20 right?

And, of course, we found some wet spots on the laundry room floor. I think we should just assume that everything in this house is damaged/wet/moldy unless proven otherwise.


Alok investigating the laundry room


Water damage

Oh, and you remember the master bedroom (aka the mold room)? Here it was before:





Us prior to entering the mold room

Here it is now:


That is the window that had the mold around it


The closet the fell in before


The north side of the room (mold window to your right)


Some old insulation on the floor


Area facing the old closet


South side of the room



Remember the area of the house that I said that Alok is obsessed with being slanted/possibly detached from the house:


That slanted area is the closet in the mold room


Well, he's right! In the master bedroom, you can see where it pulled off of the rest of the house and we now have a nice view of the outside.


Alok checking out his area of obsession; notice that you can see daylight


See those boards straight ahead? They should be attached to the house

Oh, and the closet in the yellow bedroom upstairs that was water damaged also fell in:





Window next to the closet that is floor length (aka a fire escape). Lovely molding around the bottom, huh?



OK, I think I need to go and have a drink ;-) (and we are watching the movie the money pit tonight

Jessica