the mold patrol

Just when I got the house all organized, the office painted and rearranged, and the closets cleaned out...we're tearing up the house again.

For a long time we've been smelling a funky smell in our house, in certain rooms. We finally narrowed it down to the worst of it being in the 3 rooms that water came in last August during Tropical Storm Fay. To make a long story short, we have mold in the walls. Yuck! Thankfully, the insurance is covering the mold removal, cleanup, and repairs. They are also paying to replace the carpet pad in the 2 rooms and the entire floor in the kitchen. (It's in our bedroom, my office, and the kitchen.)

So today, the mold patrol came to our house. They have put up zippered plastic in all the rooms (just like you would see on "24" or the movie "Outbreak.") And when they are actually removing the mold, they wear HAZMAT suits. It's nuts. So we're without access to those areas for a few days. They started this morning. Unfortunately for them, my office (scrapbook room) is packed full to the brim with all my crafty stuff. They had to pack it all up and move it all out. They are also going to have to move everything out of our bedroom.

Before they moved anything, they had to HEPA vacuum it and get rid of all the dust. But the kitchen is already mold free! Now they just have to replace the insulation, wood beams, drywall, and baseboard in there, and repaint it. They have to remove all of that stuff in all 3 rooms, 4 feet up from the floor. It's craziness! There are also these huge machines that vacuum the air and they have to run 24/7 - so we'll have that going all weekend!

Today, when I came home while they were still working, they told me that it was REALLY bad in the kitchen - there was black mold, green mold, and yellow mold. GROSS!! I'm SO GLAD it's gone - but I really can't wait to get it completely out of the house! I swear I can smell it in the office I just painted too, so they're going to check in here on Monday.

Here are some pictures. I must say, all this does not make me fond of Florida.

Here's the kitchen. Notice that we have no access to the laundry room, so to do laundry I have to go through the garage! Haha!
Here's what you see when you pull back the zipper:
And here's a nice up-close-and-personal behind the zipper:
Here is my quarantined office:
Here's how the den looks with all the office furniture moved in there (in real life the paint is not that bright yellow):
And here's the dining room. Yes, the cats are loving it! They've been climbing all over the place: