Mold remediation round 3

The last two week were busy!  Since our house was not toxic-mold free, Curtis Wright came back up to treat our home.  (There’s a guy who really DOES stand behind his work!)  To make sure that we uncovered all the mold we could this time, we cleaned out our garage to get access to the walls and planned to remove sheetrock in Emily’s room and in the living room and kitchen.  We planned to combine mold remediation with weatherization of cold areas.  

Kevin enjoying the day.

The prior weekend, we set up a portable shelter and moved all of our “treasures” from the garage and house outside into the “shed”.  It was a long weekend but we got most of it done.  Thanks Julie for the help!  We spent the rest of the week trying to get things ready to move out.  The McCreadys offered as some rooms for a week or so at their house for which we are very grateful.  Did we get it all done?  Well, let’s just say that Friday was a hectic day.

Bees nest in wall.

I moved the shelves, toolboxes, and all the goods left in the garage into the middle so we could get to the walls where some water damage had occurred.  The garage went from overflowing to nearly empty. Then, Kevin and I assumed the role of “Safety Ninja” and removed the sheetrock from Emily’s room.  It took us a few hours of hard work and clean up.  Well, Kevin said What work?  Some friends, the Reitano’s helped me remove the sheetrock in the living room and Kitchen in the evening (we were here until about 11:30).  Things went pretty good except that the sheetrock in the kitchen was glued AND stapled. Talk about overkill.  Check out the cool hornet nests we found in our wall.

Bathroom Mold

Anyway, after a long day Friday, I had sheetrock stripped from all but the garage.  Saturday morning, I got to the garage and stripped the lower 1 foot from the walls where there was water damage.  We found some mold there.  I also removed some sheetrock from behind the toilet in the kid’s bathroom and found some really great examples of mold.  Without tests, it is difficult to confirm but the photos look to be Stachybotrys.  I took the detailed ones on our fancy digital microscope at work.  Pretty cool!

Bathroom mold forest.

We are waiting to hear back on the mold tests but Leila and I feel very good about what has been done.  We found and removed a bit of mold and we think we may just have a clean house! Well, give or take a few drop clothes, couches, and dust piles.  Hoping to get the weatherization completed and walls up and taped this weekend.

I'm supposed to be working on the house but instead, I think I'll have some ice cream.