Well it LOOKS done.

Working from home feels a bit weird. I mean, I'm in my house, in my bead room actually, where I have a computer desk. That's where I set up the router I plug into and my monitor and what not. So I get the space heater and point it at my legs, turn on the TV, and do what I normally do at work. But at home. Not something I'm used to.

I stayed home today because my landlord finally found someone who would come in and work on fixing up my daughter's moldy, nasty closet. Which basically means she searched high and low, hither and yon, until she could find someone who understood that she wanted the absolute minimum done for the least amount of money possible.

The handy-guy who showed up was nice enough, he went into the closet, knocked on the walls and said "no problem, walls are sound. Got any bleach?"

Sigh.

When we found the leak and the mold in the closet I went all over the internet to find the best solution for this particular problem. Cleaning hard surfaces with bleach is a good solution. But wallboard is porous. Washing the walls with bleach kills the mold on the surface. Sealing the wall with a good primer like Kilz is great. But I am just not convinced that next summer when it gets nice and hot and humid, that the mold won't start to bloom again like the dandelions in my front yard.

He was here for oh - an hour and a half. He washed down the walls, painted one coat of primer, waited 15 minutes and rolled on another coat. I'm sure he's a wonderful handy-guy, I'm just incredibly skeptical about this as a solution. The work on the closet was done before 10:00 am. I could have just packed up and gone to work but I was already all set up, dressed but not showered and luxuriating in the ability to work with my feet all toasty warm and to get up and go make a cup of tea in my kitchen whenever I wanted to. Besides, how often at work am I going to see this? Kinda added something to my day.

~ * ~

Simply fabulous!

My daughter emailed me at work today - "there are men on our roof."

Always a minimalist.

"Are they looking or are they fixing?"

"Fixing. Before the rain. That's what the man said who came to the door."

Okay great! Happy! It's cloudy and looks like it might rain tonight, I didn't want to be emptying the sled in the attic again. And once the roof is sealed, we can get the drywall replaced and make sure the mold is gone and all will be well with the world again.

Or .. maybe not.




This doesn't instill a lot of confidence in someone, does it? I mean, I am willing to give the patch the benefit of the doubt. But I must admit, I am skeptical.



Right on queue my landlady called, said the roofer had told her he would try to get out this week and I told her that he had been out today. She was happy about that but did not seem as appreciative when I reminded her that she needs to make sure that whoever comes out to replace the drywall needs to know there is mold involved. And we don't know what kind it is - it does have the potential to be dangerous. She also wasn't incredibly upbeat when I mentioned that my daughter has not been able to sleep in her room since the mold was found, even though I emptied and cleaned the closet as best I could, AND installed an air conditioner in that room.

Yes Landlady, even though you didn't say thank you, you're welcome. Because I'm sure you really do appreciate the cleaning and the air conditioner and the crawling around in the attic emptying the sled and the roasting pan. I know you were probably quite pleased that I did not call you over and over even though the leak and the mold were discovered over a week ago. I didn't hound you about it even though my daughter has been sleeping on the couch for a week and all of her belongings in her bedroom smell like mold.

You are SO welcome. And you can count on me to make sure that patch takes care of the leak!

Wonderful weekend!

Woo hoo! I wasn’t sick this weekend! The kids were otherwise occupied, I was on my own pretty much and I got a few things done. I ordered pizza and cannoli, had it delivered and settled in to enjoy a quiet and indulgent weekend. Yes, I said cannoli. Delivered to my house.

You know it couldn’t last, right? There had to be a catch for goodness sake. What would a weekend be for me if something unexpected didn’t happen?

This weekend it was mold. Wet cardboard, fuzzy walls, and a heretofore undiscovered hole in the roof. Yay me.

Dani doesn’t use the closet in her bedroom on a daily basis, it’s small and she has boxes stacked in there as well as some dresses and odds ‘n ends. So when she went into the closet on Sunday and found wet and mildew and mold covering everything in there, it was quite a shock.

Of course it was me who climbed into the attic to look for the leak. It was me who took the ladder out to look at the roof in the back of the house. And it was me who pulled those boxes and blankets and everything else out of the closet and into the garage. It was me sitting at my computer searching for something that would kill mold on drywall, me with the towel tied over my nose and mouth wiping down the walls inside the closet while trying not to breathe.

So after all that – it was also me who placed a call to my landlord (lady) who when she returned my call said “e-e-e-w-w-w!” Uh, yeah, I agree.

This house does not have central air. We’ve got a wall unit off the living room, one in the back of the house where my son lives, and a tiny one in the bead room. There isn’t one in my bedroom and not in Dani’s room either. The difference is – I sleep with my door open and she doesn’t. Can you say stuffy?

Guess who it was who went out to the garage when all manner of cooling appliances were being run at one time to try to dry out the closet –

and caused the electricity in the whole front of the house to go out? Uh huh. I love changing those old fuses that

look like shotgun shells – one for the front of the house and one for the back. Burned myself on a hot fuse too,

aint we got fun?

Finally went to bed last night way later than I should have, trying to figure out what to do because the forecast was calling for – you know already, right? Rain and storms for the next two days. I wasn’t expecting it to be dark

and stormy before I even got out of bed though. Luckily it had not started raining yet so I fed the cats and then did the only thing I could think of. I went out to the garage in my jammies, got a pink plastic sled and carried it into the house and up the attic stairs. Er .. ladder. I slid the sled across to the back eaves where the hole was – and left it there to catch the rain. MacGyver even before breakfast.

I’m guessing we got hit by lightning a few weeks ago. I remember a crack of thunder so loud it woke me up and

sent me to the windows to see if something, a tree, a house – the power lines – had been struck by lightning and were lighting up the night sky with flames. I didn’t see anything and went back to bed. Ha! Didn’t think it might be my own house. But the hole in the roof looks to be

about the size of a half dollar, the shingles all tossed in a circular pattern around it.

We will get the roof fixed, replace the drywall,

and someday maybe I will get the smell of mildew out of my nose. And hopefully soon I will have a puke-less, pain and mold free weekend I can enjoy. Also hopefully – I will be able to do it without waiting for the other shoe to drop!

** There are pictures but blogger isn't letting me post them right now. Gr-r-r.

***Yay! Got my pictures posted - woo hoo!