Well, today the floors, cabinets and counters are getting delivered. I'm (not-so-secretly) hoping to get a little sleep in this morning before they do. I worked last night and I am still recovering from the "cold-that-won't-quit." As the day to getting into the nitty gritty of it all in this kitchen grows ever nearer, so does our anxiety. Noah has taken out one cabinet.
One.
Now, I'm not criticizing him. All the cabinets are detached from the counter, just the sink is left to detach, and we do need to wait until the last moment to haul all of the cabinets and counters out or else we wouldn't have anything to set the beloved Krueg on, or fix anything to eat or drink, and we'll be without that convenience soon enough. My point is: he has only removed one cabinet, a base cabinet farthest from the sink, along the wall adjoining the back room. It has no water source anywhere near it. At all. And, yet, what he found back there behind the baseboard scares me to death. Que mystery track here...
Dun...
Dun...
Dun.....
Black mold.
Not a lot, and it was superficial enough for him to clean up himself with bleach and fans. We were told by a contractor that if it is not a large area we could test it with bleach by wiping it away and air drying it with fans (wearing a mask and gloves, of course). If the drywall stays "clear" and does not re-stain, then you are ok to proceed. If it does stain or appear to come back-call in a professional-STAT!
*Please note: we are not professionals. We are not giving you advice on removal of mold or any other hazardous material. Call your health department or local HAZMAT office if you have one. This is merely our experience, and we are not trying to "cut corners" to save money. Being safe should always come first. We got the advice of a professional, whether that advice was sound or not for us is our experience and I am just sharing that experience with you here. You, however, should always seek professional advice.
So, we have no idea where it came from. The 116 year old basement, maybe? If so, we are looking at a professional basement drying and waterproofing team along with mold removal. Can't wait to see how much that might run...First, we will move the stove and the other cabinets, one at a time and take a look behind the baseboards. It could have come from under the sink. There had been a leak under there when we bough the house. We had it inspected and nothing came back on the report, but the linoleum was tinged a slightly darker hue in front of the sink. Then a few years later we had another leak that we fixed, but could never afford to rip out all of the cabinets and floor and repair or replace any of that, as it would require a whole new floor, bottom cabinets and counter tops. Or, at least we never thought we could.
That's why I'm mostly writing about this remodel, now. If we had had the confidence to know that we could achieve whatever we put our minds to, we would have fixed some of the things that needed fixed and replaced years ago, before it got too far gone, costing us potentially more in the long run. If we had had the confidence in ourselves that we could manage a remodel like this, a little at a time, instead of becoming overwhelmed at the thought and instead managing ourselves toward that goal, we could already be halfway there instead of living for nearly 10 years with the dream of a reno instead of the reality of one. I'm not saying we lived in shambles for 10 years. We put in new carpet, painted the whole inside of the house including changing out all of the trim to white, and cosmetically changed the bathroom a few years back, but that has all since become outdated to us. Now that we actually do have the money to do all the things we've dreamed, we are going to, especially if it helps us sell for top dollar later.
I am really hoping that this is not a major mold issue, because if it is, we must have a professional come in to contain it, and we would need to repair studs, joists and whatever else is affected by it. That is a cost I really do not want to have to cover.
Boy, I can't wait to dig into the bathroom...
Oh! The floors are here...gotta go!
YAY LOWES DELIVERY GUY!!
Hey, keep checking back for more, there will be a ton (I hope...IF I'm not run asunder by the weight of "The Remodel" that is...Dun...Dun...Dun...)
Ok, well, I've got some work to do. Until tomorrow...
As always, thanks for stopping by!
Nanette
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