Last week was Mold Week here at Casa de Moore. Tim discovered a huge colony of the black stuff lurking in Ellie’s closet under her dresser, the product of a plumbing leak that initially seemed harmless enough, but turned out to be kind of a bitch. The leak itself was an easy, inexpensive fix, but the previously unseen damage added up.
Not wanting to take chances with our health, we immediately called in a cleaning specialist to help with the mold. His advice was to remove anything that could easily be removed, scrub the rest down with dish soap and water, and speed-dry it–so that’s exactly what we did this weekend! And by “we,” I mean Tim–my job was to wrangle the baby and worry about how much the repairs would cost (worrying is one of my many useless super powers). When Tim had to take up the linoleum in the downstairs bathroom due to moisture and black gunk underneath, it dawned on me that this “little project” was going to be a bigger pain than I’d thought.
I take the Total Denial approach to home repairs. If I ignore the problem long enough, maybe it will go away on its own. This works perfectly in theory–ignoring things I don’t want to think about is another one of my super powers–but not so well in practice. This is why Ellie’s closet is now missing its carpet, and the downstairs bathroom looks like… well, like hell. It’s missing the bottom part of its wall, a baseboard, a third of the ceiling and about half the linoleum. All because of a “harmless” little leak I hoped would fix itself. Hah-hah.
But in a fit of positivity, we decided to turn this into a good thing and make some necessary changes. Our condo was built in the 80’s, and boy, does it show (think rose pink bathroom fixtures and beige faux-tile vinyl) so replacing the bathroom floors is a worthwhile investment. The flooring itself is free–my parents have a leftover piece from their first bathroom remodel that should fit our 5’x7′ room. We’re also going to tear out the bathroom’s clunky, water-damaged vanity and replace it with a practical laundry sink. This will give us more room to put up shelves, so the half-bath will become a combination bathroom and walk-in storage closet. As much as I dread any kind of disruption in my home, I’m excited to have a functional storage area.
Consider these your “before” pictures. Hopefully I’ll soon have a much-improved bathroom to show you!
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