Monday, September 11

This time, it's personal

There's mold, and this time, it's taken things a bit too far. It can no longer infest our mildew-resistant walls. It cannot fight the power of climate controlled air and tight plumbing. It cannot stand up to gutter control.

So it went after my books.

It must die. Oh, yes.

I won't complain if I have to redo a house or something, but you don't mess with da books! Grrrr.

From what we can gather, the seemingly dry basement walls were just damp enough to wick moisture into the boxes that touched the wall. Cardboard then goes from being "handy storage" to "mold feeding water capacitor" and Voila! There goes an entire weekend hauling all the books up out of the basement for a little fresh air and your standard pre-incarceration delousing. Damn, that makes me mad.

Work progressed on the school room, between creepy loads up from the basement. More plans for major renovation - this time involving new roof trusses and a vaulted ceiling. The hurrier we go, the behinder we get. (Was that Winnie the Pooh?) Anyhow, I believe now that keeping our eyes on future projects prevents us from becoming mired in the despair that is the current project. Eh. Okay. Everyone has their drug of choice. Denial is ours, and we'll take it straight up, thanks.

Thanks for the birthday wishes for Smidge. He had a fantastic birthday. I'll post pictures when we get the thing with the card thing hooked back up. (My IT brain is gone for the day, so that's the best I've got.)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not the books! But they're going to be okay, right? RIGHT?

Glad to hear the bday was happy!

Donna Boucher said...

Basements and mold are evil.

G. said...

Yikes. I just watched an episode of Forensic Files over the weekend which showed an entire family who got poisoned by toxic mold! I hope you guys have had this mold issue professionaly inspected.

Glad Smidge had a good day. Jeremy turned 13 on the 8th.

Emily (Laundry and Lullabies) said...

Oh no! Will the books be ok? Mold is an awful thing. We had a minor flood under our kitchen sink months ago and we're still battling the moldy results. :(

Laney said...

Oooohhh, I'm telling!!! You said "damn" on your blog.

Oh, wait...can we still tattle when we're 35? And more importantly, *who* do we tattle to?

Hmmmm....:-)

Mold is evil and it must be destroyed!

Bob and Claire said...

Oh no, not precious books! I'm so sorry!! You have certainly done your share of mold battles already, and I'm sorry you have to fight another one. : ( Yuck!!!

Melora said...

Oh my gosh! Now you've got me scared. This house was vacant for six or seven years, and the mold and mildew have claimed the basement (you should see me going down there to do my laundry, hunched as small as I can get and trying to look in all directions at once for fear of rampaging giant crickets and nasty damp moldy stuff). If it comes up and creeps into my books, I will be extremely Irate! I just told Ed today that I wasn't at all sure we need to add an a/c to the second floor, being as how I'm already freezing cold in the beginning of September, but maybe mold control is another good reason to get it.

I'm glad Smidge had a great day!

Thom said...

I'm so sorry about your books! I'm sure they'll be okay after a good airing out right?????

Happy B-day to the Smidgemeister!! His little quotation in the previous post about having a plan made me LOL!!! That is SO cute!! Can't wait to see the B-day pics!:0)

H said...

How could I not comment on a post about mold?

How frustrating! Other than drying them out in what sun you have there, what do you do?

*sigh* I was really hoping this mold thing was behind you.
Hang in there!
Hillary :)

Dy said...

I know, frustrating, isn't it? On the bright side, the stuff in the basement is minor, and will be cured w/ a french drain and new gutters. Preferably ones that don't just dead end and dump the water at the upper corner of the house (what moron hung these things, anyway?) BUT, we haven't quite managed to get that done yet. There are still, mmm, "technical issues" pertaining to the french drain.

The books should be okay.

Melora, I'll email you about the mold and the crickets. There is hope!

Laney, I'm not sure who you can tattle to? Zorak, maybe? Donna? Mmm. Does this make me one of "those kids" we're not supposed to play with? (I hope not!)

Dy

Amber said...

Oh no, not the books! I hope the airing and drying works well enough to save them... what a pain though!

And a happy belated birthday to (not quite so little anymore) Smidge. I loved his plan for the day.

Anonymous said...

Damn? That's it? Sheeesh. Laney posted on The Board that you were cursing on the blog, I came right over and that's all I get?

Humph.

;)

Glad to hear the books will make it.