First of many!

Feb 25

Let's backtrack a bit, shall we? Ah, the blunder I stumbled into. With the floor torn up and the affected drywall removed, it was time for the cleanup and a close inspection for any signs of rot. Thankfully, no traces of decay lurked in the Kitchen, Bathroom, or closet. But, worried about mold spreading and lacking insights into its type, I geared up like a mold-fighting warrior. Armed with bleach and a trusty wire brush, I scrubbed away until every speck of mold vanished. I thought I had conquered the issue, but alas, I was wrong.

In my haste to address the problem, I committed a rookie mistake. I painted over the surface with Kilz primer. As I let everything sit and dry. I took a moment of reflection to realize I'm no mold expert, after all, and mold isn't something to trifle with.

So I got on the internet and started looking for an local expert. Enter Matt from A&M Restoration LLC. Despite my tardy arrival due to the notorious traffic, Matt graciously inspected my handiwork. Armed with a moisture reader—a gadget I wish I'd thought of—he pinpointed out a underlying moisture issue. Dry to the touch wasn't dry enough, as I soon learned. When I painted over the surface with Kilz primer, I unwittingly sealed in moisture. Not only that, I learned that bleach works for mold on hard surfaces such as tile, but on wood it only kills the surface mold as mold roots into the wood where the bleach does not penetrate…

Anyways Matt shed light on Kilz role—it's a mold stopper by not allowing moisture to get to the wood but also a moisture trap by not letting existing moisture out. Left unaddressed, the trapped moisture could spell doom for my floor, leading to slow, stealthy rot. He generously outlined steps for a DIY fix, but I opted for the safer bet, hiring Matt to tackle the job. This didn’t cost too much anyways as I did most the work by striping the primer from the floors and already had the walls exposed. So, after setting up industrial dehumidifiers and ensuring a thorough treatment that actually kills the mold, I breathed a sigh of relief.

The dehumidification process was eye-opening, to say the least. Day after day, those machines extracted water, gallons of it, revealing the extent of the moisture menace. Meanwhile, as I twiddled my thumbs, waiting for the green light to resume work, inspiration struck—I craved more light in the living room. And since I couldn’t work on the floors, I couldn’t put the kitchen or bathroom back together and we still were still not living in the house…I utilized some masking tape to visualize the placement of new windows, and I seized the opportunity to enhance the space with natural light.

So I called my wife before I started to drive over with the kids and see what she thinks. She said sure. So with a brave toss of the hammer, I marked the spots for new windows and said no going back now haha. A trip to Lowe's later, I was now armed with windows some 2x4s and 2x6 headers, to embarked on the window installation saga. Technically I didn’t need the headers, as this being a gable wall, there's no real load there, but I did it anyways, why not overbuild if you have the wall open?

I cut the sheetrock out only where the windows were and shut the breaker off to this area so I could pull the wiring back to reframe the opening. I framed the window in, made a new path for the wires, and reconnected them so I could turn the power back on. Around this time, the dehumidifiers were done pulling water out. Matt came back out and treated the floors to actually kill the mold, and that was that as far as the mold—now all projects could resume. Since I had the wall open for the windows, I finished that project up really quick, cut the hole in the wall, placed the window, and weather sealed it before putting the trim and siding back on the exterior of the house. Unfortunately, I have no photos of this exterior job—But do have a finished photo. In any case the end result was a brighter, more inviting living space on the interior.

Now the time has come, sheetrock repair, a necessary evil. Despite my love-hate relationship with it, I patched up the kitchen and closet walls with greenboard. (The only other area that had mold on the sheetrock). Greenboard is sheetrock designed for wet areas. In the kitchen, I confess, I may have been a tad lazy with the mud application, but hey, nobody's perfect and no one would ever see it anyways unless replacing appliances. As for the windows, well, let's just say I'll be revisiting that task down the road.

Recall I said I cut out the sheetrock where the windows would be only. Really wish I didn’t do that. By doing it this way, I saved on sheetrock but risked quality as there is two 2x4s side by side holding up the window seal and header above. The existing sheetrock stops on one 2x4, and the patched sheetrock stops on the 2x4 right next to it. Due to expansion and contraction of the two 2x4s, the seam here in the sheetrock ultimately cracked at all 4 locations. Eventually, I will need to redo this, but have not to this day. Future projects.

With the walls patched up and painted now, it was finally time to address the floors—the start of this whole ordeal. Budget constraints nudged us toward cost-effective options—a new carpet for the living room and laminate Pergo floors for high-traffic areas. Six years on, they're showing signs of wear and tear, I guess you get what you pay for but then again, I never intended them to be a forever floor. So we keep beating them up until the time comes for another floor remodel. Who know when that will be as between then and today, I have started many more projects.