Catch up

I am going to be playing catch up to show the progress we have made so far. I will start at the beginning.
When we bought this place there were two issues that we had to take care of immediately.
1. Leaking roof
2. Mold (yuk)

The main reason the roof was leaking was due to two enormous, unfinished sky lights. Beautiful in theory, but not so pretty when water was pouring through the roof through the second floor and destroying the downstairs ceiling. Eek and ugh. I don't have any pictures now, but you'll see pictures of the upstairs soon.
You know what happen when a wet drywall cooks in a Tennessee summer? A garden variety of molds blossom and then take over. Mold is gross and unsightly. It is also toxic and a health hazard, so it had to go. ASAP!

Water damaged dry wall removed. Now to fix that big hole...

We needed to fix the water problem first since it was causing the mold problem. We boarded up the sky lights, sealed them with tar and roofing paper to fix the big leaks. We will open them back up and install sky lights when we begin to remodel the upstairs. We tackled other little leaks that we knew about, and continue to look for more every time it rains.
The leaking roof caused the most damage in the front hall. We had to tear out the molded drywall and then treated the damp wood underneath with a spray comprised of vinegar, boric acid, hydrogen peroxide, and water. These relatively non toxic, house hold products are the perfect recipe to annihilate mold.

Concealed basement driveway

We also had a mold problem in the basement. Due to a lack of ventilation, cracks in the foundation and a concealed driveway that runs down into the basement, the basement got wet. A hot, wet basement is mold's play ground. It was like a black carpet began growing on the floor joist and structural support beams. Gross!

Moldy floor joist

 It took us over a week to clean up the mold problem. We sealed off the basement with plastic and had to vacuum the mold up using special filters so the spores wouldn't become air born. After that we had to scrub down the affected areas with our dandy mold killing cocktail. Then after that we sprayed everything down with an anti fungicidal spray so the mold can never come back. never. NEVER! We wore hazmat suits, air masks, and goggles to protect ourselves from being exposed to the nasty. Worst job ever!

Uncomfortable, hot suits. 

We dried out the basement with a dehumidifier and fans and laid plastic down on the dirt floor so moisture couldn't come up through the ground.

 I am happy to report that two months later, the mold is still gone! And an air quality tests showed that there is no mold in the air. We will have to keep an eye out for mold in the future, but we killed it. Killed it dead! 

Clean, sealed basement! Hurray!