Ready?... Or... NOT.

The mold in the basement had been removed, the bathroom floor was replaced. Ready to close!

Not.

We eagerly told the bank everything they requested be done was completed, ready to find out what the next steps were to get this thing in our names.

Our banker then informed us that it needed a mold inspection. If you were like me you would assume it’s someone who comes in and looks over everything in the place and takes samples. However, there I was also wrong. They came in, put a tripod in the “T” in the hallway upstairs and in the basement (the central location of each floor), and took air samples and then took one of right outside the house.

Now, WE were the ones who removed all of the visible mold. We knew it was bad. The owners knew it was bad. But not one of us could have even imagined how terrible it would come back. There was no way we would be able to get a loan on the house until everything on the mold inspector’s conclusions and recommendations were followed. This included “1. Removal of all non-structural building materials and cleaning of all structural wood and concrete materials in the affected areas, completed by a qualified contractor, 2. Cleaning or disposal of all porous and non-porous contents through the structure, completed by a qualified contractor, 3. High Efficiency Particulate Air air purification during the cleaning and for a minimum of 48 hours after clean-out, and 4. A post-remediation visual assessment and air quality sampling for airborne microbiological organisms may be performed to determine remediation efficiency.”

Our sellers were amazing. They had no idea how bad the house was and did not feel comfortable selling it to us in the condition it was in, so they decided to cover the remediation, and even used the contractor we had already used that we were planning to have help us with the house.

We also went in ahead of time for the family and got out all of the photos, personal items, and jewelry, plus anything they asked if we could find to be sure no one had any regrets about not going through it.

Thus, the clean out began!

The cleanout beginning in the purple room!

The purple room again, with all existing furniture. 

The purple room after a majority of the items were removed.

Another view after most was gone. 

Once more. 

Here we move into the yellow room. 

We had already hauled the bed out durning the city wide clean up. 

Same view but inside the door. 

The last bedroom to clean out was the teal room. 

The bags were all things that the seller’s family hack already cleaned up for us.

And then, the furniture clean out for the rest of the upstairs. 

Looking down the hallway toward the livingroom. 

The linen closest in the hallway. 

Laundry nook after taking everything except appliances and cabinets. 

The dining area from the kitchen. 

You can see where we piled up the metals to be taken separately. 

Last, but definitely not least we had to get the basement cleaned up.

INTO THE BASEMENT!

The living room. 

And again. 

Keep this dresser in mind— its one of the only things that was salvaged, but you’d never recognize it. 

The bottom of the stairs. 

Just the beds were gone in this picture but it’s the room under the stairs. 

And once again the office.  

After everything was sorted out, it was just a matter of getting all of the recyclables out of the upstairs living room. 

The organ was the last thing to go, it was HEAVY. 

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Here is the pile of the trim. 

After trim comes up, it’s time for... CARPET!

The hallways without carpet. 

The teal room, now naked. 

The purple room without anything (except my hubby).

And the yellow room with nothing. 

And then the kitchen. 

And down to the basement once more. 

The floors and wall were we knew there had been a leak were also painted with killz. 

And then the upstairs subfloor was also covered with Killz. 

In order to Killz the bathroom effectively, we had to have the paneling on the walls torn down, and remove the bathtub as well. 

Where the tub was ripped out. 

Where the countertop was ripped from. 

And that was that! The remediation went well. The mold inspector came back and did his second round. The house passed. The appraisal hadn’t run out. We were in the clear. 

But we weren’t. 

That’s for next time.