A Really Long Post About Mold And Being Cheerful

A couple weeks ago, while pulling out a box of diapers from the closet, I found mold. It was black and slimy and nasty and gross and gag me. Right away I pulled out more boxes to find the starting point and thankfully it looked contained to the bottom corner. Bleach and a scrub brush peeled away the slime but the wall was stained black and I couldn't help but still be grossed out. I googled 'is black mold harmful' and, well, let's just say, if you google black mold, limit yourself to reading just two of the articles that pop up. I spent 45 minutes reading page after page while I rocked Ollie as he slept. And freaked myself out. Big time.

I emailed our landlord and, for some reason, started reciting a persuasive argument in my head. You see, we found mold in a previous rental and were told to take care of it ourselves. This was before I ever googled anything. Anyways, my scripted debate wasn't needed after all because my landlord showed up at the door within two hours. Woah, that's cool.

Fast forward a couple days and the mold guy is telling us we'll need to remove everything from the bedroom and that the disinfecting process will be five days. I almost croaked. That room has SO MUCH stuff in there. More than I even knew. I'd spent months organizing everything like puzzle pieces to fit in there...Ollie's clothes - too small and too big, his bed, his dresser, my desk, filing cabinet, art supplies, bedding, boxes of photos, sewing stuff, school books..so much stuff.

Admittedly, I spent a couple hours completely overwhelmed and a little bit grumpy. I didn't want to do all that, I didn't want to be crowded and uncomfortable for a week. Boo hoo hoo.

"Be cheerful no matter what..Thank God no matter what happens.." 

It snuck in with a bit of force and I realized it would be moments like this when I'd have to make the choice. Grouchy? Or cheerful? A lot of times, being grouchy is easier, right? It takes faith and sometimes a swift kick in the pants to be cheerful. I chose to cheer up. It took a big, exasperated sigh, a hug from Camillo, and an under the breath 'we're gonna make it'. And then we started clearing out.

That was a couple days ago and we've made it this far. There is a little path from the kitchen to the living room and then across to our bedroom. And a little spot for Ollie to roll around in. His bedroom is empty except for the big machines that are dehydrating the moisture and the closet has been gutted. Turns out, the mold came from water in the ceiling that seeped down behind the laminate walls of the closet. So there was a lot more than what we could see but thankfully, it somehow didn't get out past the closet.

We've got a couple more days of claustrophobic living conditions but we're cheery about it. On the bright side: We found it before it got out of the closet. Our landlord agreed that it was a serious problem and has been so great about getting it taken care of immediately. The contractors will be cleaning the carpet when they're done - something we've wanted to do for months. None of us got sick. And now that everything we own is in our dining/living room, I can take this opportunity to rearrange the whole house once it's time to put stuff back. I'm actually quite excited about it.

I know it's a little weird to write such a long post about mold. But I wanted to share my first big lesson in being cheerful no matter what. I didn't realize it before but, by choosing 'cheerful' as my word for 2013, I'm inadvertently choosing to be patient. And I'm sure I can use more of that, too.

As this moldy saga continues I'll be sure to fill you in. If I get brave enough I might even be able to snap a photo of the certified mold cleaner upper guys in their plastic bodysuits. Really, I could write a sic-fi about what's going on back there...

xoxo
Joy