Mould-on-the-Would

If you get that Harry Potter reference 100 points to you!

Actually, we have mold on the wall. The bathroom wall at least.

The other day as I was getting into the shower I noticed that a piece of the old wallpaper (that we naughtily painted over as we were frantically getting ready for the Holiday Home Tour) was peeling off. I gave it a little tug, and WOW. Opened a can of worms there.


I couldn't stop tearing! I had been noticing this little corner for months and just kept trying my best to ignore it.

But, alas, as well all do, I finally hit my breaking point. I really had no idea what I was in for.



Eh, not so bad...

Okay, that's pretty bad...

omgwtf....

At this point the thought occurred to me that if I had just not decided to pull at that little corner piece of paper I could have just lived a peaceful, contented life in my bathroom. Not anymore.

Of course, at this point Aaron comes home, and... "omgwtf"...

So, now starts the project that we really should have done when we redid the rest of the bathroom (new floors, sink, and toilet). But, the story of that project is best saved for a different day.

Now, it's time for the systematic murder of the mold. 

Any ideas or tips???

I love stripping!

Let's just discuss the original wood floors in the Craftsman's living room and dining room. When we bought the house the floors were covered with stinky, moldy, flea-infested carpet. At first we tried to save that gorgeous carpet....haha! Just kidding! We threw that crap out the first chance we got. (By the way, don't try to transport a truck-bed full of carpet without first tying it down. Bad, bad things happen when you're speeding down a busy four-lane street during rush hour.)

We were lucky in that the carpet was glued down so that there are no staples or tacks to remove. We were unlucky in that the carpet was glued down because we have to now remove glue.

So here's the deal-i-o. We're dying to keep the original floors because, well, they're original. How can you just throw something away that's withstood over 100 years of kids, pets, furniture, etc.? The floors are in good enough shape to keep, but in bad enough shape that we really can't use the big sanders to just sand them down and refinish. Instead, here's what we're doing:

1) Stripping off the glue (and spilled paint) with chemical stripper. Yes, this is tedious, messy, smelly, and kind of expensive.

2) We're then sanding the floors by hand. Yes, I said by hand.

3) Finally, in ten years we'll stain and finish the floors. :)

Pictures!

Aaron working hard:

Close-up:

1/3 how they originally looked, 1/3 stripped, 1/3 stripped and sanded:

You can see the remaining water damage here:

Stripping in the dining room: