I’m beat. I just spent a very rewarding Sunday underneath my house. It’s rare that you hear that, I know. I spent it with rubber gloves and a face mask on. That’s even rarer. Some of you could probably guess why.
Back before I listed my house for sale my realtor asked if I had any crawlspace problems. I hadn’t… every time I had been under there it was bone dry. Of course, the day before I put the house on the market I had to get my extension ladder out of the crawlspace. I got under there and squished. I had moisture under my vapor barrier and, more alarmingly, puddles on top. “Panic” begins to approach what I felt. I hypothesized that my water problems started this summer when Cat went to Canada and I tried to be nice and plant some trellises along the walkway. The combination of removing 5 large shrubs, their rootballs, and the clay they grew in and replacing it with nice, porous soil, and a change in the drainage up there as well resulted on far more water heading down into the soil and winding up in my crawlspace. Hopefully I’ve addressed the drainage problems at this point.
Fast forward to now when I have an actual contract on my house (thank you) and realize that I have mold under there (!) and my realtor tells me I can either clean it myself or pay someone at least $2500 to do the same thing for me. I’ve spent enough on that house — I told you I had to install a brand new air conditioner and heater the day before it went on the market, right? — I don’t need to pay someone to do something I can do myself.
Hopefully I’ve gotten it all. I guess we’ll see what the inspector says.
4 Responses to “Nudge me if I slump over, okay?”
Congrats on the contract! That’s awesome.
Crawling around in mold underneath a house does not sound like my idea of a rewarding sunday. Though when you compare it to spending $2500, I guess that’s the rewarding part.
Your sarcasm detector didn’t break off on that line?
Congrats, and good luck!
At this point I don’t remember whether or not I was assuming you were being sarcastic. Quite frequently, my response to sarcasm is deadpannedness. Which is as hard, or harder, to get across online as sarcasm.
Maybe I should’ve said, “mmmmm, mold.”