The Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon

Right before leaving for Houston, I discovered mold in the walls of my guest bedroom. The cause was a burst heating pipe in the floor above which had destroyed my bathroom ceiling about a month prior. Large holes were cut in that ceiling, water drained and a ton of bleached poured, but we didn’t realize that so much moisture had traveled into the guest bedroom and down the walls. I spent all night removing a huge section of drywall and insulation (the insulation itself doesn’t get infected by mold, but the dust in the insulation does). I still have about 2/3 of the room to gut, including the ceiling. From everything I’ve read and from those I’ve spoken to, the black mold can present a serious health problem over time in the form of “old building syndrome.” The carpet also has to go.

The silver lining on this black-and-sometimes-green cloud is that it forces me to start renovating my bathroom and guest bedroom earlier than planned, which will eventually be really nice. The downside is that it comes at a very hectic time in my life and in the year, so in the short term I may only be able to destroy the guest bedroom and just leave it to really dry out over a few weeks, driving up my heating bills, until I can get around to repairing it for real.