Mold

Saturday, Laura told me we had mold in the hallway. Even though I wanted to keep it for a pet [“Sparky! Play dead! Now make penicillin!”], she said we had to get rid of it. My response was “I have no idea how to get rid of mold.”

This is why I have parents, I guess. And Google.

Upon the recommendation of Mom and Uncle Google, we had to do several things to remove the mold, and to keep it from coming back. First, as the mold was on the ceiling and the upper parts of the walls in the hallway, Laura had to scrubbed the area with bleach water. Next, we’re leaving a light on in the hallway.

Apparently this fills the mold with great self doubt. “Am I in the right house? It was dark in here last time. Crap, I’m going next door.”

Finally, I had to climb up into the attic and seal off the attic fan vent. I have no idea why anyone would install an attic fan in Atlanta. All it does is suck the humid, nasty air from outside into the house. Since the return registers are also in the hallway, they were pulling hot air from the attic through the ceiling vents and into the hallway, where it caused condensation on the ceiling and walls, thus giving the mold a nice place to live.

The idea was to take a painter’s plastic tarp and seal off the vents. Once I got up to the attic, I realized that I’d forgotten about the huge giant attic fan that was sitting over the vents, just where an attic fan should be. Luckily, the plastic tarp was big enough to cover the whole fan.

Hooray for home ownership.

Anyone want to replace my air filters? I’ll give you $5, easy.