Shaun Groves
Becky pulled the ironing board from its hiding place beside the washing machine. Behind it was something black. She leaned in closer. And saw that the black was furry.
Mold.
Like the sheetrock was a sandwich left in a lunch box over the Summer.
If you’re ever in this situation yourself, I highly recommend the folks at ServPro. These guys came to my house on a Saturday. They were early. They explained to my wife that no, she would not die, and then they went to work.
They removed a large section of our utility closet, which is in our kitchen, and sealed off the area with great sheets of clear plastic and told us not to worry.
There are guys in plastic suits coming out to the house every day to “take moisture readings” with things that look like geiger counters. They carry clipboards and scribble numbers on pieces of paper. There may in fact be an alien lying in a large glass coffin beside my pantry.
Wood floors wil be torn up. A roofer is coming out later today to figure out for sure where the water came from. If it can’t be determined then insurance won’t cover it and I’ll be launching a second blog tour for Third World Symphony. Or just moving to the third world. I haven’t worked out those details just yet. But I’ll keep you posted as things progress.
And I’m heading out of town later today, to a college in Mississipi, a gathering of college presidents in Washington DC, and a couple of Newsboys dates in Texas. I will feel guilty all week about leaving my family, my wife, to deal with all this mess alone. And the self-condemnation will most likely compel me to eat chocolate until I get to Texas, at which point I will switch to fajitas and liberal quantities of queso.
I will return home to find the mold and the multiple problems it spawned and the contractors it required completely gone. And I will realize my wife doesn’t actually need me around. And since access to the pantry will be restored at that point, I will open it, find the kid’s Halloween candy and eat all the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
And this is why I don’t iron.
Kelli says:
Oh man! I am so sorry to hear this. Praying for your family while you’re away. Maybe you should bring chocolate and queso home to Becky? Just a thought…
Shaun Groves says:
She’ll than you for that later, Kelli.
Patricia @ Pollywog Creek says:
Funny and sad all at once.
Kelli’s right. Better yet, buy your wife chocolate BEFORE you leave home.
Amy says:
Serv Pro rocks! We had them for our water damage last year.
Scott Jeffcote says:
Sounds like perfect timing cuz! Ha! Glad yall found it in time. Good luck in Mississippi, you’ll like MS College…make sure to get some catfish and sweet tea!
Shaun Groves says:
Will do! Any suggestions on restaurants? I’m afraid I’ll be relegated to the school cafeteria but there’s always a chance I could go elsewhere. Especially if catfish is involved.
JD Richardson says:
All of a sudden, I get the *crickets-chirping* feeling that my husband’s solution of “just paint over it” might mean that I get to call the men in the white lab coats, uh, suits, to come and get *him*…. alternatively, he could maybe fly to Texas and bring me back some Tia Rosa chips while I suit up and tackle the Area 53 in our laundry room. A year’s supply should do.
Christine says:
But it’s a good thing you did iron otherwise the title of the post may have been “this is why I don’t do laundry” or “this is why I don’t open the utility room door”! Hope it gets taken care of quickly and easily for the sake of the blessed woman with a rock star husband!
Shaun Groves says:
That is a silver lining ; )
Thomas says:
I went through the water damaged issues last summer. The first time I spent roughly three weeks living in various hotels of which insurance did not cover. I learned I needed a special rider. Thankfully my parents helped out. The second time I was able to remain in while the repairs were done.
abiggrovesfan says:
Too funny. Enjoy some fajitas in Tx for me. I miss the great texmex food in big D since moving to GA.
clint says:
Probably the water lines running to the washing machine instead of a roof leak. If the wood floors haven’t buckled, they will probably dry out and be fine, but that will take time… possibly months. We had a sudden leak once. A nail holding the sheetrock up had been driven into a water pipe when the house was built. It took a few years for it to rust to a point that the water pressure finally blew it out… around 2 in the morning.
Shaun Groves says:
You’ve diagnosed the source of the leak in my house from another state, proving the professionals standing in my kitchen using thermal imaging equipment wrong. Wow. You’re good. ; )
There’s mold beneath the flooring on the subflooring. The floors are coming out. Wished there was a way around that but apparently this has been going on a while. Oops. I really should iron more often.
Lindy says:
Ouch! This reminds me of when our dishwasher leaked all over between the vinyl tile and the sub-floor in our kitchen, leaving the floor looking like ocean waves, and the insides of the lower cabinets black with mold…..only I did not handle it as graciously as you and Becky seem to be handling your adventure.
Jenn says:
Bless it. You know, when I had to pack up & clean an entire house with a 3-year old and a 1.5-year old underfoot and move all by myself because my sweet husband had already started his new job, he bought me a fancy new camera as a thank-you. Just sayin’…
Also, is the DC concert closed to the public? I assume it is, given the whole college presidents thing. {And no, I am not a college president.}
I am praying & hoping that the insurance covers all of it!
Shaun Groves says:
It is, but if you and yours would like to grab coffee, I may have free time while I’m in the area. Drop me a line.
Marla Taviano says:
That’s the same reason I don’t iron. That and laziness.
Sarah M says:
I’m with Clint – probably a leak in the wall. (I’m the daughter of a plumber…can you tell?) Of course it could also possibly be a leak in the slab since you said there was mold on the subflooring. For your sake, I’m hoping it’s in the wall. Busting out a slab is not so good….
Either way, at least you found it before it got…worse. 🙂
Beth says:
If it’s any consolation, city workers in my parents’ town were working on their neighborhood sewage lines. One day, they accidentally punctured the line leading to my parents’ home- sending raw sewage backed by tremendous pressure through every water source into their home. If you could imagine, raw sewage came through their faucets, refrigerator/freezer, walls, floors…. Yeah. ServPro became their heroes, nevertheless. And in the end, their home was restored to a condition better than before. After toxicologists and several headaches, all was well and peace was restored. There were hidden blessings. Just testifying, brother- eat the queso, chocolate, and smile. These present sufferings are worth nothing ….. 🙂
Shaun Groves says:
Wow. Someone always has it worse huh? Disgusting. Thanks for that?
cshell says:
“I will open it, find the kid’s Halloween candy and eat all the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.”
What you say about mold?
Jill Foley says:
This comment doesn’t have much to do with this post – but I’m excited that you are doing chapel at EMU in February. Did you get my email about that?
Charles Specht says:
Ugh, I am the ironer in our house. I iron clothes before church for me, my wife, and my five children. She does baths (and everything else) and I am the true Iron Man! Yeah baby!
Sharon O says:
Big mess. That looks awful. HOPE it isn’t too costly to fix.
Christine says:
I will remember your wife in prayer this week. Yes, peanut butter cups help with anything. 🙂
rebecca says:
ugh sounds awful – praying for you and your family, especially your wife 🙂 just saw that you will be in Longview, which is just a stone’s throw from Kilgore where you came and spoke at my church a couple of years ago – I was the contact person from the church – so glad to have you back in good old East Texas 🙂
rebecca says:
and if I remember correctly there was some mentioned of BBQ and armadillo???
Christy says:
Oh man. That’s no fun at all. We were “just” going to get overhead lighting put in the addition that got added to our house back in the 80s (many owners ago), and removed the drop ceiling tiles to reveal mold everywhere. I was 34 or 35 weeks pregnant at the time? And we had visitors coming the next week… So we called Serv Pro, we had our friends spread in a spare bedroom and the a couch, now in the living room, and watched the ‘remediation process’ happen. Fortunately, insurance covered it, and it was enough money to cover not just the cost of remediation, but also the lighting we had planned, and money to re-roof the whole house. It just took some time to get it all done. Glad we encountered it while our little man was still on the inside! I applaud your wife’s skills!
Jenny Smith says:
That’s bad! The good side is you may end up with new kitchen floors, which will make Becky happy??
Jess Carpenter says:
I just saw this post. Besides the nasty mold & the fact that your wife probably did survive just fine. Let’s talk about your eating habits & the fact that I felt like you were reading my “stressed out diary”. I start w/ chocolate, move onto loads of chips/queso & always prefer to PB Cups at the end. Trav, or “that guy” as you like to call him, likes to tease about how many PB Cup wrappers I can hide all over the car. If you sneak in a few episodes of trashy sitcoms, then I’ll really worry!
Blessed says:
I wont lie. I read this way back when you posted it, and everytime I walk into the laundry room I smell mold. Toxic. The kind that will kill me and my brain cells soon. It’s insane. I’m afraid to rip up the linolium to paint the concrete…better off I’m thinking the harvest gold linolium looks great!