Ahhhh...the smell of mold in the morning.

Good morning to you, nasty kitchen floor!

 

Let me back up a bit, and present to you how our kitchen was...

 

This is our kitchen now...

Or should I say that this is how Dean left it as of 10:30 last night. I've got about 300 staples to pull out of the subfloor before I can put the stove back. And I need to use the stove today. Well, every day for that matter..

 

See, it all started with a leak. (isn't that typical?). A few weeks ago we noticed that quite a few of those ugly laminate tiles were starting to bubble up near the fridge. (They are the ugliest tiles e-ver. They may hide dirty smudges well, but they're MAUVE). The bubbled-tile radius began to expand in all directions. If you walked across the floor barefoot, you risked getting seasick. So, with a plan in mind (we were ready to replace the kitchen floor with Pergo anyway), this past weekend we took a deep breath and pulled out the fridge. Then we pulled up a tile. And then another one. And then another one. Demolition is fun!

 

 

Owen was worried that we were tearing the house apart. Rylan pulled on the work gloves and got dirty. (Atta girl!) Colin stepped on staples. Barefoot. Jordan asked if he could play Minecraft. Sigh. In very short order the kitchen and hallway was tile-free. That blue underlayment smelled nasty - like dirty wet socks. And look! Ugly laminate flooring that the previous lazy-ass owner left in and just threw the ugly mauve tiles on top of! Now that explains why the ground floor is not level! BUT it also saved our ass with this leak. It protected the subfloor from moisture damage - everywhere but right beneath the fridge, as you can see in the top picture.

 

So the source of the leak was the shut-off valve on the water supply line for the ice-maker. Dean had moved out the fridge a while ago to look at something, and when he pushed it back into place, it must have put just enough pressure against the valve that it started a slow leak, right at the floor level. After we had moved the fridge out away from the wall, there was another small puddle under the fridge when we moved it again a couple of hours later. Not sure if the fridge is leaking itself.. We had a copper supply line that looked like it was in decent shape. Then again, the fridge is seventeen years old, and the valve was probably 22 yrs. old. Dean replaced the valve and got a flexible braided steel supply line to replace the copper one. Now we are contemplating replacing the fridge. We weren't exactly budgeting for that. It will take a good portion of what we had budgeted for the floor, which means we will be replacing the floor in piecemeal fashion over the coming weeks. (Months). Ugh.

 

Well, I'm off to vacuum the layer of moldy, wood and laminate dust that has now covered every surface on the ground floor, and throw open the windows to let in some fresh air. Ahh.. behold the smell of mold.

 

Posted with Blogsy