Wednesday, February 9, 2011

GROSS!

Youngest's room has been smelling funky and mildewy for a while, and we have been airing out her matresses a great deal, but the smell has persisted.  The room is very very damp and we are not really sure why ONLY that room is damp, but boy o boy it is a humid place.

Thankfully -overall - I decided that I would paint her room today, I know, I'm nuts, but I am glad I did it because when we started moving her furniture we discovered an absolute horror show.  She decided that for her room she would have some 'expedite' shelves from Ikea and put bins in them for her stuff.  Great.  Has worked like a dream as far as storing and sorting.  She wanted to have the blue plastic bins to store her stuff, but we were only able to get two. In the end we went for some baskets that look kind of like grass string, woven, like the seat of cane chairs kind of.

I can only recommend these to you if you live in Arizona.

They were vile honestly. Vile.  


Some had orange stuff growing on them, some grey, some black mildew and some fuzzy stuff like on a really old carrot.  


We are washing every single stitch of youngest's clothes and the man made a most unwilling, but ultimately successful trip to Ikea on the metro (read 2+ hours each way) to get more bins...in BLUE!  


So, I am glad those things are out of her room, and maybe it will start to smell better.  Would have been nice to have heat, might have helped with the humidity a bit.  However.

Began painting, and I can now personally attest to the fact that the walls are wet.  The paint was, in places, peeling right off the wall onto the roller like when you're rolling out sticky pie crust and it sticks to the pin.

Hand painted those sections.  Looks a little spackle-y, but it is an old house.  I only painted two walls, of a possible three we were considering, the colour she chose is darker than I had anticipated and I don't want the room to get too dark...plus, I want to go to bed.

Hope she likes it in the morning, it has been somewhat trying, but ultimately worth it, so that is good.

Cheers,

O

8 comments:

The Bodhi Chicklet said...

Wow. Mould and mildew scare the pants off of me. I am constantly battling the stuff on the ceiling in our bathrooms. I'm glad you found the source of the stink before it got worse (good grief - could it have gotten worse?). I once had literal mushrooms growing out of the bathroom tile at my cottage. I have pictures somewhere because it was simply, so extraordinary. Isn't nature awesome???!!!

Trish said...

Ugh! Sounds like she had a compost pile under her bed. Good thing you found it in time.

Beth said...

"Natural fibers" are all well and good..... until they're not.
There's a lot to be said for nice, smooth, washable, bleach-able plastic!

Painting is so fussy and tiring. What really gets me is the clean-up afterwards... bleh.

I LOVE your swimmy fish pond gadget, btw!

Mother Theresa said...

Ewww! Well, glad you figured out where the smell was coming from. Have you considered getting a dehumidifier? We have a portable one and it works pretty well for lowering the humidity in our room. Good luck with the painting.

J.G. said...

Dampness and humidity are the most frustrating things. So subtle, and then suddenly icky. I feel your pain with the fur and fuzz. Hope they were the source of the smell.

Helen said...

W used to have a simple plastic thing which had something (calcium carbonate perhaps?) which attracted the moisture, and it went through to drip into a plastic trough at the bottom. In Adam's room before we had double glazing it filled the little tub (about 6x2 inches) every week.

A cheap alternative to the dehumidifier perhaps

thecatalanway said...

ooohh poor you! I thought damp and moulds were left behind when I came here from Cornwall. Only to find that Granollers is Queen of humidity.
In Cornwall you couldn't really leave furniture sitting on a downstairs carpet unless you wanted a brown mushroom smell in a few months. It did nothing for my asthma.
Glad you found it as moulds can be really unhealthy to live with.
Sounds like you are doing a thorough preparation for the party!
K x

oreneta said...

Bodhi, I just downloaded the photos, I may have to post them...eeew.

Trish, I am not sure we were really in time, indeed, I am a little horrified it got so far.

Beth, so glad you like the fish! I wonder if I am the only one feeding them.....you can click on the space and it gives them munchies!

Mother T, heat would help too, I think.

JG; you must have to work with damp a lot, Florida in the summer is not the driest of spots...

Helen, I think they sell something similar here, someone mentioned it to me. I'm going to give it a go and try to find one.

K...I suspect that nowhere is free of it outside of Arizona.....