Mold Fever

If you're at all familiar with this blog, you know that we affectionately dubbed our home "Mold Palace" after we bought it.  Why?
Brace yourselves.





Obviously, we called it Mold Palace because of the mold, silly. We're not going to reinvent the wheel here. Anyway, for those of you who are getting really excited right now about some amazing//fabulous//miraculous "after" shots, hold your horses.  I don't have any.  If I took some photos right now of what the basement looks like, you would be incredibly disappointed.  You'd see an empty cavern full of kids' toys, laundry and rubber maids.  It likely looks like your basement.  And for those of you who are having a panic attack right now about the state of our health & sanity, let me assure you that we ripped out every shred of material out of the basement and hired a mold remediation team.  And you'll find we are likely very sane people, depending on who you talk to. And for those of you who are still freaking out about the state of our basement & sanity, yes, we had the surfaces and air quality tested afterward to ensure that the mold was gone.  It's gone, so take a deep breath & relax.  It's ok. That's you, Mom.
I also saved this little gem of a photo. This is my friend Shar in our basement before the demo began.  This photo was taken in absolute darkness and we couldn't see where we were going. She has her cell phone up as a flashlight while I snapped this shot. Her face is a mix of horror, fear and disgust.    Her look says it all: "Get me out of here//You are crazy//We cannot be friends any more."  Oh, Shar.  You're so funny.
Luckily, our friendship is still intact. At least, until this moment, when I decided to publish this photo. We are planning on finishing-ish our basement in the next few months.  What is finishing-ish, you ask?  We aren't planning on dropping a bunch of cash on the basement.  Budget is the name of the game because, after all, it's a basement.  There won't be a finished ceiling (old homes have notoriously low ceilings already), and there's some very interesting quirks* to the layout that need to be addressed. We're planning on a laundry room, play room, and family room, plus the necessary storage for the Stuff.
That said, the exciting part of the process will be planning and Pinterest-ing of crazy cool ideas to make the basement AWESOME, of course.  For those who already follow me on Pinterest, you're going to be seeing a whole lot of pinning going on.  
*Quirks is another way of saying that there's awful things in the basement layout that must be endured, like a sewer main in front of the fireplace.  What's a girl to do with that?