Monday, July 09, 2007

Before and After

It has begun.

When I walked into my home after work today, I was met with two smells: chlorine, and that "old house being worked on" smell.

The chlorine was from the basement: my landlord hit the basement floor with bleach, to halt the growth of mold after the flooding we had a couple of weeks ago.

The other smell is one I've smelled when walking by a building that's being torn down, or when walls are torn out in a renovation. It's a combination of dust, mold, rot and god-knows-what.

We've gone from this:





To this:





And from this:



To this:





Where did all that stuff go? Right here:



That's our back porch.

There's also a pile of stuff under a tarp in our backyard of soaked stuff I missed when clearing out the basement. My landlord said it included some yearbooks-- probably mine. It was weird-- it didn't bother me much. I didn't look at them much these days-- that's why they were downstairs.

Kim is having a lot harder time with the disruption. I think that it is because I worked construction when I was younger. I'm used to being in a house that's all torn up.

I wonder, too, how much the disruption in my life ten years ago plays into it. When my first wife asked for a divorce ten years ago (while I was fighting an old girlfriend over custody of my son), I moved three times in a year-- and that does not include the couple of nights I slept in my car, the nights Adam and I spent in my parents' living room or the times I stayed at my friend Mark's house. After having dealt with that tumult, having a torn up kitchen and bathroom seems trivial.

In any event, the bathroom is supposed to be finished quickly-- in less than two weeks. The kitchen will take longer, but today was the worst of it.

11 comments:

Make the world beautiful said...
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MacGuffin said...

Bleach in the summer? Just wonderful... I feel for ya.

kim said...

Boy honey, there is nothing like getting spammed in your comments.

For the record, we do not have toxic mold.

I will try not to make you sleep in your car during the renovation darling.

Unknown said...

All of my yearbooks have been gone for longer than they were around.

Joe said...
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Joe said...

I know that smell...you describe it perfectly. And there's something about the bleach smell laid over dank basement smell on a hot humid day. Whew. Good luck.

Cheer34 said...

I hope they can slavage the pink tiles and brown ovens. I am sure you would hate to loose those items.

lulu said...

Those pink tiles were plastic, weren't they? I had them in my bathroom when I lived upstairs at Jane and Steve's.

The Elk said...

What a pity...I really dug the Hot Pink Bathroom.....

GETkristiLOVE said...

Oh nooooooooooo! Deja vu, deja vu.

Make it stop.

bubbles said...

Ah, the joys of demolition. You are right, the worst part is demolition. Ick.

It's pretty nice that your landlord is doing that so you can enjoy the brand new stuff!