No, really. I’m serious. Everywhere.

So, y’all may have read about the flood we had before we moved in. Since then, we’ve been up to our ears in tasks devoted to water. Ya see, a few days after the flood was resolved, we came back to the house, only to discover this in our master closet….

See that dark spot?? Water.

Fortunately, a roofer was already coming that day to give an estimate, so I showed him the spot and he climbed on the roof to inspect. Turns out, the fireplace was missing flashing where it met the roof. This meant that when it rained, the water ran down the roof, smacked into the fireplace, and dripped down into the house rather than being diverted around the fireplace by the flashing.

We scheduled for him to fix the issue the soonest he could fit us in… Which was one week later on Friday. Or so we thought. On Friday, he called and said that he needed to reschedule for the following week. And wouldn’t ya know… Friday night, it rained.  Aaaaand the water spot returned, right on schedule.

So, Joey went up into the attic to locate the leak and place a bowl to catch the water….

He said he was simply locating the water spot with the screwdriver. Other individuals may say, “You tell that spot who’s boss, hottie.”. (Okay. So, it was me. I said that.  And I added the “hottie”. But, only because it’s accurate.)

Anyways, while he was tending to the roof leak, I started cleaning the shower for the first time. I didn’t take any pics because, well… I was “just cleaning the shower” and didn’t expect to be blogging about it.

Dontchya just love it when a “just” turns into two days of work and the entire house reeking of bleach??

Spoiler alert: that’s what happened.

Ya see, as I cleaned the shower I was wholly able to appreciate the sheer amount of mildew in the space. It was insane. The ceiling of the shower looked solid black in most places, where it should’ve been black tile with white grout. In fact, mildew was on every plane of the shower. And it was having a party. Boozin’ it up on all the moisture. Lushes.

So, I doused the shower with bathroom mildew remover. Which did NOTHING. And I mean nothing. Not.a.dent.

Later that day, I decided to just take the plunge and do it. I threw on some old clothes, covered my hair with an old T-shirt, threw on my respirator and scrubbed EVERY SINGLE grout line with 100% bleach on a sponge (Side note: Did you know that if sponges are allowed to sit in bleach too long, they turn into a sticky pile of mush? They do. They totally do. Now you know.). Two sponges later, the bleach worked like a charm. Even the worst of the grody areas morphed into nice, white grout lines. It was brilliant.

Unfortunately, during this time, I also discovered quite a few areas of missing or cracked grout lines which were allowing water to seep in.

So, I whipped out the waterproof silicone caulk and patched each and every vulnerable spot (still no pictures, sorry… but the basic technique was, squirt silicone caulk into grout line, smooth it with my finger, and then buff the tiles to remove any remaining residue.  It was amazing how the silicone blended right in with the grout.). The next day, I got to here…

The threshold of the shower door. Riddled with mildew.  So gross. I started by removing all traces of moldy silicone with a razor…

…and the threshold came right up… Which left this…

Even grosser. Ick. So, I once again donned my sexy respirator face…..

…removed the adhesive backing from the threshold and then bleached the heck out of it and the surrounding tile….

Which, again, left the grout lines sparkling white.  Once everything was dry, I recaulked with clear silicone, which left this…

SO much better. I hadn’t gotten to completely scrubbing the soap scum off that back tile tile yet, so just ignore that.   Once I was done, I was left with this…

Like new, right? Still outrageously ugly (and coffin-like… seriously, doesn’t the shower resemble a coffin?  My aunt pointed that out and it was completely spot-on), but now it’s mildew freeeeeee!!!!

And just to completely divulge the series of water-related events, here’s what Joey was doing while I finishing up with the shower….

Replacing the leaky washer spigots that apparently have been very slowly dripping into the wall. More water. Jeepers. I’ll never understand why one would allow moisture-related issues to persist in a home. It’s just no bueno.  He did a great job though.  We now have shiny, new water spigots (please excuse the dark phone pic)….

I still need to paint the walls…. so add this room to my list, since (again), no touch up paint was left for us.   But I’ll take dry to perfectly painted any day.

Oh yeah, and then there was this…

The areas of the covered porch that Joey had to patch due to mold growing around the leaky skylight (which mysteriously was not visible during our home inspection. Riddle me that.). We still need to caulk and paint, which should happen soon.

Um, then, we ran the dishwasher…

And it leaked too due to a worn out seal. Oy. It was a small leak, but still.   Small can lead to big if not tended to.  So, I siliconed the gap in the seal and all was well with the world (Ithink).

In any case, despite these issues, we really are loving our new house. I swear. We really are. It’s cozy and just so US. It’s amazing how it felt like home almost immediately. It’s just completely taken us by surprise that we’ve experienced all of these moisture issues so soon after taking possession. It makes us wonder how long these problems persisted prior to us buying the home. We’re doing the best we can to knock ’em out one by one and are learning a lot (to say the least). Aside from that, we’re slowly getting settled in and I can’t wait to show you progress pics. They’re coming soon! As are some fun decorating posts (finally)… It’s been way too long. I have so much pent up creative energy just waiting to get it’s decorating on.   🙂