Operation Home

Alright, you guys. This isn’t a post with pretty pictures (or any pictures for that matter). This is our story. A testament to why you need to get your ac/heating vents and ducts cleaned regularly. And let me clarify that this post is not a sponsored in any way. It’s just that when something pops up that I feel strongly about or that I think may benefit y’all, I’m gonna share. And this is definitely one of those things.

As many of you know, we moved into our home this past October. It was built in 1975 and was somewhat neglected over time. It’s gone into foreclosure twice over the past 10 years. The people whom we purchased the house from bought it as a foreclosure, fixed it up to some extent, then sold it to us. Unfortunately, by the time they bought it, the house had so many things that had been done the easy/cheap/wrong way that it was impossible to right them all.

Since living here, we’ve been trying to correct as many of these half-done things as possible. But, one of the items that we hadn’t considered until recently was our air quality.

Shortly after moving in, we noticed that none of our intake vents for our HVAC system had air filters on them. And there should’ve been three. Three vents with filters. Seems like a lot, right? Our other houses only had one. Anyways, we had no idea how long they’d been ‘airing out’ naked. Maybe a week, maybe ten years. Who knows. So, basically, during that undetermined length of time, dust and allergens flew through our system unrestrained. We immediately went to Home Depot, purchased air filters and installed them as I described in detail in this post.

After living here for a bit, Lucas (our 4-year-old little man) started having coughs and colds like nobody’s business. Up to this point, he’d always been a super healthy kiddo. Rarely got sick. Maybe once or twice per year. But since moving into this house, coughs and sniffles had been an almost constant. I didn’t pick up on the connection at first because this was also his first year in preschool, so I attributed most of his ailments to that more than anything.

A few weeks ago, he was diagnosed with bronchitis with a touch of pneumonia. And at that point, my mom brought up the fact that he’d been sick a lot (especially with respiratory-type stuff) since moving into the house, so she suggested that we get our vents/ducts inspected and cleaned. I mean, it’s an old house. Maybe poor air quality was contributing to his illnesses.

So, I called a duct cleaning company (Dallas Air Duct Cleaning was who we ended up with). Now, in honor of full disclosure, I have to tell y’all that in choosing them, I did very little research. I literally called the first company that popped up in Google (intending to just get information), but they sounded pretty good and offered whole house vent/duct cleaning for $89. Plus, they could come out the next day. So, we decided to pull the trigger. Ultimately, we ended up being very pleased with them, but by all means, if you decide to get your ducts cleaned, do research to ensure that you choose a company that’s a good fit for your home.

Anyways, the following day, the vent cleaners arrived and they asked when the last time the system had been cleaned.

Um, Never?

Their eyes got huge as they took this in. I explained the history of the house and that I doubted that the system had been cleaned recently. Or ever. They explained that vent and duct cleaning should happen every year, but stated that they would take a look at our system and let me know what they found. So, they inspected.

And I knew it was bad when they opened our hallway intake vent and I heard them simultaneously cry “ooooooh!” in response to what they saw.

After their inspection, they came to us with a vent cover that they’d removed. It was black. And not black with dust. Black with mold. Spotted, hairy mold. I should’ve snapped a picture, but unfortunately, the heebie-jeebies prevented me from thinking clearly. The leader of the two-man-team asked if anybody in the house had been sick lately, had allergies, asthma, trouble sleeping, etc. I explained that Lucas’s health was what prompted us to call them in the first place and that he’d just gotten over yet another respiratory issue. He said that this type of mold will continue to cause problems and can eventually lead to the development of asthma among other things.

He continued to explain that they’d found mold in every single vent and duct in our house and that they could still do the basic cleaning but it would only remove dust and surface mold. Not kill the source. To effectively get rid of the mold, every inch of our system needed to be brushed, cleaned, and sanitized. Otherwise, it would return. Not only this, he reported that it did indeed appear as though the vents hadn’t been cleaned in a VERY long time (if ever). He said that there was a thick layer of dust interspersed in and around the mold in all of the ducts.

Greatness. I mean, the lack of maintenance wasn’t a surprise to us, but having it confirmed was a combination of being super glad we’d called them and totally spooked at the fact that we’d been breathing in that nastiness for five months.

Now, let’s jump back… Allow me to revisit that moldy vent cover for a sec… I’d assumed that the vent cover that they’d showed us was from a moist room like our bathroom. It makes sense that it would be, given the sheer volume of mold growing on it. But I was shocked and horrified to learn that the vent cover was actually from our spare bedroom. OUR SPARE BEDROOM. Smack dab in the middle of our house!! At this point, we walked over to the open duct in the spare bedroom, looked up, and sure enough, it was spotted with mold up through the duct as far as the eye could see.

Now it was all making sense.

From the time we’d gotten possession of the home, we’d noticed a strange odor when the HVAC system kicked on, especially on warm days. And especially around the spare bedroom area. Joey and I’d often commented on it, while snooping around trying to figure out where the scent was coming from. And we never did.

Until now.

They told us that another heavily infested area was our master bedroom. ANOTHER room with a funky smell. Again, we’d noticed it after we got the keys to the house. The odor improved after we moved in and I demildewed our previously nasty bathroom shower, but we still noticed it from time to time. And now we knew why it wasn’t a constant presence… It returned only when the system kicked on. Light.bulb.moment. And also…

Ew. Friggin. Gross.

Lastly, he told us that the third heavily-molded area was the dining room. UGH!! So, basically, rooms in every area of our home were affected.

We. Were. Surrounded.

So, needless to say, we ended up having to do the larger mold package through the vent cleaners. They treated every vent cover and vent, cleaned, vacuumed and brushed every duct, coil, etc. in our system, then sanitized the entire system to kill off the mold for good. It took them about 3-4 hours. They were efficient and friendly and explained everything as they went along.

And I’m not gonna lie. This service was not cheap. But we knew we needed to suck it up and do it since there was NO WAY we were allowing our son to sleep one more night knowing that he was breathing in mold spores. We negotiated with them and they ended up giving us 20% off and a 3-year mold warranty for being new customers (so always ask… can’t hurt, might help.). But, honestly, the cost was worth our peace of mind. It needed to be done.

At this point, it’s been over a week and a half since our system was cleaned and I have to say that the difference is HUGE. Not only does the house no longer have that moldy smell (I haven’t detected it AT ALL since they left), prior to the cleaning, I was getting almost-daily headaches (which always started after I was in the house for a bit), and now they’ve stopped. My allergies are better and I’ve actually felt rested when I wake up in the morning. The leader-cleaner told me that that may happen… air quality can have a profound effect on our quality of sleep, apparently. And most importantly, I feel so much better about Lucas living in this house. I can’t imagine if we’d lived here longer with the mold and he’d ended up with asthma or something that could’ve been prevented.

So, seriously, you guys. Maintain your vents. We’ve always had relatively new houses and had never really thought about this before. But now we always will. If your house is new, start to maintain it now. If your house is old, get it checked out.

I promise, your lungs will thank you.

You excited??

I am. Why?? Because I finally did something to our laundry room. Woot!

Granted, it’s a little something. But something just the same.

So, let’s start with a basic floor plan refresher. Our laundry room is located directly off of our breakfast nook…

It’s a decent-sized room that houses a spacious pantry and our teeny pool bath. I actually think the pantry is larger than the bathroom. I mean, it doesn’t take much, but still… it’s kind of a strange distribution of space.

Here’s the room when we got the keys (along with some indicators to show you what’s where) ….

And here it is after we plopped down our stuff after we moved in….

And now….

Granted,. the space hasn’t changed much, and most of what’s in there right now (the rugs, basket, and wood shelf) will be switched out eventually. I’m not a huge fan of the dark brown sink mat, but we needed something there functionality-wise (Lucas + sink = puddle = slippery), and it’s what we had on hand. I’m on a use-what-I-got-front for most of the space at the moment. I did, however, manage to hang a new mirror and towel hook above the sink (which will stay)….

Sometimes the smallest additions can seem like the biggest triumphs in a space that’s been stagnant in decorating. In case you’re wondering, the mirror was a Tuesday Morning find for $39.99, and the hook (a clearance Young House Love hook) and towel I got from Target. I wanted to tie in the red and aqua tones from the adjoining pool bath….

And I love how you can see the bathroom’s reflection in the mirror. Heart.

I have to say that up to this point, the laundry room has been the most frustrating room in the house for me because I know EXACTLY that I wanna do with it. We just haven’t gotten there yet. And in the meantime, aside from housing the washer, dryer and a sink, it has little function. I cleaned it up for the pictures in this post, but normally there’s coats, shoes, backpacks, hats, and laundry piled everywhere since there’s no storage or system of any kind.

Last year, the previous owners experienced a flood that affected half the house and started in the laundry room. Apparently, a pipe burst in the attic above it when we had all of those super low temperatures. They had to almost fully gut the laundry room and pool bath. So in the process, the space lost all of its original cabinetry and storage. They just put up drywall when they were putting it all back together again and called it a day. I can’t say I blame them, but it would have been FANTASTIC to have inherited some storage in the space when we purchased the house.

But, on the flip side, we have a totally blank slate to work with, which is also kind of cool.

So, here’s the plan. This space over the washer and dryer will sport some stained wood shelves that’ll extend all the way to the ceiling….

Then, this area where I stuck a random shelving unit, will be the “mudroom” space with hooks, shoe storage, etc.

I’ve been tossing around painting the sink cabinet as well, though I’d like to see how the rest of the room comes together first.

Then, comes the biggie. THE BIGGIE. The thing that I want to do most (aside from adding function).

That exterior door back there (straight ahead in the photo), which leads to our covered back patio. I wanna change that out for an exterior door with a full length window. That right there will be be a game changer. Natural light will flood the land. It will be glorious. And most importantly, it’ll make the space feel like part of our house rather than a dark, cavernous afterthought.

I can’t wait until we get going on this. We’re currently saving our pennies and planning, though we’ll likely have to wait until the other projects that are in progress right now are finished (our pool refinishing along with a few other outdoor projects and the wet-bar… I’ll post an update once we get to it, of course.). In the meantime, I’m thrilled to at least have one small project for this space under my belt. I’m a total proponent for starting small to add personality when you can’t really take on a larger project at the moment. It’s amazing how just a small mirror and hook are enough to make me smile when I enter the room now.

So, tell me, what little changes have you made that made the biggest differences in your space?