While Aaron is gone, I don't usually clean all the time, just when I have time, or it really needs it... Let me set the stage for you... I was sick for many days in a row, diminishing the amount of time spent in my kitchen... I don't think I opened the cabinet under my sink for about a week...
Then, one night while making dinner, I decided to do a little spot cleaning while waiting for my food to cook in the microwave... I open the cabinet door to retrieve my cleaning supplies only to be met by hot, humid air billowing out of it... The inside of the doors and the cabinet are covered in mold... Water is dripping from every available surface... Yeah, this was last night...
So, dealing "in the moment," I try to clean the cabinets of all visible colonies of mold. I also bleach the heck out of the doors... I leave the doors open, remove all items from the cabinet, and line the floor with towels in the hopes that it helps to dry out the space. With so much water condensing on the underside of the sink and on the pipes, it was impossible to determine if there was a leak. Then, I take my soup upstairs to eat dinner (finally)...
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| Mold stains on the cabinet frame... |
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| More mold stains on the cabinet frame... |
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| Mold stains/damage to Left Cabinet Door (the highest concentration of mold colonies...ewww) |
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| Mold damage on the inside of the cabinet... |
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| Mold stains and damage on Right Cabinet Door (double ewww....) |
This morning, there was no visible moisture dripping from anywhere. The condensation had dissipated. However, there was still hot humid air coming out from under the sink. I ran water, both hot and cold, just to check for leaks (again), and there were none... I was late for work, so I left it there, thinking that it could be the boiler on the other side of the wall...
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| Boiler Room Situation... |
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| The Culprit... The Recirculating Pump... |
At lunch, I came home to investigate the boiler room... Here was the problem... There was standing water on the floor and I heard a hissing noise coming from an apparatus that happens to be located right behind my sink. I saw water dripping from this area, so I thought it was venting steam. I then contacted the condo association to advise them of the problem. I obtained the phone number to the plumbing company that services our boilers to have them come fix it. I met them when they came over, and we discovered (when we removed a packet of information from the area) that it wasn't venting steam, it was spraying water all over the wall... Awesome!
I then called a cleaning company to address the moisture and mold damage to my wall and cabinets. The sheet rock behind my cabinet is soft (not good)... The verdict? My kitchen needs to be disassembled, the cabinets cleaned and treated for mold, the sheet rock removed, the wall treated for mold, new sheet rock put up, my kitchen reassembled, and the cabinets refinished and my wall textured and painted... Whew!
I'll know more tomorrow as to when all of this will take place. The condo association is responsible for the repairs, and they seem to want to get the problems corrected now rather than later. I'm hoping that I'm not without a kitchen for too long... If it will take a while before repairs can be made, I'm going to have another contractor do the work to expedite it...
In the mean time, my aviator problem solver is on the other side of the state until the 15th... I know he is frustrated that this is happening and that he isn't here to deal with it. But, I think I have done a good job "dealing" with it thus far on my own and he needs to trust that I can handle it in his absence...
