we're watching....and we're waiting

This is how I've been feeling in our lives lately. Summer is here, and everyone else is off having great summer adventures, and we're home almost every weekend getting things ready for the house sale and the RV. And what's delaying everything? The RV.  I have been loathe to talk about this part, because it's been quite an upset to our plans, but here it is, and it's being handled, so what can I do. Haha Universe, you got us GOOD.

As I might have mentioned, my husband was redoing the interior, as in painting the walls, cabinets, and redoing the floors. There was some discussion as to whether we ought to take up the tile as well - I really wanted to redo ALL the floors, and he didn't want to have to do all of that taking up of the tile, because it's a PITA. But one day he said, "Oh, why not," and took up all the tile.

That was the beginning of the...adventure. He discovered that part of the floor was soggy and moldy. I'm allergic to mold. It is NOT a good thing for me to be around it. I get very very sick in moldy environments. Mold isn't good for anyone to be exposed to, but some of us are even more sensitive, and it can take us out in ways that take crazy amounts of time to recover from.

Oddly, I hadn't had any reactions to that rig, which is why we bought it - I have been the canary in the coalmine for all the RVs we looked at. I reacted to most of them, which is why we passed on SO MANY before buying this one. But this one was okay for me. The only thing we can figure about it is that because all of the damage was under the tile, that the tile was sealing it in.

So of course we freaked right out. There had already been delays in getting the flooring and how long it was taking to paint the cabinets, etc...now we had another one.  a BIG one, because did this mean we bought a rig we cannot even be in and use? Would we have to scrap it?

Our realtor gave us the name of a great mold remediation specialist she works with, so we called him and a couple of others and got an assessment. Yes, mold. Yes, could be remediated. No, not cheap. But yes, doable. The RV can be livable. But the mold was also under the slide, which the mold guys couldn't get to. We'd need an RV pro to jack up or take out the slide so they can do the work. Husband called all over town to different Rv places asking could they jack up the slide so the mold guys can do the wok? Would it be okay for the mold guys to be working on their property while the slide is up? Are you available now?

After many calls we found a place that said yes to all, and we thought yay, we're in business. It was worked out that the RV guys would do the work of taking out the rotted and wet subfloor an then the mold guys would come in and finish the job, then make sure there was no mold left (they have a machine that reads the levels and can tell us). The RV guys gave us a discount if w were willing to let them work on it between other jobs. We were.

Two weeks later, they finally started the job in earnest, and then discovered that the wet/leak had gone through the first subfloor to the second one. Apparently our RV is an anomaly in many ways, because usually there is one subfloor, then a layer of thick insulation, then the frame, the metal frame. Ours instead has one subfloor, then a thin layer of paper-like insulation, then a second subfloor that is also maybe the ceiling above the "basement" storage (the outdoor storage compartments below). So both layers need replacing and remediating. And all of a sudden the RV guys are hesitant to do anything.

Obviously this didn't thrill us, especially since after sitting there two weeks, they are just now hemming and hawing that they're not sure and we don't know what to do. Husband came up with plan B, which was just have the Rv guys jack up the slide so the mold guys can do what they need to do under it, then put it back and bring it home, and have the mold guys finish the work here on our property. Because they will hopefully actually do the work (they said they could originally, just their price was a little more and we're trying to save our $ here). But whatever, now we just want the work done already and no longer care so much about the $. Okay, we DO, but priorities. We have a house to sell here.

So today is the day that the mold guys are going out there and assessing the situation, hopefully doing what needs doing on the slide, then we figure out where to go from there. Meanwhile we had to put our estate sale on hold until we know when this work will be done, and that also means having our house on the market waits, too.

So we're watching....and we're waiting....