Ever had a disaster in your house?  We’re never expecting it, and it’s always at a bad time.  Then, everything else gets put on hold until the mess is cleaned up.  I’ve known such a disaster.  Although it was not my own house, it was a rental that my sister was taking care of.  The rental was sitting unoccupied, and the first hint we had of something being wrong was when the utility bill was way too high.  She called the water company and asked why the bill had quadrupled that month, when no one was supposed to be living in the house.  They said the bill was accurate, so we went over to check.

(roll sad and tragic music)…  The entire house on the inside was covered ceiling to floor with fine white mold.  Everything!  Walls, furniture, floor, gasp!

Turns out that the hose from the washer to the wall had come loose, and HOT water had been spraying out into the house for a couple of WEEKS.  (Hence the high utility bills.)

Now, I suppose we could have applied structural drying techniques on our own, or tapped into every single rug cleaning tips we had ever heard of.   We could have delved into the endless task of do it yourself upholstery cleaning , but omg, this was overwhelming.

We called for help.  It took 8 industrial size dehumidifiers 6 weeks to dry out the house.  Not to mention the mold removal.

Thank God for insurance, is all I can say.