Mold-cation

Ahhh...Barcelona.  The sun, the sea, the balmy breezes...the freakishly high and persistent humidity.  This place is damp.  When we first moved here my normally straight hair got its feathers in a ruffle, puffing out twice its normal size.  A phenomenon my hairdresser assured me was temporary until "my hair got used to it", which oddly enough, it did.  Similarly, while we are normally slathering ourselves with moisturizer all year long in Boston, this place has you glowing with nary a drop of lotion.  It's been nice not having to leave half a paycheck at the Origins counter every six months for skin care!

But there is the downside...all this humidity doesn't pair well with our basement like dwelling.  We live in a Bajos (ground) level apartment that is encased in stone.  And while the exposed brick and stone is beautiful, the only ventilation is at the front and the back of the apartment -- front doors, back patio, and the kids' windows upstairs.  In the summer, when the windows are open, or the a/c is running, the humidity is kept in check.  But this winter, it kind of snuck up on us and we were finding that the front door and windows were saturated with water in the mornings from the high levels of humidity inside.  Gross.  Even grosser, was the mold that started to grow as a result.  At first it was a little patch here and there near the front door.  It would grow, we would clean it off.  It would grow back, we would clean it off.  Finally it started to grow out of our control, and growing up the walls and ceiling and leaving the house with a musty smell.

Cue the wife freak out in 3...2...1...

"We need to leave NOW".

This was me last week, researching all the terrible things living with mold will do to you and your small children, and why it was imperative that we start scrambling to pack up, and ship out three months earlier than we planned. To the people in the US, it isn't just mold, it is Killer Black Mold.  To the people in Barcelona, it is an annoying part of life that can pop up from time to time, but you get rid of it, dehumidify, and move on with your life.

 Thankfully, my husband was the voice of reason.  We first called our landlord, and while he didn't seem surprised, he was extremely helpful and told us he would get his handyman on it right away.

Now, we've met this handyman of his.  He is nice.  Friendly.  But urgency is not in his vocabulary.  If you are lucky enough to catch them when they are not on holiday for the month, the "dispatch" would typically go something like this:  you call them with a problem, someone will come the following day.  Person looks at the problem, and declares, "yes, it's a problem".  Then they leave.  The following day they come back with tools to fix said problem, only to declare, "these are not all the tools I need", and leave.  The next day they come back with the tools they need, begin work, then leave an hour later to eat breakfast and/or take a nap.  Once the project was complete, we would usually get a "talking to" about why the problem was mostly our fault, and we should be more careful.  I was in no mood.

We decided to take the matter into our own hands and immediately started researching how to effectively kill mold.  Chris checked us all into a temp/efficiency apartment down the street, hit up the hardware store for some supplies, and got to work killing off the mold .  Up until now, we had been trying to be environmentally friendly using things like hydrogen peroxide or vinegar to clean the mold.  Clearly not working, so we turned to the tried and true (environmentalists cover your ears) bleach.  Bleach baby.  That stuff works.

Mold-cation was actually kind of fun...felt like we were tourists in our own town.  After the bleaching was done, we went out to dinner, played with the Nespresso machine the following morning, and had a laid back weekend.  And honestly, for Evan and Mia it was worth it just for the bath tub alone, for them it is better than any toy or amusement park.  

Just as the tiny quarters of the hotel were getting...not fun... it was time to go home.  After two days of beaching down the apartment, an extra day to air it out, and 4 different dehumidifying devices placed strategically around the house, we came home to a fresh smelling, mold-free, DRY home.  So it looks like we will be sticking it out here till the end after all and here's hoping our next adventure is further than 3 blocks away and isn't prompted by an infestation of fungus :)