We are facing our first Home Owner Challenge (well besides the crying wall)

Whew, this is one of the stresses that has been weighing on my mind for a week or so now.

The upstairs bathroom has some, what appears to be, mold under the linoleum. It was located under the bathmat in front of the tub. We never would have thought to even LOOK there for it. It starts at the edge of the tub and comes out roughly a foot. I would say it's about three feet wide. This little square footage of area is causing so much stress. I have a firm understanding that when you usually SEE a problem, the problem is bigger than the surface.

We had a home inspection January prior to buying the house. He never looked under the bathmat. It was a MAJOR fault on his part, as an inspector to not look and catch something so major.

After thinking about it for a week I decided we should call the inspector, because it WAS his job to catch it. He was paid a fee, and what's the point in paying an inspector if he's not looking at things a normal person wouldn't think of? (Something as simple lifting the mat).

I spoke with the inspector today and he's coming over tomorrow to take a look at it and "put our heads together and see what can be done." I've done some research, talked to our REA and if tomorrow he doesn't come to the conclusion that he SHOULD have caught it (it's so obvious, and visible, he SHOULD have caught it) we will be taking the next step with the licensing people for Home Inspectors for our state as well as contacting his insurance company and seeing about putting in a claim anyways. The whole reason that they are insured is for situations like this, so we are hoping that he has enough integrity to admit there was a mistake and make it right.

Let me add a few things that we have checked (even though we are untrained so it really means very little) the floor doesn't feel soft, it doesn't have any real give to it. The walls aren't soft. The linoleum isn't rippled, soft, wavy or any of the other things we imagine would be happening if water had been causing damage for years. Or if it was a pipe issue from under the tub or in the wall. We really think it was just water coming over the side of the tub from the previous owners children taking a bath, playing, and getting in and out of the tub.

We won't know the extent of the damage, we won't have a plan of action...we won't have ANSWERS until sometime after tomorrow. So here's to hoping that things go our way with the inspector tomorrow!

Here are the pictures:








So now that I've shared the pictures any words of advice, wisdom, or a horror story that will cause me to lose some more sleep??!!

Second Floor Bathroom

This bathroom will have a dual purpose. It's the guest and company bathroom, but also the wee one's. So while I don't want to totally kid-ify it. I do want her to like it, since she'll be using it more than anyone else.

Currently the owners have it decorated like this:


It's a fairly large bathroom, you can't really tell but there's a bit of room to the left of where the picture ends. Enough for some shelving for towels and other bath items. Something else that's difficult to tell from this picture is the color. I took another picture of the bathroom, but it's not the best quality, I was rushing. The bathroom is actually gray. A really nice gray. Our question has been how to dress that grayup for Baby C. We've come up with a couple of options.

Option One: is to accessorize with pink, bright pink. Not bubble gum bright pink, but more like this color pink:


Now it's a whole lot of pink when it's the only color in the room. But I'm attempting to talk Mr. C into being on board with a solid line midway around the room. With a matching solid shower curtain. I think it would add a great amount of color to the room. I saw a picture of a kids bathroom that I really liked this picture and quote they had. I am on the hunt for the picture again, but I can't find it right now. As soon as I do I'll come back and add it here. But in the mean time I'll do my best to describe it. It was a picture of her child (or maybe two kids) wrapped in towels. Framed. Above the pictures had a quote. I can't remember now what it said for sure. But we're going back and forth between "Rub-a-dub-dub" and "splish splash",

Option Two: Also known as Mr. C's least favorite. Adding wood paneling to break up all the gray. We would probably still accessorize with pink, just no stripe.

Option Three: A totally new color. This would be a totally blank slate. No color choices have been decided if we go with this. So I imagine if we don't decide between one and two, we'll have a lot of brainstorming ahead of us.

Second Floor Bathroom

For All things Second Floor Bathroom.