Secret Mold Attack

How much fun was it to find the grossest mold covered drywall behind the old stove when we replaced it with the new stove? The most unfun. Mold freaks me out, and super freaks me out while pregnant. I mean, look at it.

That scary stuff (like horror movie scary) was just inches away from food we were cooking. Our old stove was a single unit with a detachable hood. I am pretty sure it was from the 70s. It cooked everything uneven, and was quite an eye sore. You can imagine how excited I was when we bought a new stove and dishwasher (which was in similar condition to the stove)!

There is a close up. It’s hard to even look at. Our contractor came to check it out and said it wasn’t the biggest deal in the world, and actually didn’t spread very far. We decided to bring in a pro for this particular project because we didn’t even know where to begin, or how dangerous it would be.

Lucky for us, all it came down to was simply removing the old drywall and replacing it with new drywall. The contractor also set up the electrical for the new microwave we bought and installed it. We are not microwave people. I don’t think we have ever owned one in the eight years we have been together. With a baby on the way, I suspect we will need one for heating water, and quick emergency meals.

We picked out a Samsung on sale from BestBuy for $287.99, but is on even more sale right now online for $247.99! It’s simple and sturdy and not over complicated. I mean it is an over-the-range microwave which isn’t too shabby. Being we aren’t big microwavers, we figured we would save “fancy” for the fridge.

What a relief to see the grossness gone, and not too shabby to have the microwave installed all pretty. Now we can finally deal with tiling that side of the kitchen and get back to DIY’ing our kitchen to completion.

I never knew microwaves could go above stoves and vent. Here is what the underbelly looks like. Not intrusive, though I am curious how difficult it’s going to be to clean with all those little nooks. We will keep you posted!

Here is a shot of a challenge we have ahead of us. We plan to tile this side of the kitchen, just like the other side. See the dip to the right of the stove? Yep. This is far from architectural interest, this will just be plain strange.

For now, I am going to focus on the shiny new appliance and the mold-free environment behind the stove. We have so much to do before the baby comes, it’s making our head spin, so we may invest in a contractor here and there to help us speed progress up, or to be a pro about possible hazardous problems.

The total spent on the kitchen so far when we left off was: $1,931.00

The new Samsung microwave cost us: $287.99 + 24.12 tax (On sale at Best Buy. Regular $319.99)

Contractor to remove mold, replace drywall, and all electrical for microwave: $550

New Total: $2,793.11

So far, so good considering we have a new stove, microwave/vent, and dishwasher along with a new faucet, temp floors, and tile/grout for the back splash and counter tops. We really wanted to do marble floors, but keep being advised against it in the kitchen, so we are on the hunt. Next steps, are the back splash is all complete, is some serious demo, which we are super looking forward to. This house needs a little open concept! I might fold and splurge on a new fridge before that day happens. But for now, I am sticking to being super pleased with the mold gone!