Mold in the Pantry (and I don’t mean on the bread)

Apparently, the pantry wants to win the war, too.

(Click HERE for the beginning of the pantry project and the plan.)

As explained in THIS POST, I was losing the pantry demolition battle. Too many layers of paint, too many stripped screws.

So, I bought a reciprocating saw. And I went to town.

I removed all the shelves (yay!) with the saw and the pry bar, with only a few big holes. Not bad. I’m thinking shiplap or beadboard could cover the holes. All good, right?

Not so fast, my friends.

I then start removing the first cabinet. I get it loosened, I pull it down, and…

MOLD.

I don’t have a picture because I FREAKED OUT.

I got the cabinet out of the house as quickly as I could.

I sealed up the area with a garbage bag and some tape and called my contractor and the mold remediation guy.

I cleaned everything up. I took a deep breath. I’m not going to lie: I took a Karen Silkwood-type shower.

I’m looking on the bright side here. It is much better that I found the mold now so that we can get it out of our home. I’m grateful that my contractor is amazing and can come over today to check it out so quickly. I’m grateful that I know a mold remediation expert (from the Comcast leak) who can come today, too.

It also means that I’ve resolved the dilemma of what to put on the walls of the pantry. Since I have to have the drywall replaced and repaired anyway, I’m just going to go with the new drywall and paint, rather than spend more money on beadboard or shiplap. Since the walls are going to be hidden by cereal boxes and stuff anyway, I think this is the right decision.

I have to admit: I had a bad feeling something like this was going to happen with this project. When I started it, for some reason, I was hesitant. At the time, I chalked it up to not wanting to make any more mess in my house after cleaning up from the Comcast leak.

Turns out my gut instinct was right.

I’ll post an update once I know more. Stay tuned.