As I a write this I'm hearing the famous David Bowie song intro to under Pressure. "Dun Dun Dun Da Dada. Dun Dun Dun Da Dads". We're 2 weeks into this and it's been a roller coaster. As I've shared this is something we felt the lord calling us to do, so we've prayed that it would simply fall through should he not be in it and want it to succeed. We've come close a few times, but every-time something happens to keep up moving forward.
House Preparations
We knew the home needed some work, and that was actually something we were looking forward to tackling together (along with the help of some professional contractors). The plan was close, and then live at the house for 10 days while we made significant deposits of sweat equity. Replacing the flooring, painting, refurbing bathrooms, and putting nice finishing touches in the home to make it appeal to renters.
We enlisted the help of some our friends, mainly Robin Johnsey, who lives down the street and has a small boutique decorating firm in Johns Creek, GA. She was kind enough to spend the entire day at the house with us brainstorming all kinds of "fix-its" we could make to the house. I think it's been great for Emily to have someone to bounce ideas off of and help think through all of the color pallets, layouts, and furnishing options. And I love Robin because she is as creative a she is practical and knows how to stay in budget :-)
Things were going along great, and we had the home inspection at 2pm. Around 230pm I received a call from the inspector asking me to meet him back at the house. He whispered the 4 letter word no new home owner want to hear: MOLD. That's right, we had some mold issues in the crawl space.
It's No Big Deal
In full transparency Highlands is located at 4000 ft elevation, in a humid climate and is actually a rainforest. They receive over 80 inches of rain, double the national average. That coupled with the fact that our home was built in the 70's creates the likelihood for mold/mildew. We thought this was the end of the road. But the inspector encouraged us to get a professional opinion;
Blessing #2
If Dan Chapman, our wise, sagely real estate agent and short term rental "mentor" was blessing #1, then Maury at disaster Doctor was blessing #2. I called Maury at approximately 6:45 pm on our drive back home. We were stressed and defeated, thinking we would need to back out of the sale. Maury not only answered the phone, but agreed to go to the house first thing the very next day. The next morning he called with good news. Everything could be completely fixed, mold eradicated, and the crawl space good as new. It is costing us a little extra money, but the we feel it's worth it.
What's Next?
We close on July 3rd. Things are ramping up for home repairs, so stay tuned to hear about how intend to tackle 2 bathroom refurbs, new floors, new hardware and lighting fixtures, and a ton of other small improvement during the month of July!