the essence

While we were away the weather in Florida turned from hot to Fall-like. It is so much cooler outside now. I love having the windows open (& not having to use the AC!). I put cinnamon & cloves on the stove to simmer this morning, they make the house smell so nice, & I'm drinking a nice hot coffee. I really love my coffee.

I feel very motivated this morning. My house has been a daunting task in the short time that I've been home. There is a lot to clean (& organize, there are some very messy rooms rights now) & there is so much to do that I didn't know where to start so didn't clean anything at first.

Yesterday & started with the kitchen. I did dishes, cleaned out the microwave, the stove, & wiped down all countertops (there are a lot in our new house!) with comet. I only swept the floor, I didn't have time to mop, but the kitchen still looks so much better & makes me feel good. If I have a messy kitchen I feel a bit unsettled.

So after accomplishing all of this I open the door to the laundry room. My foot bumped the towels on the ground & I felt that they were sopping wet. The room also smelled like mold. I knew for a fact that when I tossed those towels on the floor two days earlier to eventually wash that they had been dry. Now, it appeared the whole pile of dirty clothes on the ground were soaking wet.

I had left a laundry basket on top of the washer before we left, with the lid to the washer open & the inside empty. I took off the laundry basket only to find the washer completely filled with water. I closed the lid on the washer & it started up mid-cycle.

I have no idea how this happened. I don't stop the washer mid-cycle like that & besides, it was completely empty of laundry so anything I took out before would have had to have been spun before I would ahve taken it out to begin with.

Anyway, it apppeared that while we were gone water had been leaking out of the washer, onto the ground, into the dirty laundry, & on into our walls.

Oh yes, we now have to tear out some of the drywall in the laundry room & in part of our master bathroom (a shower wall probably included) because our bathroom is next to the laundry room. When I removed the wet laundry from the floor I found tons of mold gowing along the baseboard & some on the wall. I still have cleaning to do in there but the bulk of it is done. But we really don't need to have a mold problem so the drywall is going to come out. Who knows how long it will take before everything is replaced, this wasn't really in our budget at the moment!