Mildew

Bruce left town this morning for Chicago. Talia got to spend the day with Nannie (thanks Mom). I think they both had a good time playing and hanging out together all day long. It's been a pretty hectic day. On my lunch hour I bought another big fan to blow on the carpet but it is starting to smell of mildew down there now. I also got Tacie a care package shipped off to her camp.

This evening I stopped at Home Depot and Lowes looking for something to put on the carpet to kill mildew. They sold me some enzyme based pet deoderizer. Now it smells slightly sweet over the mildew smell. We'll see how it is tomorrow. I've been vacuuming the carpet in the basement with the carpet cleaner.

I spoke to the insurance company and there is no coverage for flood damage.

Next comes hurricane Emily.

Hurricane Dennis flooding

Although we have a lot to be thankful for not being in the eye of Dennis, we did have a bit of a flood last night. Our basement had an inch of water in it this morning - from rainwater runoff. Our nextdoor neighbor's yard had standing water. The playground and tennis courts down the street were flooded to about 2' deep. The road outside our subdivision was impassable in one direction due to Ward Creek overflowing.

Bruce went to our old house to see how things were and there was apparently no power all day long. Nickajack Creek behind the house overflowed its banks and past the 100 year floodplain. It came all the way up past the gazebo.

We spent all day running the carpet cleaner over the carpet in the basement to suck all the water out. I had to go into the office for a few hours but came back and vacuumed up gallon after gallon of water. I don't yet know how successful we have been. There is already somewhat of a musty smell. We have fans and the dehumidifier running. We haven't called the insurance company yet and we'd like to avoid replacing all the carpet down there. Two rooms are finished, one of them my office. The rest of the basement has old carpet without pad and not tacked down.

Talia and I took a break to take Charlie to his obedience training. This is our third class. He's pretty good when you have a treat in your hand but is easily distracted. Then we came home and I vacuumed some more.

Does anyone have any experience with drying out carpet? Is it possible to do without mold growing?