Day 1 Activities Immediately After Closing

DAY 1 —Immediately after closing

Brought the whole family over...parents, kids and dog.

We chopped at bushes around the back. Leaf litter and branches that contact the house provide an Insect Super Highway for termites and other invasive critters. The goal is to get all vegetation ten feet away from the house. In the near future, we will hire an arborist to do the trees. But for now, we wanted the kids to have their fingerprints on the house. We raked leaves into piles in the driveway. We bagged these and placed into bins.

My husband, Robert rented a mister unit and we bought Borax and liquid mold treatment. He used these and misted the kitchen, the addition, and the great room. There is a strong scent of mold in the house, and I seem to be the only one really affected by breathing it in. Thankfully, we found a respirator mask for fine particulates and I wear that in the house, and we limit the kids from time inside. The toilets work, however, and we all need a restroom break. Other than that, I'm aiming to keep the kids outside.

Daughter R climbed the large oak tree by the back porch to pull down some of the Spanish moss. She also found numerous air plants: you may have seen the little aloe-shaped plants that do not require soil to grow and are often found affixed to magnets or in little pots. Additionally, we found several orchids on the trees around the property.