Welcome to the Containment Zone

The construction guys showed up today -- bright and early at 8:05 -- to begin taking apart my water-damaged ceiling and walls.

Interesting factoid:  Any time people are dealing with water damage, they must act as though it is contaminated with toxic mold.  Sorta like how medical folk (and police) must act as though anyone's blood has AIDS, and just take all protective measures.

Which is why a good chunk of my living room looks like a scene from Outbreak -- it's separated off with plastic from floor to ceiling.  And there's a little doorway and a vestibule and a second doorway so that none of the (potentially) mold-filled air can escape when someone is going in or out.  I'm told they wear supersuits when they're in there -- conveniently, I'm working at home tomorrow so should get photographic evidence.  (No pics tonight -- I'm waiting till I get more daylight in there.) 

Near as I can tell from peeking through the semi-transparent plastic, they've taken out two sizeable chunks of ceiling, and a little bit of wall.  They may have taken more wall -- it's hard to tell exactly.  They've also got a big tube -- sort of like the dryer vent, except about a foot in diameter, venting out an opening in the plastic and through an open window out to my patio.  I do not know whether that is an intake or an outflow vent -- in the absence of such knowledge, I decided not to open my patio door for ventilation.

And the place needs ventilation.  Smells ucky.  I am hoping that it is simply the delightful scent of newly unrolled plastic, rather than the equally pleasant aroma of newly-opened water-damaged ceiling.  In any event, I am now covering my mouth and nose with a piece of fabric when I go in that part of the house.  Never thought I'd say these words, but I should've picked up one of them surgical masks at the drug store.

Construction guys said, this morning, that they'd finish the destruction and cleaning in my unit today, and then let their magic air cleaning machine do whatever voodoo it do for 24 hours, so the mold guy could come on Wednesday and test some air samples. 

When I came home, I found a note on my door saying they needed to come back to my unit for 2 or 3 hours tomorrow to finish with cleaning the inside of my walls.  Day One and the contractor is already behind on the time estimate.  Color me surprised.