Fungus Update

Time for a little update on the main reason for our trip this weekend: the fungus.

Rutger and I applied the fungicide pretty liberally. We brushed it on all the stained areas and let it set for 15 minutes. I rinsed it off even more liberally with the hose, and we left the house still quite wet the next day. As an experiment on Sunday morning, I applied straight solution with a toothbrush to one dark spot to see if it acted differently than the other areas. 

But I can't say that we really accomplished anything- at least not yet. The dark patches still look darker than the surrounding wood. Does this mean the fungus is dead or not? The goal was to arrest the spread of the fungus; have we done that? Is it safe to paint over all this now? I don't know for sure, and I don't know how to get that answer definitely, short of bringing a fungus expert in. I find that very frustrating.

To make matters worse, my rinsing of the house caused a few watermarks and drip streaks to appear on the interior walls. The good news is that Janne told us lemon juice would remove the marks,so Rutger rescued a lemon from the previous night's gin & tonic, and went after the marks with a Q-tip. Sure enough it worked like a charm. Of course, now I have to go over the walls on my next trip. One step forward, one step back. 

I will be very interested to see how the house looks when we're there next month. I hope that will give me some reassurance and direction going into the winter.