Is That Algae?

I really thought we were ahead of the house, but it's sneaky and waits to play tricks on us until we're least expecting it. This weekend my parents came down again for more fun working on the house. Doors were painted, flowers were planted, tiles were replaced, baseboards painted and bushes trimmed. All in all, not bad for 5 people in 8 hours. We were feeling very good about our accomplishments.

But I think we were prideful a little too soon. Yesterday Kevin and I took a bath in our Jacuzzi tub after putting about 1/2 gallon of Clorox in the water and running it through the pipes. Note: The home inspector told us this was all we needed to do to clean out the jets. Kevin then proceeded to put bubble bath in the tub and turn on the jets. Do you know where this is leading yet? Stop laughing.

The bubbles grew like some horror movie and we quickly deduced that bubble bath and jacuzzis don't mix well. We turned off the jets to Kevin's dismay and drained the tub. Of course that couldn't be the end of this.

This morning when I woke up I smelled something putrid, almost like a stagnant pond. I ignored it for two reasons. First, this house has all kinds of putrid smells that we've been trying to get rid of and second, I was secretly hoping it would go away. After going downstairs to put out the trash I came back upstairs only to discover the smell was stronger. I followed my nose to, yes, the tub. Yuck! There was something on the bottom of the tub that I could only describe as the most fetid smelling green stuff I could imagine in a house. Score one for the house.

A gallon of Clorox later and three 1/2 hour separate runs of the jets and I thought I had most of it cleared out. But no, the algae is clining to the bottom of the tub like the ivy did on our fence out back and won't drain! Score two for the house. So, I did the only thing I could think of, I killed it with Clorox spray. Score one for me!

Yes, we're still grossed out by the fact we took a bath in the stagnant, putrid pond. And yes, the house is still ahead!