Jake Butcher Mansion: Mold Issues

One of my biggest concerns for bringing the Butcher Mansion back to a habitable condition is the cost of mold remediation. The smell of mold and mildew in this home is overwhelming. It hits you before you cross the threshold and in certain areas it constricts your throat and burns.

Thankfully, we have a hazmat professional in the family. Shortly after beginning his tour, Zack donned his hazmat suit and provided masks for all of us.

The basement, the main floor and the second floor are major problem areas. You can see where someone has attempted to clean the mold or worse, painted right over it. Whatever the case, it's bleeding through. And it's everywhere. Most of it appears to be surface mold but there are areas throughout the house, basement, and garage that are a concern for the more dangerous black mold.

The problem is, as I understand it, you have to take care of all the surface mold first. If you disturb mold, particularly black mold, the spores get airborne and attach themselves to any possible feeding surface which would be all the surface mold that currently exists in the house. Black mold spreads quickly and then you have what I like to call, "a frickin nightmare".

Mold is a big, BIG issue with the Butcher mansion. Clean-up could run five to six figures. You also have the ducts and vents to worry about. It is a massive undertaking.

Here's a little peak inside the Butcher Mansion in Clinton, TN. This video was taken from the second condo conversion on the first floor. Yes, sadly, the Butcher mansion was divided into 5 condominiums years ago but all occupants moved out, supposedly due to the high utility and maintenance bills. The house has since been vacant. The asking price remains $1.2 million and is currently held by Commercial Bank - Farragut, TN is their closest branch.



Moving on from this point we have the ballroom, also part of the second condo conversion.



What are your thoughts on the mold issue? The price of this home?

Jake Butcher Mansion: The Ballroom

 

Butcher Mansion ballroom is approximately 1200 sqft

From first glance, the ballroom appears to be in pretty good shape. But what you don't see here in the photos, you'll see in the video currently being uploaded to youtube. There is extensive mold throughout the ballroom as there is throughout the house.


Over the fireplace, on the walls, on the ceilings and most notably on the beams, mold is everywhere and it appears to have been painted over, but is now bleeding through. Merely painting over mold will not make it go away.


There are parquet floors in the ball room and the window you see in the upper photo is the location of the water-damaged, buckled parquet.

The ballroom sits about 2 feet below ground and mulch sits right up against the foundation. I'm not a fan of mulch up against the house because it tends to retain the water. Mulch attracts bugs, termites and invites dry rot. I'm not a fan. I much prefer gravel up against a foundation.

But no matter what your preference, proper drainage is key. And you don't have it with this house. The gutters are clogged, there are saplings growing in the gutters. Trees loom large over the house too close to the gutters and thus requiring constant cleaning. The drains are busted and consequently, you're going to continue to have problems until it's taken care of.

Buckled parquet in Jake Butcher Ballroom

Jake Butcher Mansion: The 2nd Condo Conversion

This is the north wing of the Jake Butcher Mansion. If you're standing at the Marina looking up the hill, if you could see past the house built in front of it, and the trees behind that house, the left side of the Mansion is the north wing.

The north wing was Jake's office. It held the ball room, the conference room, 2 offices, a reception area and Jake's secretary's office. From Jake's private office there was a spiral staircase leading to a second floor which opened to a bedroom and a balcony with a large jacuzzi tub. If you read the book, Whirlwind: The Butcher Banking Scandal by Sandra Lea, there was some scandalous stuff going on in that office suite.

Mmm-hmmm.

Just off the conference room was the helicopter pad. Jake used to fly to Knoxville via helicopter. And the dignitaries the Butcher's would entertain would fly right up to the house. There was also an airstrip closer to the river, but that's gone. There was some gossip flying around about that airstrip, but you'd have to read Sandra Lea's book to learn more.

It's scan-da-louuuus!

This is the condo the realtor had us enter when we went to look at the home. There's a covered porch at this entrance and you can smell the mold and mildew as soon as the door opens. The smell is overwhelming.

The room opens into a breakfast area in a dated kitchen. The appliances are old, the flooring is 6" tile, the backsplash is 4" square tile, the countertops, as I recall, are either a solid surface Corian or formica. There's a florescent light over the sink. Wallpaper galore. And there's really no natural light in the room. It's depressing. Not the kind of place you'd expect friends and family to gather.

Off the kitchen to the right, are 3 bedrooms,