How we spent our Friday, a/k/a why Robin breathed in too much bleach

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To properly set the scene, you should understand that Friday is a semi-weekend day here. For children it's a (slightly shorter) schoolday, but most adults, particularly those in office jobs, have the day off. (No, we don't get a longer weekend than you, our weekends are Friday and Saturday, on Sunday it's back to work again.)

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Friday is also the only day that Jay and I can often sit down and have breakfast together. Sometimes we go out to one of the local cafes, other times we stay in. Yesterday was a stay in day. There we were, sitting at the island (that very same one you see in the header above you, albeit slightly less pristinely clean looking), enjoying our breakfast when we heard a very loud THUMP.

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Something just fell down, I said.

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(I've always been quick on the uptake.)

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Well, I guess it's down now. (Again with the razor sharp mind.)

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We finished our breakfast and then went off to investigate.

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Hmm... Nothing obvious in the kids' rooms. Nothing in the hall closet. Nothing in the spare room. What the hell could it be? I figured I'd better check the bathroom closet. Nope, nothing in there.

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And then I happened to glance over at the counter and let out a shriek, because what I found was this:

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(Ignore the cleaning supplies and other assorted crap, I didn't think to snap any photos until we'd already started trying to fix it.)
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See that giant gaping hole where my sink is supposed to be?
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Yeah, this sink, the one that you now see sitting on the FLOOR of my bathroom, and last time I checked, the floor was not the appropriate installation point for a bathroom sink. Damn thing fell right out.
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(Let me point out here that while my husband and I have many wonderful qualities, mad DIY skills are not generally counted among them.)

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Jay managed to scrap off most of the old caulk but there was still a fair amount left, not to mention a whole heap of mildew where mildew should never have been. None of the standard cleaners we had around, including the anti-mildew spray you see pictured above, made a dent in it. After realizing that his efforts were futile, Jay headed off to consult with the experts over at Google and discovered that a homebrew of one cup of bleach to 3 cups of water, with the addition of a few tablespoons of laundry detergent, was rumored to do the trick lickety-split. Since he'd already spent about an hour an a half scraping caulk and still had to head to the hardware store to buy "whatever I need to reattach my sink", he asked me to get out my trusty cauldron and brew up some of this witches potion and then take a go at getting the mildew off while he went out to pick up Maya from school and go to the hardware store.
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I was willing to do my fair share of the work so I mixed up the potion and went to work - in a small, poorly ventilated bathroom. To top it all off I even closed the door behind me so that I'd have more room to work! (Are you seeing where this is going? Probably. Me, I wasn't quite bright enough... Have I mentioned that I have asthma and breathing is already not my strong suit? Yeah. Like I said, not so bright...)
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I got to work scrubbing, and - nothing. Nothing at all. Not a millimeter of mildew was removed. I was determined though. Jay had asked me to do it believing it should work and I wasn't going to concede defeat within the first five minutes.
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So I kept going.
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And going.
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And going.
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At some point I realized that the mildew was actually on some remaining bits of silicone and that I'd be better off scraping them off with a penknife than continuing to scrub. Because I knew that I'd still need to scrub more mildew from the back of the cabinet itself I decided not to throw out the bleach solution and left it in a bucket in the tub while I continued to work - in that same small, poorly ventilated bathroom.
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By the time Jay came back and had the sense to make me stop I was completely nauseous and very light-headed. I stumbled out, wandered around the house for a bit complaining of how sick I felt, and then finally gave up entirely and headed up to bed, and of course we all know what happened then...
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Oh, and while we were at it, we also found this lovely sight, which will have to be dealt with sometime soon.
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Ugh.

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It's Saturday now, and Jay has removed the car jack (!) that he'd been using to hold up the freshly reglued sink. It's holding. So far. Keep your fingers crossed...
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