And The Mold Goes On

At this point I have to post something somewhat funny for a title, have to try and find a glimmer of comedy in all of this. I know, it is in no way funny at all, but when you have been through all we have, you must gain a little laughter somewhere, or else you will just sit and cry. Here's an update to our never ending toxic mold story...

Sick of being sick

As the title states, I am sick of being sick! 7 years ago after DH injured his back and could no longer work, we lost our home. We moved into an old farm house, which at the time we thought was way cool, until 4 years later when we found black mold growing on our bedroom wall. This find came after we all started getting very sick, and could not get better. Well that mold was not only on that wall, it was IN that wall, under the floor, and in other walls throughout the house. We had no choice but to stay there until we could find a clean house to live in, unfortunately being poor due to hubby's back injury that was not an easy task because it cost a bundle to move these days, between a first and last on the rent, and deposits, and not being able to work the job we were able to work which was the Internet. When you move you have a little down time with no connection.
We did finally find a brand new modular that was clean and we were able to afford. Unfortunately, this house had problems with the central air system. It blew insulation throughout the house from the attic and walls, and sucked dust and derbies up from the crawl space. This did not help our already sick lungs, and hubby nearly died from it. Hubby was able to see a doctor, who said he had COPD, asthma, and possibly mold infection in his lungs. Unfortunately we could not afford for me to see a doctor for the severe pains throughout my body, but I felt I could cope, and hubby needed a DOC more than I did since after all, he couldn't breath and thought he was going to die from suffocation. He had me scared half to death! Anyway, the owner of the modular refused to fix the central air, and when the heat of summer hit, we all thought we would die from the heat and humidity, because the AC did not work at all. We kept complaining for the problem to be taken care of, but it was such a big job and costly, he refused to fix it, and left us sitting in a house that caused myself and our autistic son to have multiple heat strokes through one of the hottest summers on record for Indiana. This of course upset me and I complained more, and the owner told us, he was not doing the repairs and we would have to get out!!!
After looking for yet another house we could live in that was not moldy, (the farm made us all very allergic to ALL molds, as well as a lot of chemicals too), our choices came down to, a moldy home that would kill us all, or get out of the state to a state that was dryer and not so much mold. So we sold and gave away every single thing we owned, all we kept were a few clothes for each of us, craft and jewelry supplies so we could make a little money on our creations, our lap top computers, the kids school books and supplies, (we homeschool), and a tent and camping supplies! We placed a few things in a very small storage unit, and we headed West, leaving our life and belongings behind for a second time in a year, as we lost everything on the farm to the mold, it was all too moldy to take with us. So we left with what we could pack in the back and on the top of our mini van with 200,000 miles on it, and headed for dry Country. We camped all the way, with the exception of a few motels we "tried" to stay at. Most of the motels all had mold in them too. Remember, we are very sensitive and the tiniest amount makes us all very sick. Camping was fun, but I was very sick from staying at hubby's mom's for a few days, (not sure what was in her house other than dust, which I am also sensitive too), but even with that issue, we all had a good time on our journey across the Country to find a new home.
We had absolutely no clue at all where we were going, all we knew is we had to get to the dryer states and take it from there. We ended up in Colorado and fell in love! The air was clean, and fresh, and we could finally breath again, (Indian was so bad it made me sick to be outside!), so we started looking for our new home. We looked in Trinidad, but there were no rentals there, so we kept going North, and came upon the small town of Walsenburg. Here we quickly found a nice little house that had hardwood flooring, (I am sensitive to carpeting too), and had just been remolded. We were turned down at first because there were too many of us, (5), and we had brought or cat, (no way were we giving her up now), so we offered an extra $50.0 a month on the rent. That was accepted and we were told we would have to pay an addition $100.00 on the deposit for our cat.
Here's were our story gets really sad. After all we have gone through for the last 6+ years, our new home that appeared to be free of any mold when we first moved in, acquired a leak in the basement, and by the time we found it, the mold had already begun to grow! It only takes 24 hours for mold to start growing, if the moisture issue is not taken care of right away, then you have a major problem on your hands. We did what we could to stop the problem from getting worse, but the water kept coming in and we could not figure out where it was coming from. We took bucket upon bucket of dirt out of the basement that was down there, until we got it all up off the concrete floor, (this took many days of working on it when we could, remember hubby has a bad back, and I have a hernia so hubby refused to let me carry it at all, there was a lot of dirt), and we have been running a fan down there to dry it up 24/7 for the last 5 weeks or so. We finally have figured out where the bulk of the water has been coming from, the water heater! The heater had problems when we moved in, and the contractor who did the remolding repaired the element, and put on a new pressure relief, but that did not fix it. Last week we found the pressure relief valve leaking, okay, it was pouring out when we found it at 3:00 am! Needless to say, the mold is so bad now, that it is making us all sick, and just when we thought the hell we left behind in Indiana was over. We are now waiting for a new heater to be installed, and in the meantime, we are doing without hot water. We turn the power to it on at night long enough to heat the water, then we all quickly take our bathes and cut the power. Not only are we dealing with all of this, but the water heater not working properly, is causing the electric meter to crank, and costing us big money, (the light company told us that was why our bill was so high, $70.00 for 2 weeks! We only have a fan, fridge and two laptops and a few standard lights at that time!)
So here we are, nice dry state, and right back in the same boat, living in a house with mold. If we owned the house ourselves, we could have taken care of things long before now, but since we are renting, we've had to wait, and waiting has created a situation we can not live in much longer. We sleep with the windows open so that the mold gases do not build to high, but once the temps start cooling down in the fall, that will be out of the question. At this point I am ready to live in our tent, it seems the only way we are going to be able to not deal with mold, is to either build our own log home, buy an RV, or just live in a tent. Needless to say I am frustrated, aggravated, irritated, and plain sick on being sick! Oh and if I failed to mention it, contrary to popular believe, ALL molds can make you sick, even kill you if you are sensitive to them, not just black molds! When I complained about the mold growing in the basement, I was told, "we don't have a problem with black mold in Colorado"! All molds are harmful to someone who is allergic to molds, and I am highly allergic to all molds, including the mold growing in my basement right now. Oh, and there are molds much more toxic that black molds out there.
The bottom line, molds, all molds, can be very dangerous, and can make any person very sick, especially if you live with a mold problem for very long. There is a whole host of illnesses linked to molds to, a few are, asthma, lupus, cancers, fibromyalgia, arthritis, bleeding lungs, nose bleeds, and the list goes on.
You can find more info, and links to some great info by going to our web site at, www.thejoyofhope.com Please do not take mold lightly, it is a very serious problem and it is growing like a cancer across the country. It is becoming more well known and talked about, but still not enough. People are dying in the homes with no way out, and no one wants to help. Please don't let yourself become one of these people, it is not a bag of tea, in any way at all.