May, Mold, My, My
It's been a long time. As much as things have changed, things have remained the same. But, I thought it was time for a little update, so here goes. We'll see how organized my thoughts are tonight.
My last post was late March. April included Easter, and finishing up our school year at co-op by the first week of May. Then immediately, we went off to Florida on a trip to the beach for a month. It was supposed to be great because John normally feels great at the beach. I booked AirBNBs in Bradenton and St. Augustine to get a nice blend of gulf side vs. ocean side. The day before we left, though, I received the results from a spore test for mold in our home from Mycometrics (it involves using an overpriced Swiffer dust cloth to collect samples from ceiling fan blades and tops of windows). The LLMD claims if you are not getting better, you need to check for mold. Houston, we have a problem! We had several well known species of mycotoxins and molds that needed to be addressed. But, we had to wait since the drive to Florida was immediately the following day.
In the car, despite minimal sleep, John felt better. Pretty weird. But, it confirmed the feeling that John is better when he's away from home. It's been this way for a few years. But, then we arrived at the first house we rented and John immediately noted feeling awful the first hour we were there. "I don't feel good here," he told me. Paul had to travel for work the next morning, so I felt stuck in this house. Fast forward 2 days, and Patrick declares "Found it! There's mold in the bathroom, right in the window track. It's fuzzy and everything." Yep. Sure enough. I inspected the washing machine while I was at it. Front loader. Almost all front loaders have mold if the door is left shut, and this one was true to form. Door shut, fuzzy mold on the rubber gasket. I called the homeowner and explained the situation. We are having trouble feeling well here. Ok, not a problem. I'll send over my cleaners. Bear in mind, I knew very little then about mold - only that it was bad and needed to go away. I didn't flinch then like I would now when the ladies coated the mold in bleach.
Bleach was how we were told to deal with mold 10 years ago. Scientists have learned that bleach definitely can kill the mold, but then the mold revolts and gives off tiny toxins (called mycotoxins) that are often worse than the mold itself. When the ladies used bleach, within an hour we all felt it harder to breathe. This entire time, I had been conversing with Paul - what's going on, how the homeowner dealt with it, now it's worse. He was due home the following morning. I picked him up, and he walked in the door and a half hour later said "Yeah, I can't really breathe here. I see what you mean."
I called the homeowner again, and explained that we're worse and cannot stay. I was issued a refund for our unused days, and then we moved to a different home on Anna Maria Island. We loved it there, and the kids started feeling better. We stayed on AMI for 8 days, liked it better than Bradenton, and then headed up to St. Augustine. We loved St. Augustine. For some reason, the air there seems better than most places. Maybe it's the constant wind off the ocean? The house we were in seemed fine, and the beach was great because leashed dogs are welcomed. BigDog doesn't much care for the water, but LittlePoo did. He was in and out, a true salty dog. St. Augustine was our favorite, but life goes on, and home we went. And started feeling bad again.
I have minimal patience. I like to think I just get stuff done and am efficient, but truly it's impatience. Knowing I'm in a house with a poor mold test, I had to figure it out. So, before we even left Florida, Paul ordered a moisture meter and IR camera to investigate our property. The day we got back, we had both tools in hand, scouring over drywall, bathrooms, attic space, and basement. Nothing was really alarming. Most walls were 6% humidity. Bathrooms were 12%. Is that bad?
Ever since we've lived here, I've had a hunch about the master shower. There's a piece of trim there that was done funny. Paul tried to fix it before, but it didn't look right. I peeled it back. BOOM. Mold. We decided we had better do this right. Block of vents, create negative air pressure, buy respirators, gloves and suits to wear that night. Monday morning, Paul had to work and told me not to go in there. So, while he was in a meeting, Queen Impatience strikes! I started cutting away the drywall. I had to know. I could see mold on the floor and further back. Paul took a little time that evening to look further - looks like whoever did the shower installed the curb (the part you step over to get in) wrong. No biggie! As he continued to remove tiles, though, it didn't add up. It was more than the curb, but also included the bench. Hmm.
We know a guy who does concrete and tile, so we hired him to do the demo and redo of the shower. While T was gutting it, there was more - a vertical line of black mold between the studs from ceiling to floor. It was damp too, even though it hadn't rained in a couple days. Turns out the original builders messed up how the siding hits some of the roof lines, and as a result, water has been pouring into our master bathroom wall behind the tile for 12 years. Of course insurance won't do diddly-squat. It also turns out that we have another similar looking spot on the opposite side (interior wall behind master toilet). While the drywall there looks good, we will have to check from the outside how the siding and plywood beneath looks and deal with it. We've had our ducts cleaned, our house cleaned, the mold cut out and removed, every questionable spot cleaned with Microban and treated with a mold inhibitor just in case. We are water tight on our roof. We are diffusing essential oils in John's room. We are using an ozone generator intermittently. We bought an air diffuser for John's room. But, we can't tell if any of it matters because he's currently anemic and that's causing migraines behind his eye, and he has impacted ear wax plugging his ears.
Our next medical adventure will be to an ENT for the ears. Our next mold adventure will be creating a nasal spray to eradicate any mold colonized in our sinuses. Sounds fun, doesn't it?
Lastly, my cooking woes continue. There used to be this awesome cake I used to make. It was light and airy white cake (but not an Angel's food) that had raspberry whipping cream mousse and fresh raspberries between the layers. But, now I can't make that cake nor the mousse with the typical ingredients. Tried twice. Failed twice. Here I present, "Cake Soup." It's cake, with failed coconut cream whipping cream (which doesn't taste as good as dairy whipping cream).
My last post was late March. April included Easter, and finishing up our school year at co-op by the first week of May. Then immediately, we went off to Florida on a trip to the beach for a month. It was supposed to be great because John normally feels great at the beach. I booked AirBNBs in Bradenton and St. Augustine to get a nice blend of gulf side vs. ocean side. The day before we left, though, I received the results from a spore test for mold in our home from Mycometrics (it involves using an overpriced Swiffer dust cloth to collect samples from ceiling fan blades and tops of windows). The LLMD claims if you are not getting better, you need to check for mold. Houston, we have a problem! We had several well known species of mycotoxins and molds that needed to be addressed. But, we had to wait since the drive to Florida was immediately the following day.
In the car, despite minimal sleep, John felt better. Pretty weird. But, it confirmed the feeling that John is better when he's away from home. It's been this way for a few years. But, then we arrived at the first house we rented and John immediately noted feeling awful the first hour we were there. "I don't feel good here," he told me. Paul had to travel for work the next morning, so I felt stuck in this house. Fast forward 2 days, and Patrick declares "Found it! There's mold in the bathroom, right in the window track. It's fuzzy and everything." Yep. Sure enough. I inspected the washing machine while I was at it. Front loader. Almost all front loaders have mold if the door is left shut, and this one was true to form. Door shut, fuzzy mold on the rubber gasket. I called the homeowner and explained the situation. We are having trouble feeling well here. Ok, not a problem. I'll send over my cleaners. Bear in mind, I knew very little then about mold - only that it was bad and needed to go away. I didn't flinch then like I would now when the ladies coated the mold in bleach.
Bleach was how we were told to deal with mold 10 years ago. Scientists have learned that bleach definitely can kill the mold, but then the mold revolts and gives off tiny toxins (called mycotoxins) that are often worse than the mold itself. When the ladies used bleach, within an hour we all felt it harder to breathe. This entire time, I had been conversing with Paul - what's going on, how the homeowner dealt with it, now it's worse. He was due home the following morning. I picked him up, and he walked in the door and a half hour later said "Yeah, I can't really breathe here. I see what you mean."
I called the homeowner again, and explained that we're worse and cannot stay. I was issued a refund for our unused days, and then we moved to a different home on Anna Maria Island. We loved it there, and the kids started feeling better. We stayed on AMI for 8 days, liked it better than Bradenton, and then headed up to St. Augustine. We loved St. Augustine. For some reason, the air there seems better than most places. Maybe it's the constant wind off the ocean? The house we were in seemed fine, and the beach was great because leashed dogs are welcomed. BigDog doesn't much care for the water, but LittlePoo did. He was in and out, a true salty dog. St. Augustine was our favorite, but life goes on, and home we went. And started feeling bad again.
I have minimal patience. I like to think I just get stuff done and am efficient, but truly it's impatience. Knowing I'm in a house with a poor mold test, I had to figure it out. So, before we even left Florida, Paul ordered a moisture meter and IR camera to investigate our property. The day we got back, we had both tools in hand, scouring over drywall, bathrooms, attic space, and basement. Nothing was really alarming. Most walls were 6% humidity. Bathrooms were 12%. Is that bad?
Ever since we've lived here, I've had a hunch about the master shower. There's a piece of trim there that was done funny. Paul tried to fix it before, but it didn't look right. I peeled it back. BOOM. Mold. We decided we had better do this right. Block of vents, create negative air pressure, buy respirators, gloves and suits to wear that night. Monday morning, Paul had to work and told me not to go in there. So, while he was in a meeting, Queen Impatience strikes! I started cutting away the drywall. I had to know. I could see mold on the floor and further back. Paul took a little time that evening to look further - looks like whoever did the shower installed the curb (the part you step over to get in) wrong. No biggie! As he continued to remove tiles, though, it didn't add up. It was more than the curb, but also included the bench. Hmm.
We know a guy who does concrete and tile, so we hired him to do the demo and redo of the shower. While T was gutting it, there was more - a vertical line of black mold between the studs from ceiling to floor. It was damp too, even though it hadn't rained in a couple days. Turns out the original builders messed up how the siding hits some of the roof lines, and as a result, water has been pouring into our master bathroom wall behind the tile for 12 years. Of course insurance won't do diddly-squat. It also turns out that we have another similar looking spot on the opposite side (interior wall behind master toilet). While the drywall there looks good, we will have to check from the outside how the siding and plywood beneath looks and deal with it. We've had our ducts cleaned, our house cleaned, the mold cut out and removed, every questionable spot cleaned with Microban and treated with a mold inhibitor just in case. We are water tight on our roof. We are diffusing essential oils in John's room. We are using an ozone generator intermittently. We bought an air diffuser for John's room. But, we can't tell if any of it matters because he's currently anemic and that's causing migraines behind his eye, and he has impacted ear wax plugging his ears.
Our next medical adventure will be to an ENT for the ears. Our next mold adventure will be creating a nasal spray to eradicate any mold colonized in our sinuses. Sounds fun, doesn't it?
Lastly, my cooking woes continue. There used to be this awesome cake I used to make. It was light and airy white cake (but not an Angel's food) that had raspberry whipping cream mousse and fresh raspberries between the layers. But, now I can't make that cake nor the mousse with the typical ingredients. Tried twice. Failed twice. Here I present, "Cake Soup." It's cake, with failed coconut cream whipping cream (which doesn't taste as good as dairy whipping cream).
Praying for all of you. I hope everyone feels better soon!
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