Posted on 07/26/2004 5:35:14 AM PDT by Born Conservative
For both the Wassel family and the local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity, the rehabilitated home at 925 Maple St. should have been the American dream.
Instead, William and Shelley Wassel say the modest, three-bedroom home in South Scranton became a toxic-mold nightmare they and their three children are still trying to recover from seven years later.
Habitat for Humanity of Lackawanna County views it much the same way, for very different reasons.
The nonprofit group, whose mission is to help low-income families achieve homeownership, says it did everything possible to help the Wassels: It made significant repairs to the Maple Street home; it spent thousands of dollars to assess and correct mold issues there, and it offered the family a new home.
Nothing satisfied the family, officials say.
Not so, say the Wassels. The real problem, they insist, was that the group was ill-prepared to deal with their crisis.
A former member of the Habitat board agrees.
"There was nothing purposeful to what happened. We had no idea there was mold in the house," says Dawn Brennan, the former board member who became the family's staunchest ally within the local Habitat organization.
"For the Wassels' part, they were just innocent victims in all this." The Wassels, who finally fled the house in 2002 after five years, taking only their clothes and their children's medications, believe Habitat let them down. In the end, they say, their children's health had been compromised by long-term mold exposure and the family was left with virtually nothing.
Acknowledging they have talked with lawyers but found no one willing to help them pursue legal action against Habitat, the Wassels say they agonized over whether to make their story public. They know, they say, it could embarrass both them and an organization they still believe in.
But the local Habitat's sale of the Maple Street home to a new owner late last year clinched their decision, they say. In June, Mr. and Mrs. Wassel started sending a detailed e-mail about their Habitat experience to media outlets, public officials and other Habitat affiliates.
"We're the mold family. ... It's not something you wanted everybody to know, but I was just fed up with the local Habitat," Mrs. Wassel says.
The organization, wary of the potential fallout from publicity about the Wassels, launched a counter-offensive. An e-mail sent last week from Habitat's Northeast Regional Support Center -- and forwarded to a Sunday Times editor -- advised affiliates not to respond to questions from the media or the public specifically related to the Wassels or the Scranton-based affiliate.
It may be a dispute without a resolution.
Local Habitat officials say they have tried to re-establish contact with the Wassels and set up a meeting to discuss their grievances. Gloria Tansits Wenze, Ph.D., president of Habitat's current board, says the Wassels have not responded.
"This is in a holding pattern until they talk to us. ... We do have compassion for the family," she says.
The Wassels, noting the local Habitat's interest in sorting out their differences coincided with their decision to go public, want no part of it.
"We tried for two years," Mrs. Wassel says, "and I don't trust them." DISCUSSIONS ... DECISIONS
The rehabilitation of 925 Maple was the sixth project undertaken by the local Habitat organization, which has put 26 partner families into homes since 1990.
As part of their agreement with the nonprofit organization, each Habitat family pays no interest on its mortgage but must contribute "sweat equity" by assisting with construction or rehabilitation of their home.
Habitat officials declined to take part in a full interview about the Wassel family.
Dr. Tansits Wenze, after the Habitat board's July 8 meeting, said she could speak only in general terms about the organization's relationship with the Wassels unless she talked with the family first. But she agreed to respond in writing on behalf of the board and executive director Robert "Ozzie" Quinn to specific issues raised by the Wassels.
Through all of its dealings with the Wassels, she says Habitat relied on experts to guide decisions, consistent with the mission and integrity of the organization.
"We had extensive, extensive discussions of what was in the best interests of the Wassels," says Dr. Tansits Wenze, a board member since 2001 and president since January. "We made the wisest decisions we could make at that time." Adds Mr. Quinn: "I feel I did everything physically and morally that a human being could do for that family." Joedy Isert, spokesman for Habitat for Humanity International in Americus, Ga., says each Habitat affiliate is an autonomous entity, and the parent organization prefers that affiliates handle cases like the Wassels' at the local level.
"From what I know of the case, they seem to be aware of the situation and are dealing with it appropriately," he says.
MOVING DAY
Mr. and Mrs. Wassel remember the 1997 spring day when they moved into their Habitat home. It was April 1 -- April Fools' Day. A day earlier, the worst snowstorm of the season had buried Scranton under 10 inches of snow.
"It was like someone was trying then to tell us something," says Mr. Wassel, 36, a repairman at Vac-Way Appliance & Service Inc. on Cedar Avenue.
Habitat purchased the small, one-story house from Citimae Inc. for $25,000 in January 1996. Dr. Tansits Wenze says Habitat's records do not reflect whether the vacant house was tested for mold, but adds, "We had no reason to believe there was a problem with the home." The Wassels, who'd applied to become a Habitat partner family in 1993, say the most obvious deficiency was standing water in the basement, which had a dirt floor. Habitat's construction manager assured them the project was doable.
Work on the house started March 23, 1996. A story the next day in The Sunday Times reported 40 volunteers turned out to help. The second paragraph also contained an ominously prescient line: "The odor of mildew was noticeable in the kitchen ... as long strips of wallpaper were torn from the walls." Habitat poured a concrete floor in the basement, but Mr. Wassel says the water problem persisted, even after they moved in. Habitat installed a sump pump and reluctantly agreed in 1998 to place rain gutters on the house, the Wassels say. The Wassels themselves later replaced an exterior basement door and built a retaining wall to divert runoff.
Water finally stopped coming into the basement, but the Wassels now had another, more pressing worry: Their children seemed to be incessantly, and often seriously, ill.
'CONSTANT SICKNESS'
The Wassel children -- Billy, 16, Mathew, 15, and Cami, 13 -- have medical conditions their parents and their pediatrician concede are unrelated to the home at 925 Maple. All three are asthmatic, and Mathew and Cami have diabetes.
Dr. Tansits Wenze says the children were ill, and the family lived with mold, prior to partnering with Habitat. She cites a 1994 family selection committee report that notes the children "suffer from asthma due to the living situation in which they previously lived -- no central heating and lots of mold." Mrs. Wassel says her children had problems when the family lived in another house on Maple Street. The problems mostly disappeared, she says, when the family moved to an apartment on Pittston Avenue four years before moving into the Habitat house.
Mrs. Brennan, who took part in the initial interview with the Wassels at the residence where they lived before moving to Pittston Avenue, says she recollects a musty odor in the home but no visible mold.
By any measure, the Wassels say, the frequency and intensity of the children's illnesses increased dramatically after the family moved into the Habitat house, and have decreased -- though to a lesser degree -- since they moved out.
"After we moved in, it was constant sickness, but you know, we never considered it might be the house," says Mrs. Wassel, who turns 40 on Tuesday. "We just thought they were being hit with a ton of medical problems." She says there were infections, rashes and headaches; the children "were living on antibiotics." Their pediatrician, Dr. Anders Nelson, acknowledges his frustration in trying to keep the children healthy. The Chinchilla physician says the children were experiencing multiple recurring illnesses "really far in excess of what any child should have." "And it was all three of them," the doctor says.
TESTS CONFIRM MOLD
Dr. Nelson eventually asked the Wassels if they'd had the home tested for allergens. He argued the family needed to eliminate the house as a potential cause of the children's ailments.
"We were kind of in denial," Mr. Wassel says. "When he first suggested it, we sort of looked at him and said, 'No, no, that can't be it. It's silly.'" In November 2001, an inspection by Cocciardi and Associates Inc. of Mechanicsburg identified "the presence of visible molds in the basement and the recurrence of molds in the bathroom and kitchen areas," according to its report. An air sample collected in the hallway near the bathroom at the rear of the house found two types of fungi: amerospores and cladosporium.
On Dec. 10, 2001, at a cost to Habitat of $1,250, the company sanitized the house, including wiping visible mold areas in the basement and attic with a bleach solution.
It also collected another air sample, this time in a rear bedroom near the bathroom. Although the company's report describes the spore concentration as low, the air sample identified molds not found in the initial test: aspergillus/penicillium, curvularis and torula.
Other companies would later evaluate the house, including TechClean Industries of Charlotte, N.C., and Datom Products Inc. of Dunmore.
Hired by Habitat, TechClean confirmed the continued presence of mold in April 2002. The organization paid the company $7,080 to remediate the problem by applying a sealant to the affected areas.
Datom initially evaluated the home for Habitat in September 2002. Dr. Tansits Wenze says Datom estimated mold assessment and remediation would cost more than $18,000, which was judged prohibitive by Habitat.
"With each company contracted ... to assist in the mold remediation, each in succession suggested and requested more remediation than the previous company," she says.
In November 2002, the Wassels borrowed $3,500 to have Datom test the house on their behalf. In addition to molds identified in earlier tests, that evaluation found others, including stachybotrys in both airborne and surface samples.
"The samples collected clearly indicate a significant fungal problem in this house," Datom's report said, noting the allergens were "of a type capable of causing significant health effects." 'SOMETHING ON BREAD'
When the Wassels received a copy of the Cocciardi report in February 2002, they knew little about mold.
"We thought it was something you see on bread," Mrs. Wassel says.
Their re-education -- and a chain of events that would quickly unravel their lives -- began April 7, 2002. That day's Sunday Times carried a front-page story about the Gleason family of Moosic, who had lost their house and their health to mold. Among the molds found in the Gleason home was aspergillus/penicillium, one of the types identified in the Wassel home.
"Why didn't anybody tell us any of these were dangerous?" Mr. Wassel asks now. "It makes me mad that no one made us aware of the potential danger." As the Wassels read the Sunday paper, the phone rang. It was Mrs. Brennan, asking whether they had seen the Gleason story.
"I'm calling Ozzie right now," she said, referring to Mr. Quinn. "You are being exposed to the same things that made the people sick down there." Five days later, the Wassels left the Maple Street house. They never lived there again.
OPTIONS OFFERED
Mrs. Brennan says Habitat didn't ignore concerns about the Wassel children's health. But she believes no one in the organization initially realized the seriousness of the problem.
"It wasn't that Habitat wasn't doing some things," she says, specifically citing the work by Cocciardi. "But when that story came out, we all went to our computers and starting reading more about toxic mold." In the meantime, Mr. Wassel says the family, recognizing other parts of the house might be a problem, had basically settled into one room near the front of their home.
Dr. Tansits Wenze says Habitat had earlier suggested the family take up temporary quarters in a trailer on the property while it considered its options, but the family rejected the idea.
After the Gleason story appeared, and with Dr. Nelson advising the family to leave the house, Habitat agreed the Wassels should vacate. It offered to place them in a hotel, and the Wassels say they moved into Comfort Suites on April 12, 2002.
That same day, Dr. Tansits Wenze says, the Wassels and Habitat officials signed off on a handwritten agreement that said the organization "recognizes responsibility to re-house family if house is deemed uninhabitable." Mrs. Brennan recalls -- and Dr. Tansits Wenze agrees -- there was talk among Habitat officials around that time of razing the Maple Street home and replacing it with a new modular.
Mrs. Wassel says the family "would have been more than willing to accept that." But Dr. Tansits Wenze says Habitat's files do not reflect that the Wassels wanted the organization to pursue the modular home option.
"I don't know that they ever communicated that to us," she says. "Otherwise, we would have continued our exploration." Mrs. Brennan says she thought the situation was "moving along correctly," with Habitat following the lead of the doctors and moving the family out.
"It was at some point after that that things changed," she says. "It was a shock that the Wassels were effectively dropped from the program." 'TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT'
After three weeks in the hotel, the Wassels were notified Habitat would no longer pay for their lodging, they say. The family moved into a tiny apartment on the second floor of Mrs. Wassel's parents' home in the 700 block of Maple Street.
The Wassels say Habitat gave them two options: return to the Maple Street home, where TechClean had finished its remediation work, or build a new home in the Habitat subdivision on Meridian Avenue.
By this time, Mr. Wassel says, he and his wife were running everything past their children's doctors, who rejected both options.
In a letter to Mr. Quinn, Dr. Nelson said applying sealant to the mold -- rather than removing it -- would not eliminate the risk, and building on Meridian would expose the children to an active railway that could exacerbate their problems.
Dr. Tansits Wenze says the Wassels, in turning down the Meridian Avenue offer, told Habitat they did not wish to move into an "industrial area." But she says an environmental assessment of the Meridian site for Habitat in September 2000 found it complied with state air quality standards and noted there were no industrial sites nearby.
"It was basically to the point where they said, 'Take it or leave it,'" Mr. Wassel says of the two options offered to his family. "We were more concerned with our children's health, so we left it." Except for the clothing they'd taken to the hotel, all of the Wassels' belongings were still in the home. They say both Datom and their doctors advised against retrieving the items unless they were properly cleaned; even then there was no guarantee they would be mold-free.
"They said we'd be better off to leave the things there than take the chance," Mrs. Wassel said.
On Jan. 28, 2003, the Wassels say, Habitat padlocked the house. A few weeks later, a moving and storage company came and emptied it.
"Everything we accomplished -- it was just gone," Mr. Wassel says.
Mr. Quinn said the Wassels' belongings "were put in storage until December" and later "disposed of." He said some of the items were given "to people who wanted them." UNSIGNED MORTGAGE
The Wassels never signed a mortgage for the Maple Street home -- Habitat considered them tenants. That meant when the partnership fell apart, the family lost not only the home but the investments they made in it and the "sweat equity" they stopped tracking after 700 hours.
They say their original agreement with Habitat called for them to pay $40,000 for the property. That was later revised downward, and the family owed $22,500 as of June 1999, according a Habitat letter. Their monthly payments during the five years they lived there fluctuated between $152 and $183.
Dr. Tansits Wenze says all local Habitat families now hold the mortgages on their homes. She says a family can't move in until the closing is complete and they've signed off on a "punch list" during the final inspection.
But that wasn't the case when the Wassels moved into 925 Maple, and it wasn't the case in July 2002, when Habitat adopted its policy. At that time, it had seven families without signed mortgages, including one who had been waiting nine years to close on their home.
Mrs. Wassel says she had reservations about moving into the house in April 1997, mostly because it was unfinished and the water problem in the basement had not been resolved. By the time those were taken care of, Habitat was undergoing a leadership change, with Mr. Quinn coming aboard as executive director in January 2000.
Mr. Wassel says the family would ask about signing the mortgage every couple of months.
"One of the questions we always had was: Where's the paperwork? When are we going to sign?" he says. "And they'd said, 'Listen, our attorney works on a pro bono basis. He's backlogged. There's some red tape to be cleared up.'" In a letter related to a 2003 condemnation of the Maple Street property on file at City Hall, Mr. Quinn says the Wassels lived there as tenants because of "their refusal to close on the property." Both Mrs. Wassel and Mrs. Brennan say Mr. Quinn had made the same assertion during a conversation with an insurance adjuster who came to the house in early 2002. Mrs. Wassel says the adjuster asked why the homeowner's policy was in her and husband's names if they did not own the home.
"Mr. Quinn cut me off and said everything was not done when we moved in so we didn't want to sign the papers," she says.
Mrs. Brennan says she later questioned Mr. Quinn about the remark.
"He said he didn't know what else to tell the guy," she says. "He couldn't tell him it was our lawyers." Dr. Tansits Wenze says Habitat records indicate it made several attempts to close with the Wassels. Despite a punch list showing work "done" at the house, she says, board meeting minutes "referred repeatedly to more work completed and the desire to have the family close on the property." "We do not know," she says, "why the Wassel family did not respond to ... numerous attempts to close." Mrs. Brennan, who severed her ties with Habitat in July 2002 because she was being shut out of discussions about the Wassels, says the family did have concerns about unfinished work. But on the question of whether they refused to sign the mortgage, Mrs. Brennan is firm: "Absolutely untrue." LONG-TERM EFFECTS
With their immune systems weakened by long-term mold exposure, their doctors say the Wassel children face uncertain medical futures.
The three now take a total of 43 prescription medications daily, and 12 more on an as-needed basis. Those medicines fill a six-drawer plastic storage unit in a corner of the family's five-room apartment at Rear 726 Maple St.
The Wassels rely on medical assistance to pay for the medications and most, but not all, of the children's physician visits in Pennsylvania. Consultations with out-of-state specialists -- and the Wassels have seen several throughout the Northeast -- are paid for out of pocket.
Dr. Nelson, given written permission by the family to talk about their medical conditions, says the children suffer an exceptional gamut of health issues: severe asthma and allergies, recurring sinusitis and upper respiratory infections, irritable bowel syndrome, migraine headaches -- the list goes on and on.
He is not qualified to draw a cause-and-effect conclusion between the children's illnesses and the Habitat house, he says, but he has no doubt long-term mold exposure contributed to the severity of the problems.
"That kind of chronic grind to your immune system is going to cause some serious long-term consequences," he says.
Dr. John Santilli Jr. of Allergy Associates Inc., of Bridgeport, Conn., a recognized expert on mold-related illness who has treated the children, says their mold exposure made them susceptible to other, secondary conditions. He expects the effects to be long-term if not permanent -- a prognosis Dr. Nelson shares.
"I don't see them being very healthy people," Dr. Nelson says. "My gut sense is we are not going to see them get much better." INSULT TO INJURY
In 2003, the local Habitat placed the Maple Street property on the market, selling it in December for $54,000 to Martin Noll.
Dr. Tansits Wenze says Habitat made full disclosure of the potential for mold in the house. She says the buyer signed a release stating he had been informed mold was found on the premises "and that Habitat has removed the mold to (his) satisfaction." Mr. Noll says he knows about the Wassels' problems -- the family says it sent him a letter after learning about the sale -- but didn't want to discuss it further.
"I have had the house tested, and I'm satisfied with the results. I've lived here for seven months. ... I'm fine, and I believe the house is fine," he says.
The Wassels say the sale of the house was the last straw, an insult heaped upon injury. Since they launched their e-mail campaign, their story has been posted on at least two mold-related Web sites.
Despite their differences with the local Habitat, they say they still support the mission of the international organization. But they feel an obligation, they say, to make others -- including other Habitat affiliates -- aware of the dangers of mold.
"I never want to see anyone go through what my family went through, and what my children are still going through," Mrs. Wassel says.
"They can't give us back everything that's been taken away," she says of Habitat, "but we can try to stop it from happening to other people." dsingleton
Preconceived notions can cloud the opinions of people on both sides of the debate.
But instead of making vague insinuations against those who hold that mold hysteria is junk science, please point to the "preconceived notions" in our posts.
Then we can properly respond and debate.
I hope you set that pig-headed woman straight LOL
I will say that lawyers have scammed the system for fun & profit but that "mold causes illness" is NOT junk science, it is fact. It just doesn't cause it in everyone so the ones not affected can't seem wrap their minds around the truth of it.
It also doesn't help that some of the health problems can't be seen by anyone else. If it causes asthma that is pretty easy for a layman to recognize as are bronchial infections but head aches & lethargy just look like whineing & laziness to those who refuse to believe it.
That's the reason we haven't resorted to rock salt--we DO want to use the land strip again, once the day lilies have all been dug up. Our southern property, although its very narrow, is the only part of our property which is suitable for growing any kind of sun-loving plant. Our oak tree keeps the east in shade most of the day, and the western part of the property--the backyard--is in complete shade 24/7 from our mulberry trees. I'd like to use the southern side for some strawberries and different kinds of vegetables which need to have full sun. There is only so much you can grow in the shade, and little of it is edible!
I certainly understand about too much shade. I couldn't grow a vegetable here if I was starving to death. LOL Trees are good but you can have too much of a good thing.
In your very first post you claimed the "mold scare is junk science" (post #7) and within a few posts of that someone else chimed in agreeing with you.
That is not a vague insinuation - you came into the thread with that preconceived notion.
The personal experience of other posters have disproved that notion.
I have spent far too many years dealing with junk science and those that promote it to know the difference between it and legitimate health concerns.
Have the trial lawyers and the "mold remidiation industry" taken advantage of the "hysteria"? Yes they have - just as the trial lawyers and "smoke remediation industry" have taken advantage of the anti-smoker hysteria.
Please point to any quote on mine where I said there no one is ever sickened by mold. (You won't, because you can't find one.)
What I have said is that the fact that no one in my family has gotten sick over many years in a mold-rich environment proves that mold is not necessarily a cause of disease.
BTW the fact that you have one kind of mold growing in your basement does not exclude the other types from growing there as well.
Point to where I claimed there was only "one kind of mold growing" in my basement. There are probably dozens of kinds of molds growing in my basement. But why is that relevant, anyway?
Anyone who would make that statement is showing a great deal of ignorance on the subject.
I'm not a mycologist, but I don't pretend to be one in online forums, either.
If your basement is favorable to one kind of mold it is favorable to all kinds of mold & it is just a matter of time.
Are you a mycologist? If not, then I'd be careful if I were you about making such statements with certainty.
My house has existed for over a hundred years. If we're going to get a new kind of mold, it would have to be a result of an extraordinary event!
My belief, as stated in a couple of posts above, is that benign molds probably "crowd out" more dangerous molds -- much in the way benign intestinal bacteria "crowd out" the bad ones in a healthy person.
I have never questioned the existence of toxic molds. However, I do question the prevalance of such toxic molds in sufficient households in sufficient concentrations as to make large numbers of people ill -- and as to justify to huge profits that lawyers have made off of mold hysteria.
And I question that it is mold, in itself, that causes these ailments. As stated above, I think the cause is more likely a combination of many household pollutants, whose concentrations become too high in in houses that are too "air-tight."
Unfortunately for me, I have a dentist's appointment at 2pm (my dental problem is not caused by mold, btw). So I won't be able to continue this debate for now.
Without knowing me, my allergy history or my weekend house, you suggested that my health problems were caused by other things. Even after I explained how long we had had the house without problems until the hidden mold reach enormous proportions.
The fact that no one in YOUR family has been sickened by mold has no bearing on what has happened to others who HAVE been sickened by mold. I am not allergic to ragweed, it doesn't effect me at all. Does that mean the thousands of people who have ragweed allergies every fall are faking or that it is really something else causing their distress? I am allergic to chocolate. I'll bet your kids eat chocolate all the time. What does that prove? Maybe that it is a individual thing?
I don't think that mold causes huge numbers of people to get sick, I think its a pretty small percentage. I agree that a few trial lawyers have gotten rich & the media has blown the whole thing up.
Can't you accept the fact that we are different & our bodies react to things in different ways? Obviously you can't. BTY I have great teeth & no tooth problems. What does that prove? That I drink milk or have good tooth genes?
I ignore that particular pig-headed woman.........she is not worth my time or effort.
My main reason for my attitude that this is not junk science is that there is proof positive that it causes otherwise healthy people to become ill.
The trial lawyer induced suits regarding it has caused many otherwise sensible people to become loony-tunes.
Yes I need to learn to ignore pig-headed people too. LOL
It depends on the person. I'm highly allergic to molds, and living in a moldy house would definitely make me sick: constant asthma and other respiratory illnesses.
When you buy a house you have to check for things like this.
Of course, if someone is selling a house and they knowingly don't disclose a problem with the house then that is wrong.
I have seen a loved one have a reaction to toxic mold. He had never before had any health problems. All molds do not affect him. However, there is one particular place that has a kind of mold that affects his body almost immediately. A company that studies this stuff on a regular basis inspected the buildings where hubby has this problem, and they recommended levelling the buildings. Despite their 100+year history. These buildings are historic and the price tag to take care of the unbelievable mold problems is over $385 million. I do not think the problem always existed. I have theories about how it occurred (air conditioning and sealing of buildings that had previously been very airy, combined with some other factors). And, unfortunately, repairing the problems of which I speak will cost taxpayers $$$$$$$. Is it worth it?
Would you send your child to live in a building known to be infested with toxic mold? Even if your child was perfectly healthy? Would you want your child to attend classes in a building known to be infested with toxic mold? Even if it was only three hours a week? Would you want the folks who are in charge to clean up the problem?
We just bought a house. We found out that there was a problem with moisture in the house. It almost made us back out of the deal.
We had to research the whole thing before we bought the place.
We found out that a french drain (that costs over $25K) was on of the fixes. Also a fan underneath the house and a sump pump.
We also found out that the previous owners did all of the work just a few years ago. To verify that everything was working correctly, everyone told us to contact this one company that was the experts in the business.
We then got all of the papers on the work done, and it had been done by the experts that had been previously recommended.
We bought it after we found that out.
We're in California, and it's summertime. We'll see in the winter (rainy season) if everything is working well. I'm sure it will.
"The guy from ServiceMaster, when we told him we were going to do it ourselves, threatened to notify the Lansing housing board if we didn't have it professionally cleaned. I offered to dial for him. We never heard from him--or the housing board--again."
Yeah extortion is wonderful(sarcasm), gawd forbid people think out their own solutions first and take care of their problems before consulting an outside source. This is what the abesto's extortionists did, intimidated people with scare tactics and price gauging instead of allowing alternative choices to be considered first.
Even with a home inspector and the VA inspector, no one saw our mold problem. In the basement, the water heater, a bathroom and the laundry room are all in one corner of the room. No one looked for mold, and no one (not even us) tried to close the bathroom door.
We weren't here for 2 weeks before we noticed the water heater had a small leak, which led to looking under the floor tile (which was moldy underneath), which led to pulling the molding off the door frame (which was rotted-that's why the door wouldn't close), which led to replacing two half walls of dry wall.
It wasn't fun but we had to rip right into it because my oldest is asthmatic and mold makes him worse.
"At the very, very least, I think they should have told the family that, because of the water, there was probably mold present and let them know how to take care of it."
True, why I suggest prevention with disclosure/waiver form and screening inhabitants prior to them moving into a residential place. If they have problems with existing or potential risk or reactions to mold don't move into the place. Take away the mystery and no one can play the blame game.
You 2 don't know how I envy you your shade - I've got little to none.
Our property is sort of a weird pie shape and the house has windows on all 4 sides......there are pine woods on the north side across the creek, but do absolutely in the way of shade.
OTOH I have the advantage of the veggie "patch" having full sun practically from sunup to sundown.
"People getting sick from mold is not junk science as some have suggested - it is true and definitely not pleaseant."
It's junk science because the litigation lawyers have turned it into the latest science fiction monster when it has existed forever and people with allergies and sinus problems will continue to have those problems regardless since we all know that natural occuring microbes keep changing and mutating. Earth is one giant "dirt" ball. Sueing others isn't solving the problem. I had a childhood friend who could rarely play outdoors because she had so many allergies. She was almost like one of those kids who have to live in a bubble. Good thing her parents weren't sue happy back then. They dealt with her disability the best way they knew how and didn't blame everyone else for it.
But if you had done that we wouldn't have become FRiends!!!!!
We used to live in the country. I had everything from deep shade to full sun. I could grow anything. Now we have deep shade & poor sandy soil. Gardening is not so much fun anymore.
Yes indeed! I like it much better this way! &;9)
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