Finding Soft Landings - [was] Mold that ails home sickens suffering family

[Guest guest]

and ,

I had a recent client that illustrates this point of looking for a

soft spot to land. (Identifying names and other characteristics are

changed to protect identies). They were a comfortable, middle class

couple, educated, with a nice nest egg. They were looking forward to

retirement in a couple of years and were making really good

decisions.

The building defects in their house were only recently discovered and

they were complex and extensive. But the builder had stepped up

beyond the legal requirements of the warranty. For a remedy,

however, they unknowingly relied on an incompetent consultant with

fraudalent credentials and a mediocre remediation company that didn't

comprehend containment and air flow control. (You get what you pay

for). They cross-contaminated the entire house and contents. The

cleaning bill was huge but the builder said they'd take care of it.

They relied on the builder.

She was so HIGHLY allergic that her environmental doctor - who is

excellent and is a believer - wouldn't mold test her for fear of

triggering anaphylactic (sp?) shock. The husband was immune

compromised from cancer treatments and therefore at risk for lung

infections from Aspergillus fumagatus.

At that point I was hired. I got the consultant removed and we agreed

on a third party to assess. But the builder was very selective in

what they chose from his report and eventually abandoned my clients,

leaving them with over four months of out-of-house living expenses

plus all the remediation and cleaning costs. Then they refused to pay

all other promised expenses or to finish the work. They owed numerous

people including one of the best attorneys. Additional areas of

damage were being found and the window warranty people didn't install

the windows properly. They still leaked. More costs for inspections,

engineering reports and attorney fees.

Five months later their attorney negotiated a settlement, with the

obligatory full release for about 2/3 of the total cost. However,

when she moved back in, she became reactive after several days and

was forced to move back out. Contents - as most of you will

appreciate - were the most difficult items to clean.

At the beginning I had advised them that the situation was already a

" train wreck " and their best course was to cut their losses by

putting the house into marketable condition for the general public,

with full disclosure, and find another house that she was safe in.

Otherwise it would cost them even more time, money and brain damage

to make it meet their individual needs. In my 18+ years experience

only one person had successfully remediated severe damages and his

was less extensive than theirs. Still, it took him five years and

$40,000 to do so.

They ignored my advice then and again when I repeated it later, but

much to their credit they always seemed to successfully find several

soft spots to land on, including refinancing their house, and in the

end had apparantly won.

But she became more sensitive to the house and her sensitivities

became more generalized -- no longer reacting just to mold inside

their house but to mold, fragrances and newspaper ink outside their

house. They realized that they had jumped once too often, landing

them right between a rock and a hard place.

The new remediation company cleaned the house again and she could be

inside. (Consider the cost!) Contents waiting to be cleaned were

stored in the garage when a slight breach in the containment barrier

occurred, triggering a strong reaction in her. The house was cleaned

again, but the remaining contents in the garage and storage locker

weren't because they had no more money to pay.

Their nest egg was gone and they had previously decided - during one

of the soft landing spots - to take their retirement two years early

to recover from the previous eleven months of living outside of their

house along with all the tribulations noted above. What they thought

was a soft spot became a hard spot.

They eventually decided to sell the house and began looking for a new

one. Day after day after day they looked, only to find houses that

either she reacted to or they couldn't afford. In the meantime, they

were preparing to file for bankruptcy in case they couldn't sell

their house in time. They knew that since they'd just refinanced that

even at full value they couldn't break even. And because of the water

and mold history they assumed they'd lose at least 30% of its value,

leaving them in a desperate situation again.

They became depressed when they realized they could have avoided all

these problems and financial loss if they'd just fixed the house to

meet the needs of most people and not tried to hit the moving target

of her increasing reactivity. The medical evaluation for his cancer

was showing signs of activity. They talked of buying a gun so they

could finally put a stop to all their stress, misfortune and

suffering.

NOTE: They didn't and none of my clients that have talked of suicide

have ever done so. But four people in the last three years have -

without saying a word to anyone. SO KEEP TALKING TO EACH OTHER!!!

They have now found a rental house in the mountains where she is only

slightly reactive but tolerable. The owner will be back in 10 months

but they firmly believe they will be stronger and healthier by then.

They put their house on the market and had 9 showings in two days. On

the third day they had a contract offer at full value. The

prospective buyer has read all the disclosure documents, including

those that showed how the problems were fixed, and will move forward

to closing. My clients, assuming the closing actually occurs, are

back on a soft spot. It is tiny, very tiny, but at least they have

hope for awhile. Unless she starts reacting to the rental. (fingers

and toes are crossed!)

And that is part of what we have all had to come to terms with, the

not knowing:

1. Not knowing exactly what caused our reactivity.

2. Not knowing exactly what will stop it.

3. Not knowing if it will continue to be safe even if we find a way

to stop it.

4. Not knowing if the harm is temporary or permanent.

But what is even more difficult and painful to resolve in our minds

and hearts is what we do know. We know, without a doubt, that none of

it was necessary.

Carl Grimes

Healthy Habitats LLC

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> , I agree with you, but people don't know what is going to happen

> to them. I understand your analogy about jumping off of the train,

> but in this case, some people can't tell how fast the train is going.

>

> Some people don't know how sick they are going to get.

>

> erikmoldwarrior <erikmoldwarrior@...> wrote:

>

> > Yes, I know. But another solution is not likely to come if one

> stays in an environment that makes them physically sicker >

>

>

> That's the brutal reality.

> If somebody stays, to avoid homelessness, they just wind up either

> dead, or just crawling out even sicker with less money and fewer

> options. Not to mention an even greater degree of reactivity which

> means fewer tolerable places to go. Get out early enough, and

> " Homeless " isn't even a consideration, you just move - like normal

> people do.

>

> If people could bring themselves to learn from the people who

> have " been there and done it " they could get out long before being

> driven to such a state of desperation. But when they are surrounded by

> doctors and mold denialists, they can scarcely bring themselves to

> listen to " hysterical sounding mold crazies " and just keep on going,

> until eventually, they too are destroyed and become one of those

> " crazies " that no one will listen to.

>

> It's kind of like giving people the choice of jumping from a runaway

> train right after noticing the brakes are gone: " You can look for a

> soft place while the train is still slow, or you can wait until the

> train jumps the rails at the steep downgrade over Deadmans Gulch "

>

> When people choose to ride it out until the crash, you still feel

> sorry for them, but you say to yourself " Bad choice " . -

>