Re: Question..new to group (long and sorry about that!) House of Mold

[Guest guest]

This doesn't sound good at all! Your house is definately too damp which can

lead to all sorts of health problems. You senses are good. You have reason to

be concerned. It's my believe that initial weight gain is body storing fat so

it has some place to store the toxins. Toxins are stored in fat. I gained

weight with my initial exposure. Don't try to lose it now. If you are storing

toxins in extra fat, you don't want to diet now. You can probably lose the

weight by detoxing, instead of dieting. Right now that fat is your friend.

First you have to get yourself in healthier environment, whether it is making

your location healthier or moving, however making a sick location healthy can be

the hardest way to go because you don't know what the extent of moisture damage

is. Many people here know more than me, so I will let someone else guide you.

Good luck.

--- In , " Lori " <iwouldratherbeatthebeach65@...>

wrote:

>

> Hello All..I hope everyone is having a good week. I am new to the group and

guess I am grasping at straws.

[Guest guest]

Hi Laurie,

Sorry to hear about everything you are going threw.  It sounds like mold to me. 

From your symptoms.  And I understand what you are saying about when it

rains.  We are on our 2nd moldy place and when it rains I can feel how much

worse it is.

We lost it all.  No one paid, I am sorry if this is hard to hear.

I would suggest you find an attorney that works on a contingency basis. What

state are you in ?? Real Estate Laws from vary from state to state.  If you have

only spoken to one try a few more.  Your health and that of your children is the

most important thing. 

 

 Dragonfly ... Breaks illusions, Brings visions of power, No need to prove it,

Now is the hour! Know it, believe it, Great Spirit intercedes, Feeding you,

blessing you, Filling all your needs. By DCarson JSams

God Bless !!

dragonflymcs

Mayleen

________________________________

From: Lori <iwouldratherbeatthebeach65@...>

Sent: Tue, October 13, 2009 5:29:46 PM

Subject: [] Question..new to group (long and sorry about that!)

House of Mold

 

Hello All..I hope everyone is having a good week. I am new to the group and

guess I am grasping at straws. I thought some of you on here may have some

information I could find useful. My husband thinks I am crazy and overreacting

and I don't know much about mold, etc. but just call it a " feeling " that

something is not right. No one will listen to me and it is driving me mad! I am

a stay at home mom of two and do not have a lot of income to waste by calling a

mold specialist, etc. so my options are not great. We bought our current house

three years ago. We didn't know much about buying a house obviously. This is our

second money pit. But the house is in a subdivision that has a large pond and it

seems to be murky around here...mold on side of houses, mold smell in air, etc.

Our house didn't have gutters and we paid an inspector to check it out for us at

a cost of $1,000 (we already tried to hold him and the previous owneer

accountable to no avail..you

have to have money to hire and attorney to sue people and we spent all of our

savings on our down payment and inspection fees) The inspector at the time told

us our house was fine and it had a sump pump. I know, red flag but we just had

no knowledge of mold or anything and never had a water problem before. The

carpets were " new " , etc. There were tons of air fresheners in the outlets when

we saw the house and it smelled fine. When we moved in (I am trying to not drag

this out!) we took the fresheners out of the walls because it was overpowering.

About 3 days later I started smelling a strong musty odor. I have very good

smell and it seemed no one else but me smelled it. My friends who came to visit

smelled something but not sure what it was. Then I started smelling cat. To make

a long story short about 2 weeks after we moved into the house turns out these

big stains started appearing on the carpet. They were pee and poop stains coming

up from whomever

owned the house before us. I tried to ignore it thinking it would go away but

it got worse and after a month in the house I had to do something... it smelled

like a cat box. My husband kept saying he didn't smell anything and I don't get

it because everyone else did. It was embarassing. I was afraid my kids would get

sick. We were dead broke and I called my attorney for the closing who told me

since the person who sold us the house was a flipper and didn't live in the

house then we could not sue her because she would claim she didn't know and all

the disclosures we got did not apply now. We called our inspector who claimed

ignorance. Basically, it was tough on us. I felt hopeless. The best we could do

is pull the carpet up which brought us to ply wood floors. The floors had big

stains on them and the areas along the walls was all wet looking. Like it had

been wet but dried. Just horrible. We put KILZ to try and get some of the stench

down and it worked.

My husband took plywood and stained it and put it down like a regular wood

floor and polyurathaned it in the boys rooms. It does not smell like cat in

there anymore but it still smells musty as heck and I have damp rids all over

that get filled up in two weeks in their rooms. I cought a lot in there and I

noticed the boys cough some at night. These " oily " spots appear on their walls

and I am not sure what that is. There is no mold visible anywhere in the house

but I know it is here. My husband keeps telling me I am imagining things but I

know I am not. I suspect he just doesn't have the money to fix it and is trying

to act like it is not happening. We have some spots on our ceiling which leads

me to believe there are small leaks in the roof coming into our attic. We have

been up there and see no mold or water. We also had someone go under the house

and says there doesn't appear to be mold and the sump pump is working right but

that we need to get it

" wrapped " better and of course, we have no money for that right now. We are

trying to figure out how to finish the floors as we have most of our carpet torn

out now and it looks horrible..not like a home. Dirty plywood floors..not what I

hoped for my sons when we bought this house. We need a new rood. I am just

beside myself. Anyway, when I walk in this house I smell mold and it smells

musty everywhere. I can't find it but I know it is here. I did a home mold test

the first year and it came up with all this mold but didn't tell me what it was

or if it was dangerous, etc I did a little research and know some mold is

normal. How do you know what is normal and what is not? How do you find out

without spending the $400.00 most of the people around here charge just to come

out and test much less anything else? What can I do? Since I have moved in here

I have gained a LOT of weight from depression and am fuzzy headed all the time,

joints hurt, especially in

my elbows. Weird rash on hands and growths I never had before. Throat always

sore upon waking with junk in eyes. Kind of like having allergies but I have

never had allergies. I feel fine out of the house most of the time. I am getting

to the point that being home is making me unhappy. I worry for my kids..they

cough at night and seem to have gotten worse in school..I don't know if that is

because they are getting older and school is harder or they are having

concentration problems. I could go on and on. I have one room with carpet still

in it..it is the den. It smells so bad we don't even open the doors to it and

when we do...oh no. The weird thing is when it rains. When it rains our house

gets like a swamp. I can't explain it. We get condensation on the windows and it

gets a feeling of humidity in the house. The DEN is the worst. If you go in

there during a storn you almost feel pressure in your head. I can't explain it

and I know I sound mad. I swear,

I am not imagining this! Does this sound familiar to anyone? If anything I have

always lived in houses with dry air problems and had to always run the

humidifier if the kids were sick. I threw that out a long time ago and would not

DARE run one in here! Can anyone give me any advice or tell me where to turn to

solve this problem without having to need a huge bank account? I would sell the

house but am sure with the problems it has and the floors torn up that would not

work. Besides walking away from it and losing my house and the large

downpayment, etc. I can't think of anything to do but my kids and our health is

more important that a house. I guess what I need to know is if there IS a

problem. Then I could be better informed as to what to do next. Sorry for

rambling! I hope someone here has some insight. Thanks so much, Laurie

[Guest guest]

Hi Lori!

     Sorry to hear about your situation. I had my home tested for $200. Maybe

you can call around and check for lowest prices in your city.

Toxic mold grows in a no sunlight environment with a water source. For instance

behind a wall with a leaking pipe, humid basements etc. Some toxic mold looks

like black dust and not mold at all. Mold/mildew you can see forming from lets

say shower condensation is normally non toxic normally i say again.

Do you guys also have headaches? That also seems to be a common first symptom of

toxic mold exposure. Hope some of this info helps. Please keep us updated on

your situation. God Bless

Elias

From: Lori <iwouldratherbeatthebeach65@...>

Subject: [] Question..new to group (long and sorry about that!)

House of Mold

Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2009, 2:29 PM

 

Hello All..I hope everyone is having a good week. I am new to

the group and guess I am grasping at straws. I thought some of you on here may

have some information I could find useful. My husband thinks I am crazy and

overreacting and I don't know much about mold, etc. but just call it a " feeling "

that something is not right. No one will listen to me and it is driving me mad!

I am a stay at home mom of two and do not have a lot of income to waste by

calling a mold specialist, etc. so my options are not great. We bought our

current house three years ago. We didn't know much about buying a house

obviously. This is our second money pit. But the house is in a subdivision

that has a large pond and it seems to be murky around here...mold on side of

houses, mold smell in air, etc. Our house didn't have gutters and we paid an

inspector to check it out for us at a cost of $1,000 (we already tried to hold

him and the previous owneer

accountable to no avail..you have to have money to hire and attorney to sue

people and we spent all of our savings on our down payment and inspection fees)

The inspector at the time told us our house was fine and it had a sump pump. I

know, red flag but we just had no knowledge of mold or anything and never had a

water problem before. The carpets were " new " , etc. There were tons of air

fresheners in the outlets when we saw the house and it smelled fine. When we

moved in (I am trying to not drag this out!) we took the fresheners out of the

walls because it was overpowering. About 3 days later I started smelling a

strong musty odor. I have very good smell and it seemed no one else but me

smelled it. My friends who came to visit smelled something but not sure what it

was. Then I started smelling cat. To make a long story short about 2 weeks

after we moved into the house turns out these big stains started appearing on

the carpet. They were pee

and poop stains coming up from whomever owned the house before us. I tried to

ignore it thinking it would go away but it got worse and after a month in the

house I had to do something... it smelled like a cat box. My husband kept

saying he didn't smell anything and I don't get it because everyone else did.

It was embarassing. I was afraid my kids would get sick. We were dead broke

and I called my attorney for the closing who told me since the person who sold

us the house was a flipper and didn't live in the house then we could not sue

her because she would claim she didn't know and all the disclosures we got did

not apply now. We called our inspector who claimed ignorance. Basically, it

was tough on us. I felt hopeless. The best we could do is pull the carpet up

which brought us to ply wood floors. The floors had big stains on them and the

areas along the walls was all wet looking. Like it had been wet but dried.

Just horrible. We put KILZ

to try and get some of the stench down and it worked. My husband took plywood

and stained it and put it down like a regular wood floor and polyurathaned it in

the boys rooms. It does not smell like cat in there anymore but it still smells

musty as heck and I have damp rids all over that get filled up in two weeks in

their rooms. I cought a lot in there and I noticed the boys cough some at

night. These " oily " spots appear on their walls and I am not sure what that is.

There is no mold visible anywhere in the house but I know it is here. My

husband keeps telling me I am imagining things but I know I am not. I suspect

he just doesn't have the money to fix it and is trying to act like it is not

happening. We have some spots on our ceiling which leads me to believe there

are small leaks in the roof coming into our attic. We have been up there and

see no mold or water. We also had someone go under the house and says there

doesn't appear to be mold

and the sump pump is working right but that we need to get it " wrapped " better

and of course, we have no money for that right now. We are trying to figure out

how to finish the floors as we have most of our carpet torn out now and it looks

horrible..not like a home. Dirty plywood floors..not what I hoped for my sons

when we bought this house. We need a new rood. I am just beside myself.

Anyway, when I walk in this house I smell mold and it smells musty everywhere.

I can't find it but I know it is here. I did a home mold test the first year

and it came up with all this mold but didn't tell me what it was or if it was

dangerous, etc I did a little research and know some mold is normal. How do

you know what is normal and what is not? How do you find out without spending

the $400.00 most of the people around here charge just to come out and test much

less anything else? What can I do? Since I have moved in here I have gained a

LOT of weight from

depression and am fuzzy headed all the time, joints hurt, especially in my

elbows. Weird rash on hands and growths I never had before. Throat always sore

upon waking with junk in eyes. Kind of like having allergies but I have never

had allergies. I feel fine out of the house most of the time. I am getting to

the point that being home is making me unhappy. I worry for my kids..they cough

at night and seem to have gotten worse in school..I don't know if that is

because they are getting older and school is harder or they are having

concentration problems. I could go on and on. I have one room with carpet

still in it..it is the den. It smells so bad we don't even open the doors to it

and when we do...oh no. The weird thing is when it rains. When it rains our

house gets like a swamp. I can't explain it. We get condensation on the

windows and it gets a feeling of humidity in the house. The DEN is the worst.

If you go in there during a storn you

almost feel pressure in your head. I can't explain it and I know I sound mad.

I swear, I am not imagining this! Does this sound familiar to anyone? If

anything I have always lived in houses with dry air problems and had to always

run the humidifier if the kids were sick. I threw that out a long time ago and

would not DARE run one in here! Can anyone give me any advice or tell me where

to turn to solve this problem without having to need a huge bank account? I

would sell the house but am sure with the problems it has and the floors torn up

that would not work. Besides walking away from it and losing my house and the

large downpayment, etc. I can't think of anything to do but my kids and our

health is more important that a house. I guess what I need to know is if there

IS a problem. Then I could be better informed as to what to do next. Sorry for

rambling! I hope someone here has some insight. Thanks so much, Laurie

[Guest guest]

Hi Lori,

You poor thing! it definitely sounds like the house has some issues, mold

needs two things to grow a food source (which could be wood,drywall etc) and

a source of moisture. The unfortunate thing is that it can also be

microscopic, in our home you could only see small patches of visible

mold-the other nastiness was behind the walls. As contaminated as our home

is, you don't see huge patches of mold-in fact very little-but it's still

there.

One test we tried before we brought in the 'big guns' is by ProLab and

believe it or not my husband bought it at Home Depot or Lowes, it is a small

kit which is very easy to follow. You set it up in whatever room is a

problem-probably in your case the den and then follow the instructions, I

think the test is $20 and the labwork another $20-30. It is not very

scientific,fancy testing but it will tell you if you have elevated levels in

that room and what type of mold it is.

My first symptoms like Elias was excruciating headaches and sensitivity to

light, like you I am a stay at home Mom and so was gettting the most

exposure, my daughter and husband developed breathing problems and my other

daughter had really bad nosebleeds, headaches and dizziness. There are so

many varied symptoms from mold exposure, you will see a lot of them on this

group, it affects people in different ways.. Can you go somewhere for a few

days and then go home-that for us was the defining moment-after being out of

the house 3 days I started feeling a lot better-that was when we knew we had

to get out of the house.

I would double check with someone about the liability of the previous owner,

flipper or not I would think they would have to disclose it there was an

issue with the home?? How long have you lived there? I'm not an

attorney(heaven forbid!!) but have just been through a horrendous lawsuit

with our builder and that just doesn't sound right unless your statute of

limitations has run out?

Take care, you have come to the right place, there are a lot of very

knowledgeable and compassionate people in this group.

.

[Guest guest]

Hi Lori,

I'm sorry to hear about the predicament you've gotten yourself into. If you

talk with your neighbors, you might learn a little about what previous owners

knew about mold in their house, and why they left, and also what the flipper did

to cover up problems. Just because he didn't live there doesn't mean he didn't

intentionally hide something. A second legal opinion might be in order.

Assuming you can't get any money from the flipper, what else can you do? Spots

on ceilings strongly indicate water problems. This could be a roof leak, but

could be water originating from the living space. Perhaps kitchen or bathroom

fans vent simply into the attic, not to the outdoors as required by most

building codes, particualarly for old houses which may have been improperly

remodeled. Or perhaps your attic insulation has no vapor barrier, or the vapor

barrier is improperly installed. It must be below the insulation, not on top.

Water can also get into outside walls around defective windows or wall

openings, leading to mold in the walls. Houses with synthetic stucco have had

wall mold problems, even when no cracks or openings were seen, or windows

appeared to be installed correctly, particularly where hard driving rains are

common. Smell at electric outlets after you take the covers off. If plugs on

outside walls smell worse than those on inside walls, there is likely mold in

the outside walls.

Of more concern to me is the crawl space. When I was looking for a house to

buy a few years ago, I was surprised to find so many with moldy smelling crawl

spaces. And crawl space air migrates into the house. You mentioned the moldy/pet

odor carpet. Pets probably were part of the problem, but humid crawl spaces

contribute greatly to moldy carpet. You mention a sump pump, but you didn't

mention a vapor barrier. Ideally, you should have drainage around the house to

direct water away from the house so it doesn't get into the crawl space. It

sounds like you don't. Mold in crawl spaces doesn't have to be visible to be

problematic. Mold in the damp crawl space soil can be a great problem, and all

damp soil has mold. A plastic vapor barrier should cover all the ground in your

crawl space, sealing tightly against the walls at the top of the foundation.

Only then can you effectively control crawl space humidity.

[Guest guest]

Sounds like mold to me, too!

You can read my posts for strategies that we took in order to stay in our house

that were more economical. filter-fans, open windows, weather permitting,

home-made four thieves blend (essential oils in grain alcohol)

Whether to stay or go can be a very difficult decision.

If an attorney did your closing, start with that person to get some initial

questions answered. You payed them to represent your closing interests, but

not OTHER interests, but they should know the laws in your state that pertain to

these things. They may know if the inspector is blind to mold or has a

not-so-good reputation for actually finding it.

I have noticed a cat smell where there have never been cats. Sometimes that is

a mold odor. They are similar. Find a doc who can give you the CSM, and I'd

get on it fast, especially if you decide to stay while figuring out what to do.

That is probably the ONLY thing that has enabled me to stay in my home.

A vacant house that is not insured as vacant may not get damages covered if

something happens. If you decide to vacate, you are obligated to make a change

in your insurance policy, and it is more expensive......can be double.

--- In , " Lori " <iwouldratherbeatthebeach65@...>

wrote:

>

> Hello All..I hope everyone is having a good week. I am new to the group and

guess I am grasping at straws. I thought some of you on here may have some

information I could find useful.