Re: Questions on rental townhouse

[Guest guest]

Glad you told the realtor that. It's funny how people think it'a about the

smell. No, it's about the chemicals, and they don't always smell. That's why

they have to add odorants to things like natural gas, which can kill.

Good on ya, Corky!

Now, if I just had the answers to your questions........

anita

----------------------------------

From: corkylux1

.........I got a severe reaction once when the realtor pulled a 'fast one' on

me-- I told her about my MCS, she did not tell me they were having the place

treated for termites inside and out. These people-- because it is odorless they

think we 'will never know'. I told the realtor if a person with asthma went in

there that person might have died, that she needs to tell the renter about the

spraying.

Appreciate input...Corky

[Guest guest]

Corky I don't know all the details of your health but whatever you do make sure

you go thru the townhouse with a fine tooth comb and when you do move in if your

moving anything that might be contaminated take in one piece at a time. I've

talked to several people and rather hire someone to come check out place I'm

going to hire a mold dog. Even if it's to move into another hotel room the very

first thing I'm going to do is have the mold dog sweep the place. I hope

everything works out for the best

Tug

>

> I will be going to look at a townhouse this week. It is furnished, I have my

own furniture so they will need to remove it and probably steam the carpet as I

don't want to look at indents from that furniture in the carpet. The realtor

told me he uses a 'green' company to do the rental properties, says it is

chemical-free

>

> Appreciate input...Corky

>

[Guest guest]

I do not think that being a non-smoking building, you can assume that they do

not use pesticides. They are only concerned with the smoke because of the odor

it leaves behind, not for health reasons. The hotel I live in just changed to

non-smoking in the entire building but they spray pesticides regularly. D

>

> I will be going to look at a townhouse this week. It is furnished, I have my

own furniture so they will need to remove it and probably steam the carpet as I

don't want to look at indents from that furniture in the carpet. The realtor

told me he uses a 'green' company to do the rental properties, says it is

chemical-free and all are non-smoking.

>

> Ques: When they take the wall hangings down, they should have to fill the

holes and touch up the paint. Is there any particular filler product I should

suggest to the realtor? I told him low VOC paint is good. I am concerned about

it not airing soon enough and I don't wish to pay rent to let it air out if it

takes more than a few days.

>

> Also, the owner bought the place a month ago. Realtor does not know if it was

sprayed w/ pesticides inside but since those places are non-smoking he assumes

they would not have done so. I got a severe reaction once when the realtor

pulled a 'fast one' on me-- I told her about my MCS, she did not tell me they

were having the place treated for termites inside and out. These people--

because it is odorless they think we 'will never know'. I told the realtor if a

person with asthma went in there that person might have died, that she needs to

tell the renter about the spraying.

>

> Appreciate input...Corky

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Corky-

With the housing issues...been there, done that. Numerous times. As well as

many of my MCS friends.

And quite often for many of us, we end up footing the bill for painting, carpet

cleaning, etc. because there is no assurance that the rental company will really

do what we need them to do. And now in this day and age, good news is that

" green " is the buzzword and am grateful that it is elevating toxicity

awareness...yet also notice that quite often " green " does not mean what I need

it to mean as an MCS person. For example, " green " may mean made out of recycled

materials or made in a factory with low energy usage. But that product maybe

still be loaded with all sorts of chemicals or components that are toxic to me.

So in my opinion, green does not necessarily mean non-toxic although it is

certainly a step in the right direction.

Housing has been a major challenge for me and being so proactive in my MCS

recovery, personal tolerance testing is a must. With all the VOC free paints in

the market, there is only one that I do well with right out of the can. With

all the low tox carpet cleaning options in the marketplace, there's only two

that I do very well with. And in both cases, the pricing is fairly competitive

with what a landlord would pay for the regular stuff anayway so it is much less

of a hard sell than it use to be years ago when that price difference was more

significant. So it is really up to me to be persistant, proactive and lead the

landlord in that direction. And also the outgoing tenant, if at all possible.

Anyway, my experience with housing or even buying a car is that I put EVERYTHING

in writing...what I need them to do or what I need them not to do. I spell out

exactly what to do, what products to use, what products they can't use, to

notify me when the unit is all done and that I need to go sit in it and see how

I feel. I make sure to get in writing that if I then have any problems, I have

to right to get out of the contract. I have also learned how to do all this in

such a way that the other person does not become spooked thus afraid to do

business with me.

Whether buying or renting, I find a way to personally meet the people who are

already living there. It gives me that person to person contact directly with

them and increases my chances that they won't do something dangerous for me as

the are moving out. I bought a house once and the previous owner out the

kindness of her heart hired a cleaning company who cleaned the house with

ammonia, bleach and a ton of a particular wood cleaning product. So when I

found the house I own now, I met with the daughter of the estate, explained my

situation and asked her to not do a thing to the house...don't clean it, don't

do a thing. Just move everything out and shut the door. Most people are happy

to comply because it means less work for them. But I also find most people very

compassionate and want to know more about MCS and what they can do to make it

easier for me.

As far as hole fillers...once again personal tolerance testing to make sure it's

a product that works best for me. Usually so little is used in the case of

picture holes that it is much less threat than patching a huge area. Some MCS

folks do better with joint compound while others do better with a vinyl or some

other type of spackling product. Some prefer a paintable caulking instead. My

personal concern with hole patching product is reduced if it's going to be

topcoated anyway.

Perhaps many of the excellent MCS books with how to find housing may also be a

help. I wish you the best with this as finding safe housing can be such a

challenge w/MCS.

Take Care

Kathy

> I will be going to look at a townhouse this week. >

> Appreciate input...Corky

[Guest guest]

I think Kathy give excellent advice in every one of her posts and we as a group

are lucky to have her BUT the problem in today's housing market and the number

of foreclosures that the people that are losing their houses have to live

somewhere and the have no choice but to go the apartments/townhouses and houses.

Personally I was told by some of the other members that I should live in the

unit for a couple of weeks before I signed on the dotted line but everytime I

brought it up to the prospective landlord wouldn't agree to it. I had other

landlords tell me that if I didn't want the apartment he has 5 more other people

that do. Unless your at the right place at the right time finding a safe house

is nearly impossible and getting them to agree to your stipulations only

exasperates the problem. We just picked the wrong time to become exposed.

>

> Hi Corky-

>

> With the housing issues...been there, done that. Numerous times. As well as

many of my MCS friends.

> Anyway, my experience with housing or even buying a car is that I put

EVERYTHING in writing...what I need them to do or what I need them not to do. I

spell out exactly what to do, what products to use, what products they can't

use, to notify me when the unit is all done and that I need to go sit in it and

see how I feel. I make sure to get in writing that if I then have any problems,

I have to right to get out of the contract. I have also learned how to do all

this in such a way that the other person does not become spooked thus afraid to

do business with me.

> Take Care

> Kathy

[Guest guest]

We wouldn't need to do this if condition were recognised, and it doesn't hurt

anyone so don't feel bad. I looked at an apt that seemed fine and fit all my

criteria. After I moved in, I felt terrible and noticed place smelled bad,

which I did not notice when I looked at it. Couple that lived there were

cooking so I think cooking odor overtook condo odor, so you learn as you go.

Key is not to get tied into a lease you cannot get out of.

>

> I feel bad posting this to a public forum, cause it's not something I would

ever consider under 'normal' circumstances but a couple of my friends who have

mcs, during inspections they'd quietly unlock as many doors as they could.. and

post inspection, they'd come back and break in.. and basically sit there for a

while.. see how they felt. Reactions can sometimes take a bit of time to start

and during inspections we are confused by perfumes, aftershave of other people..

Other VOC's so it can be a good strategy. I know it's dodgy, feels wrong, but

what can we do in our position? For some of such a decision is a life and death

issue...

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Carl-

Well until meeting my environ doc, I drank chemically sweetened diet carbonated

beverages for years. So fellow weirdoes unite..lol...

You give me more credit than I deserve. I've had such good teachers on my

journey, which btw has been much shorter than yours. I am the recipient of

credible trailblazers informing and educating people while finding/living a

solutions based life...just as you have done. So I thank you for that.

I find it so sad that in this day and age it is no longer strange to talk with

folks about intolerances, allergies, insensitivities or whatever you want to

call them. Seems like just about everyone knows someone or they themselves have

some kind of problem even if something as simple as a food or pollen allergy. I

find that reduces MCS down to a much more understandable conversation with most

people. I mean for pete's sake, all 3 of my brother's kids have issues...one has

horrific inhalant intolerances and the other two have huge food and preservative

problems.

I really know what you mean about feeling comfortable to just put our needs out

there. Having gone from a high-powered career woman to a chronically ill

disabled person on a fixed income certainly did a number on my self-esteem and

the way in which I dealt with people. For the first time in my life I found

myself waffling w/just the basics on how to deal with people, never mind

actually stating my needs. In my case, I had so much attached to the consistent

income stream along with all my career bennies and that loss changed everything

for me. I was more embarrassed and ashamed of letting someone know how

different I was, never mind tell them what I needed them to do. But then again,

that's the old Dr Phil/childhood stuff that this illness brought to the surface

and forced me to address. For me, one of the many gifts from getting sick, if

you know what I mean.

But back to the housing, my one huge biggie was buying a house that I could

never live in. That was such a huge mistake thus with housing, I now know what

to do/not do to reduce my chances of another such disaster. But even with that

said, there is still no guarantee as for many of us, the reaction may come

weeks/months later. I have learned to overlook a lot such as my hideous blue

carpeting that I inherited from the previous owner. I did not start painting my

interior walls until I had lived here for 5 years and that's in spite of

inheriting the blue bedroom walls, which matched the hideous blue

carpeting..lol.. But those upfront trade offs are sometimes worth it as I now

slowly chip away at getting things the way I want as after all, I still yearn to

have things look nice. But often the MCS forces me to pick my priorities and

let the rest go. Take that perfectionism, ugh.

For me, it just accomplishes nothing to minimize my situation upfront and have

learned to appropriately communicate for the immediate need at hand while not

freaking people out. It's a fine balance with amount of detail to provide. In

my case with the toxic house, it was worse going back afterward than if I had

done a few things differently right upfront. It seems many of us, myself

included, are so financially strapped which often adds to my skewed judgment

process on anything from buying a coat to buying a house. I am learning to burn

through the fear, trust that I will be taken care of, just keep doing to honest

footwork and eventually I always land where I am suppose to. And as good as

that sounds, it can be so difficult to do.

But so far so good. And doing this worked well while buying my current

townhouse which of course as you know, is now totally toxic from the new windows

that I just installed..lol.. So go figure. Sigh.

Kathy

----------------------------------

>Kathy, your being precise and specific with your verification reminded me of

something I learned years ago - and apparently forgot.

Carl Grimes

[Guest guest]

Google would probably be your best bet

>

> Where do you find a mold dog for hire? 

>  

> Since I can be running back and forth from city to city, I was wondering if it

would not be too much trouble for the realtor to put a canary in the house and

see what happens to it.  (lol???)

> ...Corky

[Guest guest]

So it was a problem that you were there without renting for 72 hours or just

that you were there for 72 hours? Can't people stay anywhere for months w a

trailer?

>

> How true this is.

>

> Not exactly the same thing, but I once was staying in an empty mobile to see

what it was like. It was owned by a friend who wanted it occupied. It turned

out she wasn't supposed to sublease in that trailer park so even if the place

had been ok probably would not have worked out. At any rate, the owner of the

park saw me outside and asked what I was doing there. He told me I had to be

out by the next afternoon. He said after 72 hours in a place a person has

squatter's rights and he had just had this problem with some others in the park.

It had taken him 6 months to get rid of them.

>

> anita

>

>

[Guest guest]

As a last resort, I was thinking of putting myself up for adoption to an MCS

home-- will gladly help w/ chores, w/with children...........

....Corky

> Glad you told the realtor that.....

> Now, if I just had the answers to your questions........

>

> anita

>

>

[Guest guest]

Sounds like you are " free to a good home " Corky. lol

>

> As a last resort, I was thinking of putting myself up for adoption to an MCS

home-- will gladly help w/ chores, w/with children...........

> ...Corky

>