Before I start on the topic at hand, can I just say it seems somewhat ridiculous to be writing this blog in the midst of the pandemic. I am literally overwhelmed by the daily devastation, and in that light, my health problems seem irrelevant.
But the fact of the matter is I’m sick, and if you’re reading this you probably are too, so we have to keep moving forward, pandemic or not.
About those photos. The first is the hallway that’s between my bedroom and office. And guess what was just discovered there? Yep, mold. In a large quantity. And the second photo is an air vent in my office. Mold was just discovered there too. So, the two places where I spend the most time. Nice, right?
We just moved to this house a few months ago, and we had it inspected for mold by three different people prior to moving in, and nothing was found. Then we started our mold best practices practically from day one — air purifiers in every room, changing the air filters every 30 days whether they look like they need it or not. And of course, I was on my routine of taking mold binders, going to the sauna, etc.
But a month after moving, my mold blood marker called C4a became elevated to nearly double to what it was prior to moving. If you’re a numbers person, anything above 2830 is elevated. Mine’s at 5400. It has been as high as 8300, but was down to 1900 prior to moving. I also have been feeling worse than usual lately, so something is definitely up.
To that end, we had two more mold inspectors crawl all over the house, and between the two of them, they found the smoking guns. The ones I already mentioned, and a basement ceiling, which happens to be below the room where I spend a lot of time during the day. How am I doing?
So, we need to remediate, which is no small process. Dealing with the air vents and ceilings is the easy part. Dealing with our contents is the difficult and overwhelming part. What do I mean? Well, if you have mold in your house, it means you have mold in your air, which means you have mold on literally everything you own. Think about that for a minute.
As I look back, I realize all of the houses we’ve lived in for the past 15-plus years have had mold. That means furniture we have moved from house to house has also carried mold. My husband and I have known this for a while but have never gotten serious about dealing with it because it’s so incredibly overwhelming. It’s paralyzing. Seriously, think about it. Every book, every article of clothing, ever piece of furniture, every file folder, our computers. Mold. Mold. Mold.
Our rationale in the past has been that we’ll just get the house mold-free and hope that’s enough. Well, I have been treated for CIRS (mold illness) for nearly a year, and I’m literally no better, so we have to get more serious about our remediation.
When I think about what’s involved I become so overwhelmed I literally want to get rid of everything and start over. But that’s not very practical. So, we are going to do the best we can. Or, I should say, my husband and the remediators are going to do the best they can. Remediation stirs up mold, so I’m not supposed to be around while it’s happening.
So this is the loose plan. My daughter and I are going to leave for a couple of weeks. Not what I want to do during a pandemic, but I’m picking my poison. While we are gone, the remediators will fix the moldy areas, and then literally wipe down every single surface of our house from top to bottom. Every wall, every window and pane, every piece of woodwork, every hard piece of furniture, every piece of art, every bathroom, the kitchen, and every inch of the floor. Can you even imagine?
Then another team will take all the contents out of our basement, wipe them down and place them in clean plastic bins (in case they miss any mold) and bring them back inside. This process needs to take place outside because mold is released into the air during cleaning, and we don’t want that to happen inside.
If remediation is not done properly, the air in the home can actually be worse (i.e. contain more mold) than before remediation. So, remediators have to be selected and vetted very carefully, and we are working on that process now.
Needless to say, I am beside myself. This is going to be time consuming and expensive and involve staying in a rental home during a deadly viral outbreak.
This is the part of the post where I usually try to say something positive to put it all in perspective. I could do that, but I’d be faking it. Sure, there are worse problems, and I understand that. But this pretty much blows, and sometimes I just need to say that.
And now that I’ve said that, I can be a little more positive. It could be so much worse. There’s always something worse. I have food, clothing, shelter, love and faith. Life’s basics that so many people lack. And we have the ability to ride out the pandemic at home. So, while the mold situation isn’t what I would hope for, I really can’t complain.
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