May 15, 2008

The Mold Hard Truth

Wasn’t sure what to title this post. I went back and forth on “The Mold and the Beautiful” and “Molded Masses Yearning to Breathe Free.”

I’ll just lay it out. One of Caleb’s doctors suggested we have our house inspected for mold. We did, and yes, we have it. It’s in our basement, our HVAC unit, our AC ducts, and our sofa. It just so happens that Caleb is allergic to mold. For months, he has been unable to breathe through his nose and has had a sinus infection that won’t go away. The doctor won’t allow him to come home until the mold remediation process is complete, so he is recovering from surgery at Mimi’s house.

So how are we dealing with this news? We’d like to take it sitting down, but like I said, we have mold in our SOFA and in our big COMFY CHAIR!! So we’re having to take it standing up…or lying down.

We’ve felt lots of emotions through all this. Here are a few of them…

• Guilt. We should have had our house inspected for mold earlier.
• Anger. Our previous owner never disclosed the water damage.
• Fear. We’re having to spend way more money to fix this than we can afford right now. Who knew clean air costs about as much as a new car?
• Hope. We hope that fixing the mold problem (along with having the sinus surgery) will fix Caleb.
• Relief. Just knowing what is making him sick makes a huge difference.

So there you have it. On Tuesday we’ll toss our furniture in a dumpster. On Wednesday the men in hazmat suits remove the mold. On Thursday and Friday our new air conditioner, furnace, and dehumidifier will be installed. On Saturday the air ducts and carpets will be sanitized. Saturday night we will lie down in bed…breathing non-toxic air.

We’ve thought about throwing a fresh air party. Seriously, we could sell tickets to come stand around in our house and breathe pristine, clean air.