We've been poisoned out of our house-Mold Saga Part 1

Good bye, nice little house.  Sniff, sniff :-(

Last winter we tested our house for mold and the results came back very high.  Since we were already having work done on our house (and living in a hotel), we decided to have the mold remediated while the walls were all torn apart.

Tim and I have been having a very difficult time health-wise these past few months, and we've been working with our doctor to try to dig up any possible reasons why the Lyme treatment we've been on for years doesn't seem to be making us better any more.  We both saw improvement for the first couple years and then started backsliding over time.

After racking our brains, we remembered that we had not discussed our previous mold situation with our current doctor.  When we did, she asked to see the report.  We faxed it to her that same day.  She personally called me and yelled into the phone "I know why you and your husband are still sick!"  Well then.  She's very kind and caring.  She was just very concerned for us.

She was shocked at our results.  Here are some of them:

No matter how much someone knows about mold, I don't think anyone wants to see "major" so many places on their mold report.  Particularly Stachybotrys (black mold) in 3 areas on both floors of the house.  We were so nieve.  It's maddening to think that we have been living in that house for an additional 15 months after we received this report.  We didn't know any better.  And it didn't help that the guy who did our inspection said levels were "not bad right now."

So, last year when we were out of the house, we had our house remediated of the mold.  Or at least we thought we did...  What we now know is that all the mold was already inside the walls and then when the walls were torn down, the mold was released into the air like a wild animal rushing out of an opened cage door.  Not only was our house not fixed, it was made worse.

We talked this through with our doctor, and we agreed that we needed to get out of our house.  It was a very hard decision to make, but it was somewhat easier than it otherwise would have been since our house is already on track for foreclosure.  So, as of this week when we returned from our doctor's appointments, we no longer live in our home.  We will never live there again.  We're really sad about that.  We are currently staying in Tim's parents' basement, and we don't know what comes next.