Mold inside our home was not our  best case scenario.  We were very overwhelmed, we thought I was reacting to our home from the VOC’s from our new windows.  We learned a bit later it was due to elevated mold levels in our home.  Ok, we have mold now what?This is not something that we wanted to go through but at the same time, I was relieved that this could be another answer for my health issues.

We had to move out of the hotel after a month because who can afford that on an ongoing basis so we pitched tents on our patio and I only entered home to shower and cook food.  I had to wear a mask so my tongue wouldn’t swell or have my throat close when I was in our home.  It was ok for a bit, but when the temperature dropped to the low 40’s it was a bit rough.   Here are some pics of our digs.. 🙂

Our new sleeping arrangements

This was the tent my hubby and I slept in we had an air mattress, and electric blanket to keep us warm.  As you can see in photo, we had our chargers and everything out there with us.  (The finest of accommodations, lol)  In the middle there is our dining room table where we ate in 40 degree weather.  But, it was much better than eating in a house that was causing my throat to close and tongue to swell.   Here is a better photo of our dining area.  At least we had an area under our patio where we could stay out of the elements.  On the nights it rained it was pretty scary with the thunder and lightning, especially being so close to the pool.  But, we were still grateful we had that.  This photo is our daughter’s tent.  She was a great sport about all of this.  She had her tent set up like her room and brought her iPad in there and 
her cat would sleep in there with her.  We slept outside for a little over a month.  You do what you have to do.   We were planning on moving once we fixed everything because we tore the bathroom apart, and ripped everything down to the studs.  We did this to be certain there wasn’t any other damage in any other part of the bathroom.  The good news, is there wasn’t any additional damage just the area under the bathroom window.  It is scary because if we hadn’t replaced the windows we never would have found that leak it was in the wall behind the tub.

Here are some photos of our bathroom after it was gutted.   But, first check out my husband and his friend that went in to get things done.  (shhh, lol) I just want to say I don’t say I hate.. but I do HATE mold.  It turned our lives upside down and caused health issues for my family and I.

The demolition..check out what our bathroom

looked like.  Pretty, huh?

Directly below the window with the fresh insulation is the area that was all rotted.  It was horrible I don’t know how the glass block window was staying up. Here is a pic of the bathroom before it was gutted with the glass block window.  

I am grateful that we had to replace our windows.  We may not have found the issue.  It was quite a process to get this gutted.  I was not any part of the clean out.  My husband and his friend completed all of that.   As you can see we truly did need an upgrade but we weren’t planning on upgrading anything for a few years.

Again, I am happy to have found another piece to our puzzle. The good news was that the other walls looked great it was just that small area.  But, have you ever had a feeling that something wasn’t right? (I know as  Mom I get these too much, lol)  There was always this weird powder smell in our bathroom I didn’t know what the problem was but knew something wasn’t right in there.

So, now it is gutted and looking so beautiful.

Do you want your bathroom designed like, this?  (LOL)

My husband followed proper protocol and we removed more than what we needed to and he had an air scrubber running. All of the air vents, doorways, and anything else we could think of were blocked off from the rest of the house.   We even had sticky flooring so when they had larger materials that could not fit through window and had to carry out.  They didn’t play around.  But, even after remediation our counts were high.  It was starting to look like we were going to have to leave. To a non-reactor it may have been fine but not me, I could not be in the house.  I was quick to agitate, tongue would swell, swollen lymph nodes, and itchy all over.  It is looking like we are going to lose our belongings.  

Are we really going to lose our belongings?

I was reading a lot on different mold groups and and Mold Dr.’s websites and they were all saying that you truly needed to throw all of your belongings away.  How, was this going to work we are in our 40’s have a pre-teen girl that loves her belongings.  Well, honestly who doesn’t… Then, the more I read the more I hear of people losing photos, children’s toys, clothes, etc…  I just cried and truthfully just kept crying.  My Doctor’s suggested to start going through paperwork etc and things we don’t REALLY need and start getting rid of it.  So, my husband would go in our house and bring outside for me to sort through.  I was so sad I was throwing away all of my daughter’s drawings that I had saved through the years.  The more I sorted the more I cried.. Here are a few of her precious drawings.  🙂  I’m sure if you have children you totally get what I was going through.  OR if you have been through this you know the drill.. it is very heart wrenching. These are so

These photos I took as I was throwing everything in the garbage, crying.  I just wanted it all to end, I didn’t want to start over and lose all of our possessions.  I love the memories we  made in our beautiful home that my hubby and I had put so much effort into renovating and making our own.  But, it was looking more and more like we were going to have to move.  But, what scared me even more was how do we know I am not going to react worse somewhere else?  All of the unknowns were driving me crazy.  I couldn’t believe with all of the technology out in our world today, that there wasn’t a machine out there that couldn’t help us.  I started to read, read, and read as much as I could handle.  I can only remember small portions of what I read without having to re-read or become so frustrated I have to stop.  It has taken me over a year to get this all written for you. (and this is my story, lol) Before, we moved and threw away the rest of our belongings (we already lost 1/2 of our belongings) I wanted to do more research, but not for too long we were sleeping in tents on the patio.  Well, I found this woman’s blog and I was hopeful…

READ what happens next