A House of Horrors: Our Mold Story

Megan: Welcome to maybe this Will Be the Cure, a podcast where the wisdom of a healing journey meets the warmth of shared experiences.

Join as we explore the topics of healing, living with chronic conditions, chronic pain, neurodiversity, mental health, and parenting kids with disabilities.

I'm your host, Megan.

So the other day my sister called me and she's like, I think we might have mold. What do you do? What did you do when you had mold?

And I was just thinking, you know, this would make a great podcast episode.

So when I was about six months pregnant, our landlord. Our landlord told us that they were selling the house and we needed to move,

which, you know, was great timing.

We found a place in our neighborhood. It was a little bit bigger than the place we're currently living in.

And, you know, we were young and dumb and we walked in,

looked through it real quick, was like, oh, looks good.

Signed the lease.

And then, you know, a few days later,

or, I don't know, day later, we were so excited for my mom to come see it. It was a little, you know, it was a little bigger than the place we were in before, and we were really excited about it.

We're gonna have a baby soon and so, oh,

now we'll have space for the baby. And we brought my mom over and she walked around and she's like,

kind of like, oh, okay. Like,

she spotted some water damage, like, right away in the living room. There was staining on the ceiling and it was like bubbled, like,

you know, like bowing down a little bit.

Anyways, we just hadn't even noticed that.

And then she went around and started pointing out all these other things and like, oh, man. Okay, from now on, any house that we rent or buy,

we're going to take my mom's critical eye around with us and make sure things are good. But we were already locked in. We had signed the lease, we had the keys, and, you know, we were moving forward,

but,

you know,

little nervous because we did have a family friend growing up who had gotten. Who lived in mold, and they didn't realize there was mold in the home. And he was like,

super sick and really, really affected their lives.

And so, you know,

little nerve wracking. But we had already signed the lease, so. And I was too pregnant to go look at anything else or do anything else. So we moved in. It was exciting.

And we ended up living there almost two years, I think. But it ended up being like this house of horrors we had. There was always something going wrong in that house.

It was like the owner lived in Canada and he had bought it without ever seeing it in person. He just saw the, like, Zillow pictures or whatever. And he bought it and hired a property management company.

And they got it to be, like, just barely livable. But there was a lot of problems. And they didn't realize it because someone hadn't been living in it for a while.

So we had, like, electrical issues that completely fried one of our computers.

We had all these, like, random things wrong. And then we had a lot of water damage issues. So one of the first ones was that leak in the living room where there was the staining on the ceiling.

And it was kind of, like, bubbled.

And then sometimes, yeah, water would come out and it was kind of random and no one could figure it out. The lovely thing about this property management company is they would send out, like, five incompetent people first and then finally send in the person that was good.

And I'm like, we could have saved all this time and money if you just sent the good one out first. But that was their move every single time. So we'd have so many people come out, try to figure it out, nothing.

Finally they sent out, like, I think, like, he was just like a handyman or something.

And he. Yeah, he's like, yeah, it doesn't make sense because basically there was nothing, like,

right above it that would make sense that was leaking there.

I mean, our bathroom was above it. But they, like, checked everywhere in the bathroom. And so it didn't make sense because there was no water from there. So they just couldn't figure out, like, what.

How the water was coming down.

Anyways,

I just remember it being, like, late at night.

And this guy was, like, kind of unhinged, like, we are gonna figure this out. And so he went upstairs and just started cutting into the wall.

And that's when we discovered that the pipes that were supposed to be copper plumbing, like, copper pipes,

were actually pvc. And we did some research and learned that the contractors of. They was. These were like, townhomes. And the contractors that built it had actually been sued because they used PVC where there was supposed to be copper.

And you had to.

There was like a, I don't know, statute limitations or whatever where you had to put in a request for them to fix the piping. And apparently the people that owned that unit never did that.

So PVC it was.

So it had just been leaking out because it wasn't,

you know,

what it was supposed to be in that area. And anyways, if you're a plumber and you're like, this girl doesn't know what she's talking about.

I clearly don't. I'm just taking the bits and pieces of what was explained to me and what I can remember. I mean, this was a solid, oh, gosh, 12, 12 years ago.

So take it with a grain of salt. But they fixed it, patched up the hole, and then we didn't have problems with that area again, thankfully.

But then there was a leak in the kitchen. And again, this one was weird because it was just like random. Like sometimes it would start leaking and we couldn't figure out why.

And we had so many people, again, like different people come out to look at it and they couldn't figure it out. And then finally, after like five people looking at it and being like, we don't know what it is, they sent out the good guy.

And he figured out that under the washing machine there was like a.

Like a drain underneath.

So if any water overflowed the washing machine, it would literally just go in the drain, straight down to the ceiling into the kitchen downstairs.

So interesting,

you know, building choices. So he just like literally put a drip pan. And then we never had problems again with that.

So that was fixed. And then.

So at this point, my son was probably like a year. And there was this crazy storm. I just remember it was so wild.

We went into the. I don't know if this is the safest place, but we just were hiding out in this tiny little bathroom that was under the stairs. My husband, my son and me.

And it was so crazy, like the most wild storm.

And the next morning we learned. So it's called like a microburst, so so not like a tornado.

We're in Arizona, so we don't get a lot of those. But it was. It's called a micro burst, I guess. And so it was just like this huge,

powerful wind.

Not quite a tornado, but powerful. Anyways,

we walked outside and we have these. Had these huge,

cool pine trees out front of the townhomes.

And most of them had completely snapped, like broken and fallen over into the street. It was so crazy and thankful that they didn't fall the other way onto the houses.

But it was just so crazy to walk out and see all those huge pine trees. I've been there for so long, completely knocked down.

But anyways, during the storm, you know, it was raining and super windy and a lot of people had, like, issues.

And in my son's room upstairs,

it leaked.

This,

like, roof leaked and just poured down water. We had a futon right There, completely soaked. The futon was like completely soaked, completely destroyed.

And then I remember there was also there was like a leak in the bathroom ceiling too. Anyways, so there's just like leaks everywhere.

Just always like AC went out a million times. Like it was just a house of horrors. And got to work with a lot of handymen and contractors and plumbers and electricians and.

Anyways,

meanwhile, while all that had been going on,

we had all been getting sick a lot.

And my. I felt like my son was sick all the time. I remember he was only like six weeks old when he had like his first fever. And it's not like we were really going places and anyways and like barfing and just everything.

We were just like getting sick a lot anyways, so I was like, maybe we are getting sick from the mold or something.

And so I got one of those little petri dish kits at Home Depot.

You set it in an area anyways and see what grows. And so it was showing. Yeah, mold is growing here.

So I'm like reaching out to the landlord, like, hey, this is what's going on. Like, we need to get this figured out anyways. And they essentially, they sent out one of the good guys to basically explained to me that it's not that big a deal.

Only some people are sensitive to mold. And I'm like, okay, but my son's sick, like all the time, so maybe he's one of those people that are sensitive to mold.

Anyways, they basically were just kind of trying to downplay it. But after nightmare after nightmare after nightmare, they finally let us out of our lease, thank goodness. So we were able to move and then didn't have those problems for a while.

Fast forward to after my son's diabetes diagnosis. We moved back to Arizona near family, and we moved into this cute new rental.

And since my son was still, like, recovering from something pretty traumatic and he was sensitive,

I didn't want to take any chances.

So we worked with a mold consultant and she sent us an ermi. It's ERMI test kit.

And, you know, it gives you the instructions how to collect all the samples. And then you send it off and then she interprets the results. Because if you try to read the ERMI test yourself, you don't know what you're looking for.

You don't know, like, okay, what mold at what levels are problematic. And so she was able to read it and give us an interpretation.

And it did test positive for mold at certain levels,

but there wasn't any visible water damage.

And we you know, she had us get the AC lines checked. So we did that, and thankfully, the property management took care of that. I just, like, explained, my son is really sensitive, and so they had someone come out and check it and clean it out just in case and.

But it all looked really clean and good.

So then with the mold consultant, she was saying,

since it seemed like the problem had been taken care of, she. She just said, you're going to want to really deep clean the house and, you know, get rid of the dust and everything.

And then she also recommended an air filter.

I know all over the Internet, everyone's talking about the air doctor, but she actually didn't recommend that. She recommended. It's called Intellipure.

It's bajillion dollars. And the filters are ridiculous every year, too. But.

And when we first got it, you know,

it's not like we noticed a difference right away. So we just kept making jokes like, isn't our air so clean? Isn't this the freshest air ever? You know, and anyways, but we really couldn't tell a difference.

But what's interesting is then after a while, the filters needed to be changed, and I hadn't ordered new ones yet, so I just turned it off.

And my son, I don't know if he noticed that I had turned it off. He just was saying, like, oh, Mom, I feel like it's, like, hard to breathe in here.

It's like, oh, interesting. So then we got the filters changed and turned it back on, and he stopped complaining about that. So we still use it, and it seemed to make a difference for my son.

So I would love, you know, I think best practices to put one in every room, but not there yet.

So we just have one in the main living area. And then if anyone is sick, I'll move it into that area. Or if,

you know, I used vinegar to clean the other day and I put it in there to help clear out the smell and.

Or, oh, like, if you're cooking, I'll turn it up so that it clears that out faster.

And then we also got a dehumidifier.

So I think your air humidity levels is supposed to be like 40%.

And ours was always consistently like 60%.

And that can, you know, cause mold to grow. So I didn't want that to happen. And I don't know if it was, you know, we had moved in during the summer where it's kind of humid, but also there was, like a setting on our AC that was causing it to be a little bit more humid and when they had come out to service the ac,

they fixed that too,

or changed the setting or whatever.

And then, you know,

yeah, we would use the dehumidifier. It was just wild because we live in Arizona, which is, like, very dry, but our sheets and bedding and everything felt like when you go to the beach and, you know, things don't dry, like, all the way, it felt like that.

Just so humid. So the dehumidifier really helps.

And.

And that was pricey, too. I think it was like 200 was so wild with that is. You can literally see it working because you'll turn it on and then, you know, it runs, and then a few hours later, it beeps, and then out you pull this giant bucket of water.

It is so weird to be like, oh, all that water was in the air anyways.

So those are the things that we did to deal with it.

And I know that it's not accessible to everyone. There was definitely a time when we could not have just dropped, you know, I can't remember 600 on sale for an air filter or whatever.

So just thinking, for people that aren't in that place or can't hire, I think the mold consultant was, like, 300.

So it was a lot added up.

And if you're not in that place and you're worried about mold, like, what can you do?

So I'd say first thing is, like, can you see any visible water damage?

And obviously, I'm not saying that, like, I am not an expert at all. Go to somebody else. But I'm just like, this is the stuff that I've absorbed as we've dealt with it.

It's like, first, can you see any visible water damage anywhere? And if so, like, get it taken care of right away.

If you're renting, see if your landlord will take care of it for you. I think every state has different laws about,

you know, what the rental has to, like, the standard of living it has to be, or what makes it livable. So just check what your landlord is required to take care of and see if they can take care of it.

Obviously, if you're a homeowner, see if you can get that taken care of.

And then another thing, one big thing I've learned from the mold consultant that we worked with, so her name is PJ Harlow,

is how important cleaning is, like, getting rid of the dust and muck and stuff. So if you go on her Instagram, she just has a million, like, cleaning videos.

And I'll admit I am not the best at that. But we try.

And then instead, like, if you're not in the market for an expensive air filter,

I have seen that you can use like a box fan with like, a air conditioning filter attached, like, in a pinch. And I think that's, you know, like, if you're in an area where there's like, wildfire smoke,

I've seen people use those, and it helps a little bit.

Also, I know it's like, super important to change your AC filters regularly,

especially in a place like so here in Arizona, or before that, we lived in Vegas, very dusty. So we would be. We change those every single month religiously.

And then also you can open your windows, like, let the fresh air in, you know, regularly.

I know if it's like, super humid, you don't want to do that because then it raises the humidity levels in your home. But if it's like normal humidity,

it's great to get some fresh air in your house, so.

And then also get out of your house more if you can. I know that can help too if you're living in mold or suspecting that trying to get fresh air out of your house more might help.

So those are the ideas that I've got, and that's been our experience.

And I'm curious if you've dealt with mold and what did you find helpful?

I do want to end with. I.

I think I lived a lot of my years in fear. Like, just so scared of everything that could possibly go wrong. And so, you know, when I had first moved here and the reason I hired a mold consultant is because I was just terrified of everything.

My son had just been so sick and hospitalized, and I still was in the. Like,

I just want to prevent every bad thing. And now I like to try to move from a more grounded place.

I'm not in control, and that's okay. And life isn't perfect, and that belongs. And I can be informed and from a grounded place, not a fear place. I can make educated decisions and I can accept and live with this imperfect life.

And it's okay.

So I hope that this episode doesn't scare anyone or make you feel overwhelmed, like, you gotta buy a bunch of stuff.

I hope that it's useful info and maybe gives you some things to think about if you haven't already, but that you know it's going to be okay.

Like,

it's okay.

Don't freak out.

Anyways,

I'd love to hear from you if you've had any experiences with this,

if you have any other questions or things that maybe I forgot to mention.

Anyways, thanks for being here and for letting me talk your ear off.

Thanks for joining us today. Where dreams are nurtured,

challenges are met with resilience, and every tiny step forward is a victory hit. Subscribe so you can easily find new episodes and join this community,

because maybe this will be the cure.

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