Sick house syndrome
admittedly seems next to impossible...in a home that is probably NOT air-tight.
Sure when Hurricane Charley
hit our home back in 2004 we had to gut it, but our windows had been replaced the year
before and the ceilings were the main replacement interiorly, not the walls.
You see, the roof sheathing
had been ripped off and that is why it rained inside and ruined our interior,
but the walls were salvageable being real plaster as the ceilings had been, but
miraculously were not as severe.
The house was originally
built in 1958.
Thus the concern for many
illness causing properties and so today after some discussion about how we both
have been feeling, more so lately…not so good...
Flu-like, head-achy, sinuses with my eye pain and red eyes
for me for years and next month we will have been in this home fifteen years;
the longest of any of our homes in forty-two plus years of marriage and this
our fifth home in all those years!
After the hurricane we did
have the ‘mold people’ here, sounds like a horror movie title, but yes, they
were here and found a little bit that they removed, it was all covered by our
homeowners insurance at that time and so we still have that in our insurance today, that
is mold remediation, but then we had surpassed our deductible due to all the
other damage from the hurricane we had no additional charges for that then.
And until my bath surround
was compromised a few years back and replaced with waterproof hardy board and
real subway tiles, not that fiberglass board stuff we have not had an issue in
there… But Hubby’s shower in his bath is that fiberglass insert and I wonder if
it could be back there? I so wanted that to be removed and for his to be turned
into a real ceramic tile one too!
But recently there was a
crack in the wall under the windows in this room, the sun-room, which Hubby
repaired, but I felt that it being an outer wall that perhaps it should have
been inspected inside of it, although what is on all the interior and exterior walls in this
closed in room from being a screen room is the cement board that is usually
used exteriorly for the stucco look.
In fact that is what our
entire exterior of our home is, cement stucco board.
It is supposed to last for
decades and is water, mold and insect proof and that is why we chose it.
On most of the house it was
applied over the existing block with screws and that is why we had gotten a 31% discount on
our wind insurance from the state originally. This room has a wood frame on its
outer wall only, with it over it as well as the attached bathroom.
All new plumbing and
electrical as well as the roof was done in 2004 as well as the kitchen and
laundry and baths all new then. And so we now are testing for mold with two
Petri dishes that were placed in either end of our tiny home.
Our garage is attached we had converted it from a carport many years before and
that is another reason to be concerned with carbon monoxide, we now have an
alarm for that. We do have an all electric home, including heating and
air-conditioning, water heater and cooking, stove and oven.
Radon had never been tested
on this home to our knowledge and we are on a slab, not on a basement, not many here in Florida, but crawls are; only one of our
three homes here in Florida had one though. And so we are doing a radon test as I write
this tonight, it will be completed by Tuesday at 12:30 P.M. forty-eight hours
from when it was begun, and then mailed into the appropriate place that comes
with the test including envelope with free mailing and results; except in good
ole NJ there is a ten dollar charge.
, although knowing me if need
be I would go that far! NOT KIDDING
So wish us luck that it was
all for nothing, but something we probably should have done years ago.
That is that we hope that all tests are
NEGATIVE. PS if anyone wants to also do these tests Lowe’s and Home Depot
carries them.
On that note of something
significant, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good
night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your
overages with you know who and we will too!
And next time please be here
or be square, ya here!