I have a friend that lives a couple of blocks away from the house I am buying. Apparently the previous owners told all the neighbors they are letting the house go into foreclosure because the bank won’t work with them on a mold issue. The neighborhood gossip is that the house is covered with mold, and the whole family was sick, even the babysitters.
Neither I nor the home inspector found any evidence of mold. Granted, we were looking before I got wind of the neighborhood rumor mill, but this is freaking me out. I am having my brother look at the house today with me. He is a General Contractor and has dealt with mold many times.
We already plan on doing some remodeling where mold usually hangs out. A new roof, bathroom and kitchen are already planned. If we don’t see mold in those places of obvious water sources, I should be fine.
I plan on getting some relative humidity sensors and dehumidifiers to keep the moisture level below 55%.
After all of this freakout though…. I am still holding fast that the previous owners were trying to save face with not being able to make the mortgage payments. Apparently they owned three or four other homes as well, so they probably leveraged themselves to the outer edge of financial insanity. They bought at the very top of the market, and I am purchasing this home for literally $100,000 less than what they bought it for.
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All of this turmoil and potential change in my life path has me strangely lethargic.
Another weekend has passed very similar to the previous. I did nothing Friday night, had a very leisurely breakfast and afternoon in a coffee shop reading and WiFi’ing with my hiking partner, and then home alone Saturday night. The Sunday hike was called off due to the threat of snow, as we really didn’t want to push into the woods with any threat of unnecessarily bad weather. I went to ecstatic dance instead, and then straight back home to lay in bed the remainder of the day doing nothing. VERY LETHARGIC weekend
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There were some interesting private emails sent to my facebook account regarding yesterday’s post about prepping and survivalists.
I will clarify. I am very grateful for learning from these folks. These people have thought long and hard about preparing for disasters and are willingly sharing information. They are a very inclusive bunch that has space for everyone from lefty-liberals that want to live off-grid and kill all televisions and cars, to righty-righteous folks that want to “kill them all and let God sort ‘em out”.
Most folks are solidly in the middle of these two extremes, and we can all make use of some common sense preparedness. I invite you to respectfully check these two great resources out.
I might not be carrying a daily bag filled with enough provisions to last for a week anymore, but I am most assuredly using these skills to keep a full pantry, with knowledge to survive a week or more without electricity or other services Or at least not go crazy without a smartphone and internet access!
Let’s be realistic….… You don’t rely on take-out for lunch and dinner every day, do you?
I certainly hope you don't have mold/mildew. I dealt with it a lot when I lived in San Francisco and Marin and hate it so bad. As far as the survivalist thing goes, I am like you, I keep a week's supply on-hand and that's it. If "a thing" should last any longer than a week, we would probably find our food being stolen and ourselves on a steep downward slope. I don't know if I would want to stick around to deal with it.
ReplyDeleteYou sound good and I sincerely hope you are.
I keep about a two week supply of medicine on hand with each one day trip. The reason for that is if I become injured, the doctor has everything right there in a convenient place.
ReplyDeleteFoodwise, I try to take about three days worth if it's an overnight trip. When the warm weather comes, that number will likely be a week at any given time. I keep quite a bit of fiber bars, nuts, beef jerky, sardines, etc. on hand most of the time at any time since the cold and heat don't bother them too much. Same kind of thing for water - I usually pick up a 24 pack of bottle for the trip. That will last me a week. At Dad's house, we have enough food for about at least a month... Well, if it's not expired yet. :)
I hope you don't have a mold issue. It sounds like the previous people were saving face a little blaming it on the mold. They were probably a**hole deep in debt, bought the house at a bad time, and then bailed out when the economy took a dump. I would bet it's probably going to be a good house for you.
My situation is a little different. I can sleep at Dad's any time but prefer to sleep outside in the van because the air quality is better than in the house! Between the pet dander and smell, I can't sleep indoors without getting sick.