Mold

I'm not really in the mindspace to write and in a minute you'll probably figure out why.

Angela suggested I talk about mold and relate it or compare it or use it as a metaphor for the Christian life. I know she is only joking but I wonder indeed how I can talk about mold and relate it to life in any way.

How is this for starters: we have a mold problem in our basement. Really. We do.

Angela was cleaning up some toys downstairs the other day and she reached without thinking for what she thought was a toy and to her it felt moist and mushy. Quickly she withdrew and looked closer to discover something growing along the floor and the wall. The best I can say is that it looked like white fuzzy noodles with green and brown spots along it. It was about 2 to 3 inches high. Ok, so we know we have a problem. How serious we wonder. . .

I brought it up at the board meeting on Tuesday cause the house we live in belongs to the church and really, the board members and the church are my landlords. Two board members decide to come check it out the next day.

They came Thursday morning. Angela had planned to go shopping with a friend for a day - the first trip since Lukas came by, and I was to have Mackenzie for the day. Turns out that it was good timing cause after looking at the mushroom thing, and the black mush along the floor line, we decided to start pulling off wall paneling. What fun. The first panel had green mold on the side where it faces the brick wall. Time for Mackenzie and I to take a hike cause by this time we found out exposure to mold is not a good thing.

They finished pulling out most of the panels by lunch. When Mackenzie and I came home to check things out, we were welcomed with a nice earthy smell. The carpet was peeled back to expose wet carpet. I had a sneaking suspicion we were not done with our problem.

So, Mackenzie, his grandma and I went for lunch to get out of the house. Not too too worried at this point.

Came home for naps that afternoon and I had dreams of dying by mold.

Angela came home later. We do more research online. Anxiety builds. We talk to people. Some people suggest we shouldn't stay there cause now there are dangerous spores in the air that can make us all sick. See, earlier we had set up fans to dry out the wet floor and then I began to read that you need to do what you can not to have the mold go airborne and spread. Oops.

So, should we find a place to stay or tough it out. We choose to be tough. But now we go to bed wondering if we are gunna wake up sick. How serious is this anyway? My eyes are burning a bit but is it just psychological? Mackenzie seems to be sniffling more. Am I imagining this?

Time to sleep, only we can't because every breath could be the last. Well, not really, but honestly, I have a lot of anxiety that my family is going to get sick. So many unknowns.

Somewhere in my restless sleep, I wake up to the cold. I had shut the furnace off so the badness wouldn't spread that way. It is at this early hour that I decide that I'd rather be warm and sick than cold and sick. I turn the furnace on. Back to bed. This time I sleep sound.

I wake up with a sort throat. Must be all in my mind. Lukas was breathing hard all night. But maybe that is normal. I can't remember. Angela is feeling fluish. Perhaps that is par for the motherhood course. Mackenzie was coughing. Or was he?

I kinda push the idea to the board that we get this all checked out. They agree to the $200 consulting charge. The guy comes. So do those two board members. He inspects. Indeed we have a mold problem. That is only part of the problem. The other part is finding out where the water is coming from and how to fix it.

We look around. We have a flower bed in the front of the house. It is irrigated. We have shut the irrigation off for the last month cause of watering restrictions in Summerland. Only, it is not really off. The water is still dripping out of the drip holes. Uh oh. This looks like the problem. "Shut off the valves!" "They are shut off already!" "Shut them off more!" "Whatever!" We finally get the water stopped, we think.

We feel a bit better cause we learn that mold does not grow on concrete, which is where I thought all the mold might be. It is still in our carpets and in other places but not as bad as we thought.

Solutions? I covered the outside basement doors with plastic and cut a hole in it for a big fan to blow out for negative pressure. That will hopefully suck the spores in the air outside. We hope by having the irrigation off, that the water will stop flowing into the basement. We will dig out the whole flower garden and fill it with crushed decorative rock. Angela will have to have a few pots that she waters by hand if she wants to keep her thumb green. We have to pull out the carpets, take apart the staircase. We have to clean out the crawlspace of church junk. We have to get rid of a book shelf that has mold. We have to find a place for all the crap. It's a good thing a friend of mine just purchased a garbage company! That'll help. We have to clean all the walls and floors with a special solution.

I am still a little stressed. Mackenzie developed a rash on his cheek and there is no denying that it is real. Whether it is mold related, we don't know. We'll keep an eye on it. Lukas has more boogers in his nose but we'll just teach him to pick earlier than we were hoping. Angela is up and down but she does have allergies to molds and stuff, so she is trying to tough it out.

How does all this relate to life? Well, I know what it is now like to really worry for the well being of my family. I feel protective and that is good, but at the same time, I spent the morning at the office and I fell I abandoned them to die of toxic mold poisoning while breathed the fresh clean air at the office. Seriously, I wonder if I am a good protector when I leave them at home to this. And, I really struggle with being angry through this. First, I am a bit angry at the inconvenience of all this. It's bad timing, but things like this are always bad timing. And second, I get angry that our church can't do a better job of taking care of their property. Along with that comes the frustration that we live in their house to begin with, that they don't pay us enough to find a place elsewhere. But, I know that those thoughts aren't right. I know they have a responsibility to us owning the house we live in, but I can't really get angry at them for this, can I?

Then there is the trust factor. How can you trust God in these situations? It's not that I don't trust him, but what do I even trust him for? I think I trust him that he has our best interests in mind but that can very well include Lukas developing respitory problems and all the difficulties associated with that. And even though I wouldn't know why, I would still assume that God wants the best for us and that somehow, this is the best.

I'll bring an update as to how this all pans out . . . unless we die of toxic mold poisoning . . .