Mold and stuff

Doesn't this photo just make your throat itch? What is it? The inside of one of our vents from the heating system. Nice right?

The bottom of the photo where it looks dark from the shadow? It isn't a shadow, that's more mold. Yummy. This is just one vent in the house too, some of the other vents are worse.

The mom who previously lived in this house stopped by the other day and said how the mold grew around the toilet and up the shower walls. She said it was really gross and housing would say to use bleach on it to make to go away. She said that would never really work though because it just kills the surface mold and not the mold underneath. Housing would have to gut the bathroom to fix the real issue. They didn't despite her complaining about it often. So the Housing office (HO) knew of the mold already and still moved us in to this house.

Why does the mold matter? Because the doctors think the boys not only have allergies to Missouri, but asthma as well. They said a lot of people get allergies here in MO. So I took Wes to an allergy/asthma specialist and had him tested. He's not only not asthmatic, but he had no reaction to the test besides the one he was supposed to have showing the test worked. So no allergies either. We're still waiting for a test for Zachary though I suspect it'll have the same results.

The specialist told me they don't need to be allergic to have a reaction though and that if they were allergic it would be so much worse for them then it is right now. Both boys are currently on 3 medications and Zach is on an inhaler for the time being. Zach's medications were prescribed by the same doctor that said Wes has allergies and probably Asthma. Wes' were prescribed by the specialist. The specialist said he'd send me a letter stating the causes of mold, how to get rid of it to make the house healthy enough to live in and the effects mold will have on people especially young children. He seemed very angry that they had put me in a house with a known mold issue. I liked him a lot.

I contacted Housing Maintainence and they said they don't deal with the mold, I needed to contact the Housing Office. HM did come out to check my leaking bathroom though. They said it's normal for a bathroom floor to leak in to the basements if my kids get the slightest bit of water on the floor. I don't think that's right and I need to research their claim now.

I showed them the way the kitchen cabinet under the sink was fixed. Two of the guys that were there kept saying that isn't normal workmanship. That it isn't how things are generally taken care of around here. The third guy came back in and I showed him and he said he did it. Wow. Wonderful. And this is the man that says it's normal for the floor to leak to the basement? Yeah, I trust his judgement.

The pipes that are under the leaky bathroom have mold on the tops of them as well. It's pretty gross. I worry a bit about the craft room because part of it is built under the bathrooms. So if it's leaking, it's leaking on the roof of that as well and I can't see that mold like I can from the pipes.

I went to the HO about the mold and they said HM deals with that. They seemed confused when I said HM said HO deals with it. They didn't really say anything. They finally said they'd get so and so to come out and inspect our house to see if it is really mold. They didn't seem to believe me it was mold, they kept asking how I knew or if I had a test done. I said you can visably see the mold and it's mold. They asked if anyone was allergic and I spouted off all the things the specialist had told me. They said so and so would call me back by the close of business on Friday. It's Saturday and I didn't get a call.

I'm unsure of what my course of action will be from here. I don't want to move if we don't have to move, but I'll move in a heartbeat if it makes me kids better. I would like HO to decontaminate my house and fix the issues that cause the mold, but I don't see that happening since this house is supposed to be torn down soon. So I'll keep docuementing everything, keep taking the boys to the doctors, keep taking photos, keep contacting HO about the mold. Eventually I'll be a huge pain in their butts and they'll take care of it. I hope. Any Advice on how to deal with the situation is greatly appreciated.