Will we stay or will we go?

It all started on Thursday. I took Zach to the allergy specialist in Warrensburg and found out Zach is allergic to dust mites. Yes, the housing lady was correct, my Zach is allergic to dust mites. He's allergic to both kids that are prevalent in MO. Lovely. The specialist said that there isn't much more we can do that we aren't already doing. Aside from ripping out the carpet or moving to a new house, we do the things he would tell us to do. I already wash the sheets every week, but I had to buy a special mattress cover for Zach's bed. I also had to clean out any clutter he might have so that I can vacuum his room daily. So no more toys under the bed for him. I have to dispose of most of the stuff animals we have in the house because it's a breeding ground for dust mites. I'm going to let him keep a few, but they'll have to be ones I can wash often.

The only problem Zach had with the change is his Oma blanket. Theresa made him a lovely quilt that he's had since he was around 1 1/2 to 2 years old. He loves it and it's his favorite blanket he has. He can't keep it though because I need to wash his blankets every 2 weeks and I'm afraid his quilt would fall apart. He was distraught about the loss of his blanket until I convinced him we would send it to Oma and she would keep it at her house for Zach to use when he visits her. He seemed okay with that and thankfully Theresa agreed to do it. Zach was happy about his new red vellux blanket though so that took the edge off a little.

The house was supposed to be worked on right after his appointment Thursday so I rushed home hoping I wouldn't be late. No need to worry though because everyone showed up almost an hour late. That really ticks me off because to me, it says my time isn't as important as their time. They were there though and ready to start work so I could handle it. We were told prior to Thursday that Wes and I would need to leave the house because it wasn't safe for us to be in there. I took Wes shopping for new blankets and a car seat and when I came home to drop it all off really quick, there's Cody standing outside.

Turns out we *have* to be there when they are working on our house because it's unethical for them to have us leave. Personally I think it's a bit of cover your rump because I could say they stole something while they were there. Cody was mad since he had stuff he had to get done at work and wasn't able to finish it. Not mad at me, just mad at the situation since we were specifically told I had to leave the house.

It took forever for the insulation to be pulled and then the basement walls had to be sprayed with a mold retardant that stunk pretty bad. The housing lady that was supposed to be there was gone, the BE guy that was supposed to be there was gone and both were replaced with people that didn't know much about what was supposed to be happening. While filling them in, I mentioned the rotting floor in the bathroom, the housing lady asked if housing knew because "it wasn't mentioned in our staff meeting this morning." I thought it was odd that they had a staff meeting about my house, but I know I told the BE guy about it so housing had to have known too. Maybe not though? In either case, housing knows now.

Which brings us to Friday. The maintenance guys showed up right at 8 am which surprised me because they were on time. They went to the basement in their little white protective suits and started putting in the insulation. One of them came back up and was talking to the housing lady about how they couldn't do their job because not all of the insulation was removed. Turns out the insulation around the heating vents was not removed all the way. The minuteness guys argued about putting it up at all and they finally put up what they could.

Then the housing lady asked me to show her the bathroom floor. She said the bathroom looked good until the pulled off this bit of wood between the tub and the floor and pulled back the vinyl. The smell of musty potting soil is what greeted them along with the site of the old floor that was supposed to be pulled up because it was moldy. The whole sub floor is rotten and from what one of Cody's co-workers (who also is a carpenter) said, they will need to gut the bathroom, rip out the floor and replace quite a bit of flooring. As in all of the bathroom floor until they find unruined wood. The black stuff in the photo? That would be the soft wood my bathroom floor is made out of, sure looks pretty though on the surface with it's new flooring. The housing lady was really upset about "shoddy work you just did six months ago. There's no way the floor could have rotten this bad in that amount of time and you should have fixed it properly the first time. Someone could have gotten hurt in this house." I agree with her totally and I wonder if people are going to be fired over this? We had what seemed to be important people touring my house looking at the damage (and commenting on how pretty my red kitchen cabinets are which made me feel nice) and they were all on the phone when they left. That was interesting to me.

We also had the heating vents cleaned out and that was disgusting to say the least. The things this guy pulled out of there, the time it took and the number of times he had to empty his machine was repulsive. No wonder Zach is so sick if *that* stuff was in the vents. I'm sure it was just a dust mite breeding ground blowing all over the house. I'm starting to think that's also why I get so much yuck in the Dyson when I clean the floors. Literally just a canister full from our living room every single day and it's not like the living room is that big either plus we take shoes off at the door, don't open the windows etc. and there's still that much yuck.

We were told they are going to come in and fix the bathroom issue, but the maintenance guys seemed to be under the impression it will be a long expensive job to do on a house they're tearing down in less then a year so why not just move us? I agree with them just because of how sick and tired I am of dealing with sick boys and messed up houses.

So there's my long long long update. I know it's uber long to read, but there it all is now.