Stupid mold...
We just withdrew our offer on the house.
Stupid mold...
I'm getting everything from Greg who is still in Turkey dealing with our real estate agent (and crazy time zones) who in turn talks to the other agent who goes to the owner. Talk about a screwed up adult version of the Telephone Game.
It seems that even through we wanted further testing on the exact location and depth of mold growth and told our real estate agent to tell the other agent and therefore the owner this before cleaning (how do you clean something if you don't know exactly where problem is?), the owner is going ahead with the mold remediation anyway. If you can call it that. He's treating it with ozone. Um, NO!
This is the part where I get really pissy. We're actually dealing with the black toxic mold that everyone freaks out about (and rightly so) and we wanted to know the actual extent of the growth and have our say on how this is treated.* A few quick google searches (ignoring all the mold remediation sites trying to sell their services) show that not only has ozone treatment to kill and remove mold NEVER been proven, the high levels of ozone chemicals used can be trapped in areas of the house (plastics, ducts, etc) and cause health problems. Basically it's a cheap, non labor intensive (i.e. no people in hazmat suits scrubbing for hours with special equipment) "fix" that doesn't work. Or possibly works well enough to get a clean air test temporarily clear of spores but the mold itself is not gone.
Does the owner think we're complete idiots and don't know how to do any research? I research the hell out of everything: the schools, the distance to the nearest Target, the traffic flow pattern, s*x offenders in neighborhoods, the quickest way to get to the hockey rink, the house's street view and surrounding streets from Google maps, etc, so there's no way I'm taking someone else's word on something that effects the health of my family.
I'm very grumpy now. I'm grumpy because I really did like the house. I'm grumpy because I'm a Libra and it takes me freaking forever to decide on something (seriously I may be the wishy-washiest person you know, see I'm too wishy-washy to say I am) and now I need to start over again. Our second choice really wasn't that great of a choice in the first place so yeah, starting over. I'm grumpy because some people are idiots (the owner!). I'm grumpy because I really did like the house. Oh I said that already.
Stupid mold...
* Done thoroughly and properly (which may mean major removal and replacement of mold affected areas), I do think a house can be cleaned and made safe. We'll never know with this house because the current owner is an idiot. Stupid owner...
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