MIA

Yes we have been MIA for a while this is the reason why!

No it's not a new type of pregnancy test!
It's a mould test and it reads positive!
Yes we have the dangerous type of mould in our new home! It was discovered when my decorator pulled the wallpaper?? Yes wallpaper off the ceiling? and a big patch of mould was found above, which originated from the shower in the en suite bathroom upstairs. We called the previous owners to ask them about it they said they had a leak 5 years ago and they had fixed it? Clearly not well enough! We can only assume that they also had other leaks in the shower, because when we pulled out the shower and all the tiles, behind the walls were all covered in mould. We hadn't planned on redoing the bathrooms but this has forced us too.

When we first discovered the mould a feeling of complete panic came over me, I stood there looking up at the mould on the ceiling in complete disbelief, like how could this be happening to us for the second time?
Part of me wanted to run away, another part of me wanted to cover up the mould and pretend I never saw it, but the part that won decided that we have to first test if its the toxic mould that we have, then have to clear it all away and rebuild the damaged area so that we have a clean home to move into, for our whole family recovering from our previous mould exposure.

We first had to find somewhere that tests mould samples we looked online found somebody but they could only come out in 2 weeks time that was no good. We continued our search we eventually found on Amazon this test kit from Germany, you do it yourself, it was £40.00 and you get results in 5 minutes it tests for the 2 main toxic moulds Stachybotrys and Aspergillus niger and just like a pregnancy test with the pink lines come up if its positive. Once we knew it was positve we have been very carefully remediating the area, pulling out, bagging and disposing of any of the affected area. We have also invested in a whole house air purifier that purifies the air of mould, vocs (volitile organic compounds), bacteria, pollution, smoke, bad odours, well just about any nasty substances in the air, this thing has got 4 different filters!

So this last week has been devoted to removing all the affected areas, today the last bits were removed. So now the builders can start rebuilding what was removed and we can put a new bathroom suite in (at least there is some perks to this whole ordeal I get a new bathroom!) We are still living with Martin's parents while all the work is being finished off, I am not sure how much longer they will put us up, hopefully we can get the house sorted out soon!