On Monday, we had several cars lining the street around our house, most of the cars labeled with MASS DESTRUCTION UNIT. Five men huddled at the end of our driveway (4 from Belfor and one independent inspector for the attorneys we met on Friday) discussing the plan of attack on the inspection of our house. They spend about an hour and a half looking at all kinds of things throughout the house, from the A/C Handler to the electrical and any other copper or metal type material throughout the house. They dropped cameras into the wall via the electrical outlets searching for the imprint of the Chinese drywall company, they came up with nothing. They all left us feeling like we had gotten nowhere with more questions. Belfor did inform me that the very expensive testing of samples they could take from our house was indeed very expensive and could very possibly lead to inconclusive results on whether we do or do not have bad drywall.
Most recently, we heard back from the attorneys we met on Friday to discuss our issues and possible case. He has claimed that with the inspector they sent out and with the specialists that they sent the pictures from our inspection decided that with the current evidence, we do not have defective drywall but a defective air conditioner unit. This seems to be a huge sigh of relief for us. Yesterday we also received the letter from Lennar stating we do not have the toxic drywall from their “indepth” inspection that they had on our house a couple weeks ago.
So this is where we stand and in our mind our course of action at this point is to contact the Lennar warranty department and make complaints that our a/c unit is not properly working. We hope they will fix the unit despite the fact that it seems to be working fine, however looks horrible and might cause us problems in the very near future. With the report from a previous a/c man and the report from the attorney’s inspection, we hope we can persuad Lennar to fix it. We plan to continue with our original plans before all this started and try and move forward with life, hopefully not having major negative effects on the worth of our house.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Happy Birthday Wrigley!
Wrigley just turned 3 on Thursday. He has been staying with Grammy and Papa while he is trying to recover from our sick house. Who says grandparents spoil their grand-dogs!?!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Weekend in Tally
Amongst all the crap that is going on with our house, we spent a weekend in Tallahassee and got away from it all. Scott and his friends showed us a great time and we had a great weekend between the FSU Baseball opening series, late night spades, frisbee golf and the many yummy places we ate. Kurt is still dreaming about 1 Fresh....his favorite!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Not so sweet anymore...
Home sweet home is a bitter statement for us now.
On Friday we had an independent inspector, Foreman, come into our home to deliver the bad news. He headed straight for our air conditioner handler which is located upstairs in our loft. When he removed the front panel to revel the coils, it was clear that something is going on it our house too. The toxic sulfur drywall makes all the copper coils turn black, but this isn’t the case for us. All of our coils as well as all the galvanized metal has a thick coat of rust. Our 2 year old air conditioner is well beyond it’s years, looking more like a unit that is near the end of its lifespan of 10-12 years. We do have a couple spots of the blackened coils which might mean that we only have a few of the sulfur panels of drywall. Our inspector, Foreman, informed us that unfortunately our rusted unit is clear evidence that something in our house is not good. He believes that there is another type of toxic drywall, what he calls Phase 2 (the sulfur based drywall is Phase 1). This phase 2 drywall, which he believes we have gives off an ammonia or light vinegar smell. It also has a laundry list of side effects and medical problems that it causes. The a/c unit is effected first because it circulates all the air from the house through it, despite the fact that we keep the temp on 80 while we’re at work for about 12 hours of the day. Below are pictures we took of our air a/c air handler located inside our house. The bright orange/red rust is rusted galvanized metal, which should not happen. The coils are rusted as well.
We even found a piece of wire tubing that had been left in the unit that seems to have some corrosion on it as well.
The result…we have to wait about 6 months for more symptoms to begin to appear before we will have evidence that it’s the drywall that is causing our problems. Our air conditioner will break and the coils will need to be replaced and we will begin to get sick. It will bother our eyes, nose and our ears will bleed. We’ll probably get a skin rash and any open wounds will take a very long time to heal. The dogs will be lethargic, they might stop eating or just throw up all the time. They will constantly want to go outside and refuse to come back in, trying to avoid the house. They will also get a rash, which this might be the cause of Wrigley’s constant skin problems. Below is a picture that we took yesterday of Wrigley's rash upon our arrival home from being out of town all weekend and leaving the dogs at home.
It is believed that all the homes on Montauk Point have the sulfur drywall and all the homes on our street, Chatum Light Run, have the ammonia drywall. We are one of the oldest homes on our street with the ammonia drywall so we will begin to show signs first.
There isn’t much we can do right now. We were told just to document everything by keeping a log and taking pictures. I had a rash on my arm all last week, coincidence….I don’t know. It went away this weekend while we were out of town and out of the house. We’ll see if it comes back now that we’re home again. Wrigley is covered in a rash as always, we’ve already taken pictures and I’m making an appointment with the vet to get his records for the past 2 years we’ve been in the house and talk with him on his feelings about it all. The Lennar inspection is scheduled for March 5th, which he’ll probably tell us we don’t have the sulfur so we’re clean. We plan to open up the a/c unit and question him on that. We’re also going to schedule an a/c repair man to come take a look at our unit to have his professional opinion as well as get something in writing from him on why he thinks our unit is well beyond it’s years.
We’re not sure what we’re going to do at this point. We don’t want to be trapped in our house, but we also don’t want to make any irrational decisions right now because we’re both scared to death!
On Friday we had an independent inspector, Foreman, come into our home to deliver the bad news. He headed straight for our air conditioner handler which is located upstairs in our loft. When he removed the front panel to revel the coils, it was clear that something is going on it our house too. The toxic sulfur drywall makes all the copper coils turn black, but this isn’t the case for us. All of our coils as well as all the galvanized metal has a thick coat of rust. Our 2 year old air conditioner is well beyond it’s years, looking more like a unit that is near the end of its lifespan of 10-12 years. We do have a couple spots of the blackened coils which might mean that we only have a few of the sulfur panels of drywall. Our inspector, Foreman, informed us that unfortunately our rusted unit is clear evidence that something in our house is not good. He believes that there is another type of toxic drywall, what he calls Phase 2 (the sulfur based drywall is Phase 1). This phase 2 drywall, which he believes we have gives off an ammonia or light vinegar smell. It also has a laundry list of side effects and medical problems that it causes. The a/c unit is effected first because it circulates all the air from the house through it, despite the fact that we keep the temp on 80 while we’re at work for about 12 hours of the day. Below are pictures we took of our air a/c air handler located inside our house. The bright orange/red rust is rusted galvanized metal, which should not happen. The coils are rusted as well.
We even found a piece of wire tubing that had been left in the unit that seems to have some corrosion on it as well.
The result…we have to wait about 6 months for more symptoms to begin to appear before we will have evidence that it’s the drywall that is causing our problems. Our air conditioner will break and the coils will need to be replaced and we will begin to get sick. It will bother our eyes, nose and our ears will bleed. We’ll probably get a skin rash and any open wounds will take a very long time to heal. The dogs will be lethargic, they might stop eating or just throw up all the time. They will constantly want to go outside and refuse to come back in, trying to avoid the house. They will also get a rash, which this might be the cause of Wrigley’s constant skin problems. Below is a picture that we took yesterday of Wrigley's rash upon our arrival home from being out of town all weekend and leaving the dogs at home.
It is believed that all the homes on Montauk Point have the sulfur drywall and all the homes on our street, Chatum Light Run, have the ammonia drywall. We are one of the oldest homes on our street with the ammonia drywall so we will begin to show signs first.There isn’t much we can do right now. We were told just to document everything by keeping a log and taking pictures. I had a rash on my arm all last week, coincidence….I don’t know. It went away this weekend while we were out of town and out of the house. We’ll see if it comes back now that we’re home again. Wrigley is covered in a rash as always, we’ve already taken pictures and I’m making an appointment with the vet to get his records for the past 2 years we’ve been in the house and talk with him on his feelings about it all. The Lennar inspection is scheduled for March 5th, which he’ll probably tell us we don’t have the sulfur so we’re clean. We plan to open up the a/c unit and question him on that. We’re also going to schedule an a/c repair man to come take a look at our unit to have his professional opinion as well as get something in writing from him on why he thinks our unit is well beyond it’s years.
We’re not sure what we’re going to do at this point. We don’t want to be trapped in our house, but we also don’t want to make any irrational decisions right now because we’re both scared to death!
Friday, February 20, 2009
The Life of Pepper
I heart my bubba!
You have something in here, but don't worry Wrigley...I'll get it for you!
I think you have something in between your teeth, but don't worry Wrigley....I'll get that too!
Say ahhh!
It's tough work taking care of my bubba, Wrigley. I'm tired.
You have something in here, but don't worry Wrigley...I'll get it for you!
I think you have something in between your teeth, but don't worry Wrigley....I'll get that too!
Say ahhh!
It's tough work taking care of my bubba, Wrigley. I'm tired.
Friday, February 13, 2009
The Toxic Lighthouse
We live in a quiet neighborhood with a mix of just about every type of family from the new ones to the older ones – all just middle class people trying to figure out how to survive in this world. We love our house and our neighborhood and honestly never imagined our 1st home would be so great. It will not be easy to leave or to find another house that we like as much – but we know that day will soon be upon us. 
In the past couple of weeks, our quaint little neighborhood has taken a major turn for the worse. Only one street over, less than 100 yards from our front door, the papers have deemed “Ground Zero”! Yes, maybe a little bit over the top on the comparison, but the reality of it’s mass damage and wide spread effect it is and will continue to have for YEARS to come is so great and is simply unbelievable.
Montauk Point – a street identical to ours with homes only 6 months older than ours making them no more than 2 ½ year old stand worn well beyond their years, vacant and condemned to be toxic and unlivable. That’s right, I said TOXIC. Apparently the builder of our neighborhood, the 2nd largest builder in the US, Lennar, purchased and installed toxic drywall in these homes. The number of homes that contain this toxic drywall cannot be determined, every day I hear the number is growing. Word is flying on our street and the recent media reports claim that 6 have officially moved out of their homes, and no doubt plenty more as the days pass. The drywall was purchased from China (go figure) and is releasing hydrogen sulfide fumes into the homes. The smell of sulfur is bad enough that is causes headaches, respiratory problems, sore throat, rash, bloody noses and even vomiting. It doesn’t stop there, it destroys electronics (i.e. TVs, computers, anything with copper or metal wiring), the electrical wiring, the plumbing, the air ducts and the air conditioner. The bottom line – the entire house must be completely gutted! I can’t tell you the pain, disgust and fear I have driving past these houses no more than 8-10 houses from mine. They stand empty down to bare, naked studs with the rest of the guts of the house laying in the driveway or garage in a pile of Lennars betrayal to my community.
It has not been officially determined if we actually have the toxic Chinese drywall in our house. We have scheduled several inspections in the next couple of weeks. As it stands right now, the lead independent inspector has not found a house in Lighthouse Cove that is clean from the toxic drywall, while the Lennar inspector claims that they have only found infected homes on Montauk Point. I think no matter what, whether we have it or not we’ll be damned if we do, damned if we don’t. It’s going to be a long rough road. What was once a dream to us has now become a nightmare.
Stay tuned for more to come from The Toxic Lighthouse as the truth is revealed and China continues to slowly kill us!
In the past couple of weeks, our quaint little neighborhood has taken a major turn for the worse. Only one street over, less than 100 yards from our front door, the papers have deemed “Ground Zero”! Yes, maybe a little bit over the top on the comparison, but the reality of it’s mass damage and wide spread effect it is and will continue to have for YEARS to come is so great and is simply unbelievable.Montauk Point – a street identical to ours with homes only 6 months older than ours making them no more than 2 ½ year old stand worn well beyond their years, vacant and condemned to be toxic and unlivable. That’s right, I said TOXIC. Apparently the builder of our neighborhood, the 2nd largest builder in the US, Lennar, purchased and installed toxic drywall in these homes. The number of homes that contain this toxic drywall cannot be determined, every day I hear the number is growing. Word is flying on our street and the recent media reports claim that 6 have officially moved out of their homes, and no doubt plenty more as the days pass. The drywall was purchased from China (go figure) and is releasing hydrogen sulfide fumes into the homes. The smell of sulfur is bad enough that is causes headaches, respiratory problems, sore throat, rash, bloody noses and even vomiting. It doesn’t stop there, it destroys electronics (i.e. TVs, computers, anything with copper or metal wiring), the electrical wiring, the plumbing, the air ducts and the air conditioner. The bottom line – the entire house must be completely gutted! I can’t tell you the pain, disgust and fear I have driving past these houses no more than 8-10 houses from mine. They stand empty down to bare, naked studs with the rest of the guts of the house laying in the driveway or garage in a pile of Lennars betrayal to my community.
It has not been officially determined if we actually have the toxic Chinese drywall in our house. We have scheduled several inspections in the next couple of weeks. As it stands right now, the lead independent inspector has not found a house in Lighthouse Cove that is clean from the toxic drywall, while the Lennar inspector claims that they have only found infected homes on Montauk Point. I think no matter what, whether we have it or not we’ll be damned if we do, damned if we don’t. It’s going to be a long rough road. What was once a dream to us has now become a nightmare.Stay tuned for more to come from The Toxic Lighthouse as the truth is revealed and China continues to slowly kill us!
Friday, February 6, 2009
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