Life Moan: The Mould

Today is the height of the mouldy house situation - its been going on for some weeks since I notified the owner of the problem. But with his slow reaction and elasterplast fix we are now in a serious situation.

The whole house is 60% humidity in the air, I have mould floor to ceiling in some places and there is mould in every room. My room has 6m2 and it isnt possible to sleep in there. My daughter and I are sick from it.

The owner put in some dehumidifiers but it just isnt going to be enough. its very hard to find a rental in france at short notice especially as an expat who pays most of their tax in another country (the paperwork and cost is enormous) - but I guess im at the point where I might need to try.

Today I have had all the furniture, toys everything outside since this morning, while a lady cleaned all the mould off the walls with bleach, as a for the time being fix, another elasterplast, even though it will grow back because there is still too much moisture. By the time she finished 3 hours later it had already started to grow in a patch of about 2ft square. The smell of the mould and making my asthma bad, but the smell of the bleach is completely overwhelming, luckilly its sunny, so I come in for 5 mins tops and try to put two things back and then have to retreat back outside.

My stuff is all in garden waiting for the owner to lift it all back in and some of its a bit broken where its been moved (wardrobe for example) - Im patrolling the building like every five minutes as we are ground floor and have already had a few disappearances in the past with windows left open in bedrooms at the back - Im really trying not to let all this get to me. Which i might have been able to handle if I didnt have other worries - which unfortunately life isn't like that is it, it does all come at once sometimes!

We rent a house so that we dont have to worry about the maintenance of the property when my hubby is working away - to make life easier for us - this completely defeats the object and has been a real nightmare to endure.

I am seeing a property this afternoon in desparation but its more expensive, further from school and i dunno - well i will see - maybe its the only solution i can have today - at whatever cost - it gets our health back and there is really no price for that.

So I'm going to view it anyway right now - get out in the Marseille sun and listen to some tracks in the car - go back to the basic needs that get us on back on the right path - come on Tracy Chapman!