When the inspector and the mold contractor went through our home they took a few more air samples, one in the kitchen and one on the bedroom side of the home where they found some fantastic leaks from the roof. Their hope was to prove that the side of the home with the water leaks was the source of the mold. While we were waiting for those tests to come back we ended up having to replace half the roof to stop the leaking. 

Unfortunately, when the tests came back, they showed that the kitchen had higher mold counts than the rest of the house! We discovered another leak - a door in the utility room had been installed incorrectly and was letting water in every time we had a substantial rain (which is the only type of rain in FL). We ended up taking out the flooring and the wood panelling in the kitchen and sure enough there was mold

on the furring strips behind the panelling.  The General Contractor we had been using had to move onto

2 other jobs but we remembered another man who had helped us with the first place we moved to last year in Palmetto.

He is also a member of the church (a big bonus because every other contractor we have had in the home has been smoking on their breaks and the smell and mess was awful) and he was just finishing a job when we called him. His name is Mike Turner. He came right up and got started on the kitchen walls. They are now cleaned up and dry-walled and he discovered they were open right down to the crawl space so he sealed those up. His son also came up and removed a giant brick planter that was in the middle of the living room and full of dirt.  The house smells and looks so much better with that done. I'll get pics posted this weekend.

We have been in negotiations with the insulation company that really screwed up the insulation in the crawl-space and we are hoping to see a resolution with that early next week.  Mike cut a hole in the kitchen floor to permit them to get under the rest of the house to finish insulating and we are not backing down until we get what we agreed to and paid for originally.

Tom has also started installing some of the flooring in the areas we had to take carpet out and I have been priming all the dry-wall that has been repaired in the house. It is starting to look more like a nice place to live every day.

We were really hoping to be in next weekend, but because of the insulation issues, it will probably be another week after that or even a week later depending on how long it takes to get the rest of the flooring in and then everything cleaned and tested.

Tom is also facing a big deadline at work on October 15th so his time to spend on the house is getting less and less.

Hopefully it will all come together soon - but one thing we keep learning is that it will come together when its time. The trick is just hanging in there - which really is the tough part some days.

When I get a few minutes I will put some pictures up  so you can see the transformation.

Hope you are all well - we pray for all of you and really miss you!

T&S