Mold was a non-existent problem at
our last place, here in Italy however, the mold is rampant everywhere. Nearly every spouse I know battles with it in their
houses. Italy is a humid place, and someone told me the paint here isn’t
permitted to have the chemicals it does in the states and as such it is less
hostile for mold growth (but I don’t know if that’s a fact as I haven’t
researched this thoroughly). When I spoke with the landlord, his solution was
to paint over it. OVER it?? I shudder at the thought of how many layers of mold
are underneath these layers of paint…
The mold is terrible for one’s
health and we’ve tried all manner of things. We used to spray and scrub it,
however many people told us not to bother with the scrubbing, as it will only
make it worse the next time it comes back. We’ve sprayed vinegar on it, and
that definitely worked, but it always came back within weeks. The interior of
the house is not so bad, but anything with an exterior wall flares up with
mold. Our son’s room is terrible with it and we felt badly putting him in there
so we moved him into our room with us and hardly utilize his room. I read on
the military spouse facebook page of other spouses who found stuffed animals
molded through, and while it has stuck to the ceilings in our place, we wanted
it taken care of.
Today a
painter came and scraped off layers and layers of old paint, and repainted the
problem walls. We also purchased dehumidifiers to place in our problem rooms,
as we’ve been told they are a huge help. The landlords also said we had to open
the entire house for 15 minutes a day (yes, even in the freezing of winter!
Every time I open the windows and feel the cold rushing in and the warmth out,
I have flashbacks to my childhood and can hear my dad’s voice in the back of my
head, scolding me and telling me he’s not paying to heat the whole
neighborhood! haha). We must also open the windows during showers and when
running the laundry.
We also got
a humidity reader that sits on the wall above the thermometer and lets us know
what our humidity is at. I’m bummed we didn’t get this running/installed the
day we started the dehumidifiers! We don’t know how bad it was when we first
started the dehumidifiers, but when we did get it up a few days later, it said
our household humidity was 78%. Eep! The recommended household humidity is
between 40-50%. Our house is now consistently in the 50’s, and on occasion we’ve
been able to get it as low as 38%. The mold is still present in the locations
the painter didn’t get, but it hasn’t increased/spread. So I am thankful that
these dehumidifiers seem to be working, and that the house is a healthier place
for us to live in!
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