I realize how sick you all are of hearing about my pathetic home purchase, but between fighting off the advances of contractors who want to "Help" me, and discovering the Seller had previously tried to contain the asbestos and peeling lead paint...I think I will start drinking again.
Ok, maybe I'll just do a bump...Ok, maybe I'll just blog about it...see it really is best to just put up with me. Blogging does the least amount of damage.
Here's what I know: The Seller LIED LIKE A FLIPPIN RUG on the disclosure, leaving me a toxic wasteland to clean up. How do I know this? I found proof of attempted containment. Such shoddy work, the PARTICLE BOARD that was my wall bowed out from the moisture of having all the windows open for two weeks straight. I could pull it off with one peripheral neuropathy crippled hand.
So pissed, so pissed.
Every night when The Mer and I get in bed, we go through my decorating magazines. He's placed sticky notes just so, keeping track of how he will decorate his new bedroom, the one no one was ever going to take away from him again...kids don't quit dreaming, hoping, believing things will get better.
I love my son more than life.
I will not place him in harms way, he has enough medical challenges without being exposed to fucking asbestos and lead paint. Jesus Christ, how could someone knowingly sell something like this to a woman and small child?
In an email to my Lender cc my Realtor, I wrote
"I should have been warned not to remove the carpet. I initially requested it be replaced with new carpet and was turned down by the Seller. I should have been told what was underneath the carpet and in the walls. I should have been told the house I was buying had problems that could be hazardous to my son's and my heath. I had a right to know they had previously tried to contain the asbestos and peeling lead based paint problem.
I am not a stupid woman, but I had no experience with the home buying process, so I trusted those who did.
Here's the gist of it:
Had I not removed the carpet, Al would have been sick from the carpet dust, and padding, the dirt that settles underneath the carpet that no amount of cleaning can get out. The glues used in older carpets, the glues used to hold the padding to the sub floor.
Had I not removed the carpet the asbestos and lead dust would still be in the house, crumbling behind the walls, in smaller amounts, but my son would be sick with constant flu-like symptoms from the carpet...we've been there before.
I would not have bought the house with a full disclosure, no sane parent would have. I was mislead, the truth was omitted, and I've been trying to fix someone else's problem that, as kind David from Community Action said "I inherited". I love the neighborhood, I love the house, but not more than my son's health. I will now be responsible for a nearly $800 mortgage on a home I cannot live in, afford to make safe, nor sell."
Internet, there's no way to describe what I'm feeling...dealing primarily with individuals ignorant or in denial about the consequences of exposure to these toxins.
The solution is money and reliable skilled contractors, both of which do not exist in my immediate future. "I", as they say in France, "am fucked".
oh, gawd. how terrible. know that i'm sending my energy your way. i wish there were something i could do.
shit.
Posted by: nicolle | Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 02:29 PM
Can you take the seller to court now that you and the lender know he lied to you? Or is that what you're trying to find out now?
Posted by: Stef | Monday, October 22, 2007 at 11:22 AM