To not get too depressed about it, I used this happy header image with bright colors :-) Created with Canva Pro
We seem to have a membership on cold and moldy homes
It seems that the universe keeps dealing us the same card over and over again when it comes to mold in our homes. Sometimes by circumstance as we didn't have a real choice due to time pressure picking a home, but it's still annoying to say the least. First we had this home in Holland where it seemed to be the only option at the time, a horror house of all sorts and mold was one of the issues there. Thankfully, we moved to Spain after this one and we could use a bit of sun to heat up from the very cold months we spent there.
When we moved into our own rental apartment in Spain, they failed to tell us (what did we know?) that this place's heating system was disconnected due to unpaid invoices previous tenants. Like wtf, you let us move in without telling us? We have a freaking baby with us, dude! It was very cold in the Granada area so it was a difficult winter in that home, especially with my back injury that flared up much worse during the cold months. There was no way we could get it ventilated enough to get it doable to live there, it was hard, to say the least. I was so happy when spring arrived and the nights became normal again, when we left it was already bloody hot again, also not nice with just a fan in the house.
The Hungarian homes
Ok so first we stayed at my boyfriend's colleagues house who was so kind to take us in until we found something. Which turned out to be a disaster due to the lack of guidance (which was promised) but that's another story. After spending a few months in a great apartment, we moved into one where we could register as tenants officially. I have to admit that it was not the first choice of my boyfriend but it was by far the best option out there and the landlords at least spoke some English and weren't discriminating by only allowing Hungarian tenants (yes, that's a real thing!) or not allowing families because of the strict rules on eviction of families when they don't pay the rent. This was easily to overcome by going to the notary and signing a contract that they are allowed to evict you when you aren't paying your rent, we had this contract done in both of the homes we lived in.
But the issue in both these homes was also mold. One of the homes had a bedroom wall that was wet and cold at first it was only noticeable by feeling the cold in that room, even with heater on. But then the last winter, the full wall was covered in mold, it came flaring up so fast it was shocking. The last winter the outside wall (we lived on the corner) was also not protected by another building anymore so that may have been the reason that no matter what we tried, the wall stayed wet. I really hated sleeping there and it was reason to move our daughter's bed to the living room for the winter. It was not healthy but we were kind of stuck.
The previous landlord to the rescue
The old man that rented us his place for a few months before we moved in here, became a friend of us and my boyfriend was the one helping him with IT related stuff and his move to another place. When he was doing so, he proposed to let us rent this other place for a year so that we could have a livable home for the last year in Hungary without sleeping in a moldy bedroom and the extreme construction noise that went on for 2,5 years. He agreed and we rented his home for the last year and a few months until we moved back to Spain.
It was not until the last 6 months that his bathroom also showed mold. You'd almost think that we are not ventilating enough, because this happens everywhere but in this case, the ventilation system was failing (it was all along) and he didn't know how to get it fixed as he couldn't speak Hungarian either. I loved having my bedroom window open in that home, finally no construction noise anymore like the previous home. I'm happy that the mold issue there didn't get out of hand before we left.
Our current apartment
As you may remember, we didn't have much time left to wait for options and this felt good so we took this option for this decent price, while weekly rental prices double our monthly fee were knocking on the door already. It all seems nicely renovated at first glance. And this is where it often goes wrong, a lot of landlords seem to just want it to look nice to get a tenant to rent it and just hope the flaws will stay away as long as possible.
From the moment we moved in we started to write down issues, like a kitchen sink issue as well as in the bathroom. The water tap on the boiler was not connected well (read: switched) causing our water pressure to be 1/10 of what is is now. A bath was impossible for a few months and electricity also seems to be an issue but that's another story. We noticed that at first glance, things looked nice, but if you look closely, so many things are not finished properly.
A few weeks ago, suddenly the bathroom door got stuck on the floor while opening it. Like it got stuck and could not get open anymore. We thought ok, it's winter and cold/wet as we were noticing we had issues getting the bathroom dry after using it. Yesterday, we noticed that the office (right next to where the bath is in the bathroom) has a at least meter of mold on the wall.
The Wall in question after a clean up
It came up quickly, that's for sure as a few days ago while vacuuming there it was not visible. This explains why my boyfriend experiences this cold all day that's extra uncomfortable. I remember this from our bedroom in the other home.
We had to inform the landlord, and while thinking about the email content, we realized that this stuck door could be caused by a floor that's wet underneath the tiles. If you check the sink of the bath, you see that the rubber is not attached properly, so it explains why the bath slowly runs dry. Here we may have discovered a much bigger issue than we thought at first glance.
Thankfully, last week, I bought moist absorbers, I ordered 2 to start with as I didn't know which one would be better, one is taking out water from the living room (where I have the laundry dry too, so that's great) but the other didn't catch anything yet in the bedroom. I now placed it in the office after my boyfriend cleaned the wall and I ordered a small heater for that room. I'm not looking forward to the fixing part of this issue as it could be a much bigger problem causing some real issues during workdays.
Now we wait
Today is a holiday here in Spain so I don't expect anyone today, neither tomorrow, but I may be wrong. I hope someone will come from the insurance on Monday, or Tuesday tops as it needs attention asap. I know it took weeks with the stolen aircos to get things moving and in this case we also need workers to do it. Fingers crossed that the noise and other inconveniences will not be that bad. And if it is, or not gets fixed properly, I hope we can use it as an argument to move out earlier than the agreed year without breaking the contract due to issues in the home. Yeah, trying to look at it from the bright side and possible options that it brings, lol.
Best option for now would be that it gets fixed properly though, also for the IT equipment in that room and my boyfriend's health. He has been coughing for I think a month now, it's been less bad last week but it makes me wonder, did he get a nasty cough due to the moist issue there? As he spends more than 50 hours a week in that tiny room.
Let's see how this one continues..