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Saturday, December 29, 2012

A Little Mold Update

After telling you all about our wonderful discovery in our downstairs storage closet, I figured I'd go ahead and give an update on what happened.  It took Forest City a while to get everything together (almost a month from the night we found the mold), but I am really hoping everything is fixed now.

Two weeks after the initial mold inspection (and after a lot of help from Mr. L's chain of command urging them to get off their butts), we finally were contacted and had the head supervisor and a contractor come out to re-inspect and get a quote for the damages.  We thought things were finally looking up, and then the weekend before Christmas and Christmas day happened.

The Sunday before Christmas, the laundry room flooded again.  Maintenance came out pretty promptly and pulled about two feet of roots out of our pipes, and we breathed a sigh of relief thinking we wouldn't have to deal with this for another couple of months until the roots started growing back.  And then on Christmas day, two days after having the pipes cleaned, it flooded again.  We were both very, very upset.  (In fact, looking back, this whole situation made this past month the worst reintegration after a deployment we've had so far.)  I contacted the head supervisor again and explained the situation while Mr. L left once again.

The head supervisor arranged for a plumber to come out with a camera to see what the issue was.  They found standing water backed up in the pipes 20 feet or so from my house, and two additional plumbers later pumping in the backyard and pouring water down the drains, they seem to have fixed the issue for now.

Also, after having the supervisor expedite requests through Forest City, the contractor came out, started working, and finally finished touching up the closet yesterday.  I'm really hoping this is the end of the mold issues, but I know it won't be the end of the flooding issues.  Even if the pipes aren't backed up, roots will still continue to grow every few months, and I'll still have to clean up in the laundry and closet now (on Christmas we found water from the laundry standing in the closet, so we know exactly how the mold got there now).  I'm going to recheck the moving lists to see if we've been bumped up at all, because we still very much want out of this housing and into something newer.  I still don't know if housing would bump us up a priority because of all of this mess, but I may try to talk to them anyways just to see.  The worst they can say is no, right?

I really am curious about something, though.  After living here and experiencing PPV (privatized) housing firsthand, I know that I won't be living in this kind of housing by choice again.  It's just been a sour experience for me, so if possible I will always be choosing to live off base.  If you've dealt with PPV housing, what have your experiences been with it?  Were you satisfied overall, or like me, unhappy with the situation?


  1. We haven't had any issues in our house but I have heard stories from many people. I do hate that if my husband gets promoted and we choose not to move they get to keep that extra bah!

    1. Yeah, I hate that they take all of our BAH too. If only we could keep some! ;) Haha.