Creve Coeur [Missouri] family runs
from mold
By Marianna Riley
Published: Monday, Jul. 05 2004
Two years ago, Konny Schaeffer and her family fled their Creve Coeur,
Missouri, home with little more than the clothes on their backs. They
weren't running from a storm or a threatened explosion. They were running
from mold.
The house that Schaeffer and her husband, John Schaeffer, rescued from
foreclosure in 1986 is about to be torn down.
Never mind the pickled oak kitchen cabinets, granite counters and oak floors
with a wall of windows that overlooks a lake. Never mind the in-ground pool
or indoor sauna. The bulldozer is coming.
Konny Schaeffer picks her way over the overgrown stone steps that lead to
the back deck. Vines tangle with limbs blown down in a recent storm; the
lawn has not been mowed this year. "I planted every one of these," she said,
fingering the taxis yews that line the stone walk, then pointing to the
lacy-leaf Japanese Maple and boxwoods. The couple built the stone wall and
walkway.
From the back patio, Schaeffer peered into the lower level of the house.
Pieces of walnut paneling were torn off the wall. The mantle had been ripped
off. Clothes, toys and sports equipment spilled from closets where
doors are off their hinges. She's not tempted to enter the house where
she had lived for 16 years.
"I can smell it from here. Can't you smell the mold?" she asked, wrinkling
her nose at the musty smell.
A defective hose on a new washing machine in 1999 started the Schaeffers'
problems. The undetected leak sent moisture under the flooring, where it
wicked up a wall.
It wasn't until the family came home from a vacation in August 2002, to find
four inches of water inside, that they realized they had a leak. The washing
machine manufacturer called in a cleanup company, and two
industrial dehumidifiers ran steadily for three weeks.
It was too little, too late. When an environmental inspector pried off a
baseboard and ripped up some wallpaper, she uncovered a wall covered by
black mold. Walls in the laundry room and kitchen were the same.
An insurance adjuster told the family remediation would be needed and they
should vacate the house. School was about to begin for Schaeffer's children,
John Clayton, now 17, and Christina Kelly, 9.
"They said it would take about three weeks to get it cleaned up," Schaeffer
recalled. Three weeks turned into months. When the Schaeffers drove to the
house, they saw no signs of work being done. Their insurance agent did not
return calls.
Neighbors told them people were walking in and out of the house wearing
spacesuits. "This went on for months," Schaeffer said. "The kids were beside
themselves.... My son would need something for school and we realized we
couldn't get it. It was horrible."
Six more months went by, and cleaning efforts at the house were going
poorly. In addition, the family felt depressed by their living conditions.
Finally, their insurance company told them their coverage on the Creve Coeur
house had been exhausted. "Hundreds of thousands of dollars for work that
never got done," Schaeffer alleges.
The family hung on for another 18 months, paying for upkeep on their Creve
Coeur home while slowly realizing the smaller home they'd bought in Lake
Saint Louis might not be just a temporary solution.
Real estate agents, builders and microbiologists all urged them to cut their
losses and walk away from the Creve Coeur home.
They sold their home recently and have filed a lawsuit over the mold
situation. Meanwhile, the house will be torn down to make way for a new
house.
Schaeffer said her family is still in different stages of grief, but she
forces a smile.
"We're all just working to restore the order in our lives," she said.
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