> As the Terminator says, "GET OUT!"
Move.
> P.S. Amber, don't take my pushing as
> "having a go at you" but please,
> move as soon as you can. Okay.

Michael,

Of course you are right. Wiser words have never been spoken! I DO need to move.

With each flooding occurrence, we have taken extraordinary measures to clean and fully restore our home - even replacing the air conditioning system. But each new flooding episode brings additional exposure to the dangerous pathogens which have inevitably overwhelmed my immune system.

Cleaning and restoration can take over a year and even with the best precautions, it is now known that only small amounts of exposure can cause permanent problems such as fibrosis of the lungs from breathing the 'too small to be seen' fungal particles.

However, it is only in recent years that the full extent of the danger has been realized. Now it is in the news everywhere and people are waking up to the truth. We aren't the only ones who are in this predicament.

This was our dream home - custom built for us at great expense. But we see it now - eyes wide open - for what it has become.

It is a huge 'money pit' and a potential death trap.

The stress, alone, of losing everything during one of Mother Nature's 'events' is exhausting and when we were young and foolish, we made a critical decision to pour more money into the home instead of walking away. We regret that now but it seemed only logical at the time since we had so much invested in this property.

We weren't thinking then about the residual problems that we would later face.

Yes, if only we could turn back time and make different decisions and not have sunk an exorbitant amount of money our into a property that is not sellable even though it IS a beauty.

Locking the door and just walking away without a penny of the substantial equity we've put into this home makes it extremely difficult to set up even another simple living arrangement. We will still have to service the huge debt load from this home (while it sits locked up and vacant) in order not to ruin our credit.

It presents a challenge...but one we must accept and somehow find a way to make possible.

Michael, thanks for your comments. I do appreciate them.

By the way...I couldn't pull up the site for http://www.remissions.org. that you included in your post. Maybe they just have it offline to work on it ~ I'll check again later.

Thanks Michael!

~Amber