Help The Bowers Heal Their Home

If you know the Bowers family, you know that they have been facing incredible challenges in the last few years. We want to rally support in their time of need, to help alleviate as much of the financial burden as possible with community support.

 

We will briefly summarize the most recent timeline of events.

 

While pursuing his doctorate and teaching full-time, Johnathon resigned from  his job at Bethlehem College and Seminary and their family subsequently left Bethlehem Baptist Church - where they had been members for over a decade. Johnathon began working at Costco to provide for his family.

 

After living away from family for that time, they decided that it would be good to move closer to their families. Johnathon was able to move to a Costco in Ohio, so they sold their beautiful home in Minneapolis to make a life in Columbus. House hunting was difficult due to the market in the summer of 2021, but finally, they were able to purchase a cute home just a stone's throw away from an elementary school for their young children.

 

Upon living in their home for a very short time, Crystal began to notice problems from long term water intrusion history and damage from pipes leaking in the past, carpenter ants, improperly installed siding and trim, and mold (everywhere!) - things that should have been noted during their home inspection. Over time she and the rest of the family began having physical reactions to being in their home, such as itchy eyes, nose, throats, dry coughing throughout the night. Crystal developed asthma and has had to start several medications and inhalers to be able to calm down the histamine reactions she is having to the mold in their home. All of the Bowers had to do allergy testing because of the mold exposure causing health issues for all of them. She has chronicled much of their house troubles on social media, but here is a short summary from her:

 

-Both bathrooms need fully gutted and renovated because of mold and water damage

-All of the flooring needs pulled up and replaced in the entire house.

-the entire exterior needs to be pulled off and some portions will need rebuilt and then new siding and roof because of water intrusion and damage. The siding and trim and flashing was never installed properly and has let water in at many points around the house.

-our HVAC system and ductwork need to be replaced because there is extensive mold throughout the system that cannot be remediated. Plus nothing was properly vented in this house when it was built.

-The fireplace is failing in several ways and needs to be replaced with a ventless gas fireplace because of their asthma and allergies now.

-we have already spent an unexpected 15-20k on the foundation issues, carpenter ants, basement and crawlspace mold remediation, rebuilding the chimney that was completely rotted and filled with carpenter ants, etc etc.

-I had to buy 4 air purifiers because we all were coughing all night long

-Most of our things should be salvageable but some things will need to be tossed because of all of the exposure to mold spores

-I had to go to the ER for my mold exposure symptoms. My throat was so inflamed that I even lost my voice.

-I’m taking 5 new meds because of the mold exposure. My allergist is treating me as if I have mast cell activation syndrome because it has flared my allergic response so severely

-I have spent so many hours trying to work on everything to figure out the issues.. from why our crawlspace was filling with water when it rained.. to why carpenter ants were crawling on us in our beds.. even biting our daughter in her crib (I didn't know carpenter ants bit people!)

-I have spent hours upon hours trying to converse with this home inspector to no avail.

-hours upon hours researching lawyers and home inspector laws and requirements and on and on

-hours upon hours trying to find programs that could help... only to not qualify for any of them for various reasons: we have to own the house for a year and then *maybe* we would qualify, or our house appraised 15k too much with the county auditor, etc

-With the state of my lungs from the mold exposure, if I happened to get Covid it could be especially difficult

-this stress and angst for our family, while we are already trying to transition to a new state and recover from the past few years, is so much, let alone the financial catastrophe. We trust the Lord is caring for us and that he is with us, but the stress is taking such a toll. When you hear your children coughing all night long for months and you can hardly breathe just sitting on your couch or while trying to sleep in your bedroom, you get a bit stressed and desperate to figure out why.

 

 

Would you consider joining us and contributing financially to help this dear family as they repair the damages to their home that the inspection somehow missed?

 

They also have an amazon wishlist for things that their home needs due to the mold exposure and remediation to help their family recover:

 

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1037YDR2R32MV?ref_=wl_share