Hello we are the Musterman family. 2025 has been a devastating year for all of us. Not only have we lost multiple very close family members but now we are facing losing almost everything we own due to mold…Before recently we had no idea how devastating mold can be physically, mentally or financially. What started out as finding one wall in our basement with mold quickly turned into a nightmare when professional inspectors revealed the mold to be on every wall, beam and joist in the basement and even the actual foundation of our home.

Upon further air/dust testing of the other areas of our home (where no visible mold has been found) it has revealed it is no longer safe to live there until extreme remediation takes place due to dangerously high levels of airborne mold.

This news, while devastating was also was a huge moment of clarity for us though because over the past few months, our family has been suffering from significant unexplained health concerns. Mold illness/poisoning is extremely hard to diagnose until you find the mold due to the fact the symptoms are so varying and vast from person to person, even two people in the same home can react completely different to the same exposure. We have found an experienced doctor we will be working with us to detox but this is not going to be a short process and can also get very expensive.

The remediation process that will have to take place is going to take months due to how intricate of a process this really is. The estimate for the basement alone was almost $11,000 and this is not including the purchase of multiple necessary items such as an air scrubber, air purifiers, and dehumidifiers, cleaning protocol solution for the few savable items, disposable hazmat suits, gloves masks, and initial testing which will also be thousands by the time it’s done (it already is and we’ve just started)

A few of the things we will have to or have already had to throw away. Include the following just to give you an idea of how devastating this is.

Many of our clothes that can not take the cleaning protocol

Couch

Every piece of wood furniture

(which is almost everything)

Every shred of carpet (will need to be replaced with non-porous flooring)

Thousands of books / graphic novels

All of our mattresses /box springs

Luggage

House plants

An air hockey table

Tredmill

Small kitchen appliances that are too intricate to properly clean per the protocol

Beach chairs

Beach umbrella

Holiday decorations

Window air conditioners

2 pack and plays

Bassinets

High chairs

Baby beach dome

indoor play gym

TONS of children’s toys

And so so much more….

and before you ask about insurance, we tried. Mold is VERY rarely covered and when it is… it’s nothing compared to the overall cost when this extreme.

We have had to vacate our home and begin the emptying process and are currently living an hour away and over a toll bridge. The cost of commuting to the house so that we can do the checklist of things that need to be done before the actual professional remediation even takes place along with a further work commute are quickly adding up. Even before all of this, we were very much a budgeting family that doesn’t take lavish vacations or make tons of frivolous purchases, and now with all of this extra added expense “ tightening the belt” is just not going to cut it.

we will be posting more updates and pictures as the process goes along on both social media and GoFundMe… but for now I hope you realize why this was necessary.

Thank you for reading the novel we never wanted to write