Toxic Mold: Help the McKelvie Family Rebuild & Recover

Kristen & Ross McKelvie had been dreaming for years of starting a family and planting roots in a nice neighborhood. After months of searching for the perfect community, they decided to build a Drees home in the Wolf Ranch community of Georgetown, TX. They selected the perfect lot, perfect floor plan, the perfect finishes. Kristen even revealed the news to Ross that she was pregnant on the lot that would soon be their new home. Little did they know this perfect family home would end up being a toxic mold nightmare, not only displacing the family, but causing surmountable medical issues and endless expenses.

The McKelvies moved into their new construction home in May 2023 with their first daughter, Londyn. The family started experiencing various medical issues after move-in, which peaked in April-May 2024. At times, Londyn wasn’t sleeping longer than an hour and a half stretch at night due to how uncomfortable her skin was. Her eczema was exacerbated, scratching until she bled. Ross was wheezing and coughing at night. Kristen was sick with EBV and suffered from memory issues and heightened anxiety & depression. Their second daughter, Lily, was not following an appropriate growth curve. At 4 months old, she was in the 50% range, and by 12 months, her percentiles were as low as 5%. She is now 17 months old and only has two teeth. Not knowing the cause of their medical issues yet, a neighbor hired Kristen's realtor services to sell their home. This was a blessing in disguise, as it led them towards the cause of all of their medical issues stemming from inside their own home: toxic mold.

Upon Kristen's first meeting with her neighbor, she noticed their light hardwood floors were turning gray. She knew it was moisture, and she confirmed that with a moisture meter. Out of concern, she checked her own floors. No moisture found. She was safe, or so she thought. In October 2024, months after different experts had been trying to find the root cause of the flooring issue in the neighbor’s home, Kristen realized she had never checked the moisture under her rugs. She lifted up her living room rug, and there it was. Moisture. High moisture. She contacted the warranty manager immediately, and he let her know they would be taken care of. Separately, she had the home inspected by a third party. Under all 42 tiles of their FLOR living room rug was mold - Penicillium, Aspergillus, Bipolaris, and Drechslera. This is the area of the home where Londyn & Lily loved to play and crawl. Elevated moisture was also found in other rooms inside the home.

On October 24, 2024, they had a meeting with the builder and were told to find somewhere to live and be out of the house by October 28, and that remediation would begin. Everything they owned would be cleaned, packed, and moved to storage, and they would no longer be allowed to enter the home. Since then, they have been living in a rental with no estimated timeline of when they can go back.

There have been some missteps in the remediation process, and the McKelvies need to evaluate if it will be safe enough for them to move back into the home at all. The builder is currently working with experts on the root cause of the issue. Back in October, they believed they knew what it was, but they hired another expert to look into each home, and he came back with another root cause. It leaves a lot up in the air, and really all they can do is wait.

Therefore, the McKelvies are currently displaced in a rental home with no definitive timeline on when they can return. They have accumulated $80,000 in mold-related expenses and have countless medical bills for their family's ongoing ailments, and still have to pay their mortgage for their home that is uninhabitable. Londyn has even had to go to Mayo Clinic in Rochester to be seen by some of the top doctors in the country for her skin. They have no access to their belongings that Drees has stored in a storage unit. The belongings they kept are unfortunately contaminated with mycotoxins, which is causing Londyn's skin to continue to flare. Thus, they have made the difficult decision to get rid of all belongings and start over. Please help this family as they start over!

Follow their mold journey on TikTok.

Amazon Registry of items they are in need of.