Greetings from West Palm Beach. Mom had a plumbing leak in her master bath. By the time it was discovered, there was a good amount of mold in the bath and part of the bedroom. Mom was distraught. Gayle came down to help out. Progress was minimal because of the holiday season. Just as Gayle was leaving, Mom had a second unrelated leak at the kitchen sink. Mom and Gayle dried it up and rinsed with a Clorox solution and thought everything in the kitchen was OK. I came down Wednesday to meet with the contractor, sign a contract, and get stuff out of her bedroom. Just as the contractor was leaving, he noticed the kitchen has mold. Mom took the second mold infestation pretty hard.

Things are made more difficult because Mom’s insurance company is slow to pay. Mom has to front the money for mold remediation. After the insurance company reimburses that cost, Mom will use part of the money to start the reconstruction. The whole thing is quite a mess. It will be months before everything is put back together. We don’t even know how much the contractor will have to remove from the kitchen to get all the mold.

We spent  most of the weekend out of the house, visiting farmer markets and such. Spectacular weather made it easy to be outside.

I am flying home tomorrow. I can talk with the contractor from Baltimore. The insurance company has a letter from Mom giving me permission to talk on her behalf. It meets their stated requirements, we’ll see how well it works. The contractor will remove mold in the master bedroom next week. Hopefully Mom won’t have too hard of a time next week.