One year ago today, and volunteering...

Rewind to 2007... Laura was sitting doing her hair on the bedroom floor.  Hardly sounds like her, right?  HAHA  I walked in with flowers, and popped the big question.  Well, one year ago today, Laura and I became engaged to be married, and eight months later we were married (here you go mom, I fixed it!).  How time flies.

Today we woke up at 5:51am and volunteered at the "Red Ribbon Run."  It was a run for all the K-12 and adults in our district to support and emphasize a healthy lifestyle.  We both worked registration, and then took pictures of kids that we knew.  This is the second year that we have helped with this worthy cause.

On another note, we have to move out tomorrow for our mold remediation to begin--I guess we'll chalk that up as a free, mini-vaca!

Adventures in the land of mold?

Laura and I got into our new home around the 1st of June, right before the wedding.  The home is beautiful, built in 2006, and we are the first people to ever live in it!  We were pretty lucky to get something that we could afford, and also satisfied our "champagne" taste (thanks, Dad).  Our neighborhood is mostly retirees, but again if you spend even a few minutes in Sebring, you'll notice that retired and elderly people are a common sight.


After moving in, we documented a few problems, one major problem being some of the baseboards looked dirty, or as I put it...moldy.  No one ever took us too serious, so the project of "investigation" never really got underway.  The landlord came out a few times, and told us to splash some bleach on it, and it will go away... After all, she has been a property manager for 20+ years.  :/

Master-bathroom

Guest Closet

Ok... >> Fast forward to about the first of August.  We get some new people move in next door, right after a tropical storm.  Their house leaked really bad before the storm, thus mold spores grew at an exponential rate, at the same time, the owner of that home hired a 2nd-rate contractor to fix the problem...not a water damage specialist.  Mold also was spread through their whole house.  I write about this because the two homes are owned by the same family, just different people.  Also were managed by the same lady.  This major problem and sick residents really lit a fire under some people's feet!

Around the 1st of September, our home owner started moving with our problem because we started hinting that we might cancel the lease (allowed by FL law due to an unhealthy environment).  An air-quality test (which we soon found out is fairly inaccurate) was ordered.  Our air-quality tests were released to us from the insurance company.  Our guest bedroom had at least twice the safe level, and was certainly an active growth site.  Our living room was also quite high.  Thankfully, our bedroom was a lower level than the outdoors!

Finally on Sunday we are being put up in the lake front Marriott hotel here in town.  The remediation will begin on Monday morning for about 5-10 days.  The craziness is that because it was a slow (1-2 drips a minute) leak, in between three walls, the house has to be shut down.  Here are the pics from the contractor as they started the investigation.

Here is where this is all happening:

We will update you as things progress!!

UPDATE:  My Mom wanted to know about how the house is "released" back to us.  Before we can inhabit the home again, it has to pass very strict testing.  The test costs $1,250 dollars.  The remediation company has been removing mold for 20 years, so I am very confident with them.  Currently, the guest bedroom is sealed off so nothing can get into the air ducts, or the rest of the house.  It looks like a construction site.  During the remediation process, they will be wearing TyVac suits, and pretty much everything will be sealed (like a giant zip-loc, so that there is no chance of cross contamination!  :)

Can't wait for Friday...

As part of Jaycees, we are going to see Brad Paisly in Tampa.  We are taking a large bus of people.  We determined that we raise over 20,000 for the community and we needed to have an event to re-energize the group.

Should be a good time!

Excited football fans...

Ian here...

Today we went to Chilis because they have the NFL Sunday Ticket from DirectTv--we got to watch the lions.  When we were there, we determined that there are 4 ways that people respond to good plays, one of which is horrid, and must be retired ASAP:

1. Wooo-Ha
2. F-Ya (insert bad word)
3. Hell ya
4. Yeeeeee-Haaaaaa

Ok, so you've probally determined that Yeeeeeee-Haaaaaa is not the correct way to respond to a play. 

BTW, that was a Giants fan.

Jaycees

We have been going to Jaycees for a while now.  We are finally going to become "official" members.  It is a pretty cool group that does alot of community service projects, and also knows how to have fun!  Next week we are having a big garage sale, then going canoeing (we hear there are gators).

Urgent: How to purchase photos!

(Thanks to Jim and John for helping set this up faster than I did!!!)

http://ianandlaura.site.shutterfly.com/

Use the password: malik

1. Go to an album and click on the first picture.
2. Then click on the forward arrow to advance through the images.
3. If you see a picture you want to order a print, click "Add to cart".
4. Then you will be given a request to sign in...Either sign in if you have an account, or click "Join Now". Fill in the information (e-mail address and your own new password). Then you'll be sent right back to the image you want to order a print.
5. Click "Add to cart" again, and it will say "Picture added to cart".
6. Continue to click on arrow to advance through the images, and add other images to cart.
7. To go to a new album, click Home on top of the page and do the same process as above.
8. Check out with your cedit card!

Enjoy!

We are married!!

Hey everyone! We are back from our super-fast trip to MI for our wedding. It was so nice to get a break from the 95 degree weather, and see all of our family and "G-Rap" friends!

Our ceremony was beautiful, and simple! Thanks to Uncle Allan for the short ceremony, Kim for singing, Aunt Arlene for playing the piano with little direction, and a plethora of others for helping out! Eastern Ave. Christian Reformed Church recorded the ceremony on cassette tape (whats that?) but I converted it to MP3. The quality is no where near the DVD that Laura's uncles are creating; but it is a neat keep-sake. It can be listened to, and downloaded for free, here.

We have uploaded about 3,000 photos to Shutterfly--so far. If you visit www.shutterfly.com and use the username ianandlaura.belanger@gmail.com and password of malik, you can order what you wish, and have it delivered to your home!

Again, thank you to everyone that was so generous with their gifts, time and company.

Ian & Laura



(btw: we are going to continue this blog; keep reading it!)