Sara Smith and her husband moved into their first dream $400,000 home in April 2024 after saving up for years. But just two days after they moved in, Sara got sick
A woman discovered her dream home was slowly killing her thanks to TikTok sleuths suggesting hidden mold could be causing her ‘ugly’ selfies.
Sara Smith and her husband, Colin Smith, moved into their first dream $400,000 home in April 2024 after saving up for years. But just two days after they moved in, the 28-year-old started experiencing severe sinus congestions, which she put down to a cold.
Six months later Sara noticed her eyelids and skin surrounding her eye turned pink, then becoming itchy and started bleeding. The raw skin was dry and was sore when she used face wash or sweated while working out and initially believed it might be caused by allergies or eczema.
Baffled, the procurement analyst posted videos on TikTok about her condition and claims commenters saved her life after saying the rash could be caused by mold. Following an inspection by a mold dog, the couple were shocked to find there was hidden water damage in nearly every room of the house, with the biggest stain lurking under the carpet.
The couple have now moved out and alternate staying between their parents’ houses while stumping up $10,000 for a remediation company, claiming their insurance doesn’t cover it.
They’ve had to bin most of their belongings, including electronics, due to the mold and also face high medical bills. A GoFundMe page has been set up by a friend to help support the couple.Sara claims the mold caused her to ‘look ugly’, triggered anxiety and depression and stopped her from seeing friends.
Sara, from Columbus, Ohio, US, said: “My husband and I bought the house together, it’s our first house. The market has been super bad, me and my husband Colin have been saving since 2020. It was a really big purchase, it’s a lot for an hourly worker like myself.
“Two days after moving in I started having severe sinus congestion, which I thought was just a cold.
“I went to my primary care provider and she said it’s just a cold. I went to an allergist a couple of weeks later and they gave me steroids. That helped for about two weeks but it returned.
“Six months in, the eye stuff happened. It started to look like a pink eye shadow and then more like a mask.
“The rash was really itchy and it would bleed and crack when dry. Whenever I worked out the sweat would make it burn so badly. Any type of face wash on it would be the most terrible experience ever.
“I thought I would post and see if people have any tips. TikTok told me to get out of there. It really saved my life, if it wasn’t for them commenting I would still believe it was some internal eczema thing.
“The mold dog was good at finding the hidden sources. We did get an inspection before buying the house, some mold was visible in the basement. The ones that were causing the most issues were stuck between insulation and you couldn’t spot it.
“The biggest one that was hidden was under the carpet. My husband ripped off the carpet in the bedroom and it was covered in mold. [At some point someone] painted the ceiling white where the water damage was.
“The thing about mold is it makes you really anxious and depressed so I never went to see my friends and I looked ugly so I thought I couldn’t leave the house like this.
“We had remediation completed last week, the estimate is $10,000. The insurance doesn’t cover mold so I’m not getting a dime for this. I have to get rid of 90% of my items, down to electronics because the mold spores get so deep in there.”
While Sara’s eyes are now healed, she experiences flare-ups whenever she returns to the house to move her belongings. Sara, who spent more time in the house than Colin due to working from home, said he luckily hasn’t experienced any health issues.
And while the couple were initially excited to move into their new home, Sara said the thought of it now makes her ‘feel sick’.
Sara said: “I work from home and I work out at home in the basement where there is significant mold. Then I would take a shower in my moldy bathroom and then I would pick out clothes from my moldy closet and wash them in my moldy washer and dryer and sleep in my moldy bedroom.
“My husband isn’t experiencing anything, he doesn’t work from home and he is pretty active outside of the house. I’m staying at my family members’ houses, I have been back and forth to my in-laws and parents’ houses.
“It has been super stressful, especially for a marriage. Living under our parents’ roof has been really hard. My eyes started getting better about two weeks after moving back to my parents’ house.
“They are fully healed now but because of the amount of exposure they’ve flared again because I had to go to the house to get rid of my stuff.
“I’m so depressed, there has been a lot in my head. Whenever I think of the house, it used to bring me so much joy and now I think of it with such disdain, it makes me sick.”
You can donate to the GoFundMe page here.
Click here to follow the Mirror US on Google News to stay up to date with all the latest news, sports and entertainment stories.
Leave a Reply