I too got a new Bosch about two years ago and occasionally have had the black spots issue (which I hadn't attributed to mold until now) and just last night went to run the dishwasher and opened it to find white fuzzy mold on the silverware and the stink was unbelievable. I have been using Grab Green pods but noticed recently that they weren't doing a good job so I started shoving two in the dispenser which has helped to get things clean but this new mold issue is disturbing. I live in the hot and humid South and while I'm not wholly shocked about the mold due to the humidity, I too have never in my life experienced a moldy dishwasher despite leaving dirty dishes in for a week before running (usually more like 3 days). For as much as Bosch appliances cost, I would never recommend them to anyone based on this experience.

Weedyacres, I agree that a good tile installer does a dry layout first to assess the best way to install the tiles to create as little cuts as possible. If the tile installer would have started the diamond design at my door next to the rug area and worked his way forward so that at least the door area had tiles right up against it and most of the rug area did also, the window area would have no gaps and there would only be a 2" gap by the wall opposite the door. That gap would have been covered up by a 1 7/8th diamond cut of the tile in a few areas leaving the 1/8th width between the other tiles. The tile would have not fell out after being glued and having a quarter round on top. The installer started in the middle of the floor and then told me if he did not due the border I would waste so many tiles since he would have to put tiny pieces about 1/4th to 3/4th all along the edges. After he was done, I only saw spaces of 1 3/8th to 1 1/2 spaces at the door so he was wrong. He also forgot about the other wall on the other side of the door not having to have the tiles 1/8th from the wall since a quarter round would be covering the area. He tried so hard and I know I could have never cut those tiles so I feel very bad but in person, the problems were more noticeable. I also did not want a border in such a little area and I had shown him a picture of what I wanted and he told me 1/8th width was no problem for him with the spacers. I wish when the installer asked me where we should start the tiles, I wish I would have told him, let's lay them all out first and then we shall see how they fit and then I would have realized the tiles should start at the door. I was busy with ear plugs on trying to work but I could not work once he started the border since it was upsetting me. If I had a bigger foyer area, the border would have been nice if it was straight. Once the quarter rounds would have been put back on the sides of the wall, the tiles would have not looked centered anyway and the 3" wide X 12" boards would have not been the same size any more as on the other two walls without the quarter rounds. I now have no tiles and only cement floors blocked by gates but I could not let him do the middle foyer that had 4 doors since I do not feel he knew how to handle doors. Here is a link that might be useful: Crooked Installed Akoya Bone Tiles without grout- missing many pics that I forgot to download when the phone rang

ricewO, I had found someone from Angie's list on July 4th that sounded great but he had to be booked in advance and could not buy the BR-111 product at the same great price as from TrueHardwoods.com so told me to buy it and call him and he would see when he had time. He wanted me to order one extra box but he said if I was going to be picky on boards, then two extra boxes. I had ordered 8% extra and he felt that was not enough (he was right I see now). When I called him to tell him I think I made a mistake with the order and I should have ordered 2 T-Moldings and 2 Reducers and not 3 Reducers and no T-Moldings, he told me I needed 4 Reducers and 1 T-Molding. He was too far from me to do a quick stop over here to measure again. My current installer before hiring him, came by and pulled up the carpet to test which molding he brought with was the right one and also bought me a white foam pad with a big board to stand on (pulled the rug and padding up so the wood and pad would be on the cement floor)to let me make a decision on if I liked the feeling of a glued down floor or a floating floor. That is when I decided that I did not want 3 extra boxes of wood like my neighbor who ordered a different product from TrueHardwoods.com so I went with my current installer and also my current was able to begin right away. BUT I see now that I was wrong and my current is not doing a good job and I am afraid for him to cut new molding to install since all his cut boards are poorly done with various size spaces next to my wall. Also the installation itself was done wrong and I had to call the manufacturer of the FloorMuffler with Ultra Seal and put them on Speaker phone since the current installer did not believe the instructions and was not using the ULTRAseal tape (he had it tucked under the pad!) at all and was not gluing the pieces together and was not putting the pad up against the wall a bit. The manufacturer said to insulate and protect from moisture he was doing it wrong and I was right. Then my current installer did it right in front of me and then when I left the room and came back I saw he was doing it wrong again! He installed damaged boards and some of the boards are not enough distance form each other with the seams. I am unhappy with his installation but very happy now with the beautiful Brazilian Cherry floors and so glad I went with the 5" wide boards since the grain is gorgeous and the coloring is now the orange reddish color I felt it should be when first installed despite not looking like that in the box. I really would like someone to install the last row of boards when the new box comes in and cut the new baseboard trim to install it so the cuts and piecing together can be professional. If I have no one else, I would have to have the current installer complete the installation of the wood with me there the whole time since I do not trust him anymore. I almost did not hire the current installer when he did not return my phone calls when I found the 47 foot crack in the cement floor but he arrived Thursday morning without return my phone calls the prior night or the prior days and I wanted the floor done. He also ripped out two side corner moldings near my tiles (my brother took the molding off the walls everywhere else and did a good job) and metal is showing and he cracked two tiles. He installed the two T-Moldings and you can see nail heads and he scratched the molding and a tiny crack now from putting the nail in the molding. Now I see why he wanted to reuse the old trim since I do not feel his carpenter skills are that good. He was referred by a client of mine that used to sell the current installer insurance before he retired from the insurance business. I had a painter come in today to give me an estimate on just painting the walls and not the trim. I have another painter coming by at 2 PM to give me an estimate also. Thank you ricewO for the suggestion of Angie's list. I may call back the other installer as well as all the messages I left last night on Angie's list's carpenters, flooring installers and painters. Thank you for your nice offer. I wish you lived near me.

"We have decided to pay for the remediation of the mold ourselves, but I was surprised that there are no regulations about using dry wood". Since you have already taken action to have mold remediation performed, you have wisely decided your health is more important than other concerns in this situation. If you spent an enormous amount of money for mold remediation and health treatment, you may wish to consult your attorney to see if the framer is liable to reimburse you for these costs. The remaining long post below is for others who wonder what is all this hype about mold. I am a licenced contractor who deals with mold issues in connection with water intrusion damage to homes. In my years dealing with mold problems, I have come to understand mold from a different point of view than the average contractor or homeowner. To start, some background about mold. Mold is any of the thousands of kinds of fungus which inhabit the earth. Most mold is parasitic, and feeds off wood or vegetable matter that is found in nature. For various kinds of mold, there are different environmental conditions that promote their growth and survival. We usually associate warm, damp conditions with mold, but mold can live in many conditions from very wet to nearly dry, cold or warm. As partr of their reproductive cycle, molds create spores which are released into the air and settle on new surfaces where they can grow as new molds if conditions are favorable. Mold spores are microscopic spheres which can become airborne. But these airborne spheres usually have a coating on thier surface consisting of myotoxins -- (poisons that can cause allergic reactions or severe health problems when inhaled, or adhered to your skin). However, some mold spores are more toxic than others, and some people are more sensitive to these myotoxins than other people are. So we see a vast variation when we read reports from different people that mold is a health problem. Also note that theses mold spores are in the air even when there is no known mold that can be seen growing nearby. Mold spores are as common as dust in the air. Most people are acclimated to the normal levels of mold spores that are suspended in the air that they breathe. But if there are places that have a heavy mold growths, we often hear complaints from people that they can smell the mold, or they are experiencing allergic reactions. Perhaps I am one of the lucky people who is more resistant. I have been in areas with heavy mold growth which have caused homeowners to move out of their home because of their severe reactions, without returning until our crews removed the contaminated materials and treated the mold. On the other hand, I have seen most of the mold testing usually shows that penicillin is one of the most common molds found in most homes. This is known to be a kind of mold that is used as a medicine to fight bacterial infections. Because of the undefined health risks of mold, there have been no laws that specifically determined what levels of mold are acceptable, or what methods must be used to treat the mold to make a home safe and habitable. It seems to be more of a personal choice for each indiviual to determine what is acceptable or not. But there are certain established methods of mold abatement which are accepted in the industry. Before we get into the mold abatement methods, let's take a look at the other side of mold problems with wood. Some kinds of mold can attack the wood in a manner that makes the wood weak, so it does not serve its function as a structural member. But other kinds of mold are relatively harmless to wood or to people who are near the mold. As an example, some new lumber at the lumber yard has a spotty black coating on the surface when you buy it. These black spots are mold, which is usually found on "green lumber" which may feel wet or damp to the touch. But they are not generally harmful to the wood structure, because they are only growing on the surface, and they usually stop growing after the wood is nailed in place and has a chance to dry out. But if wood is stacked so it does not dry, then other kinds of mold can grow which appear often as white webbed strands on the surface, that can weaken the wood so badly that you can break it by stomping on a board. This usually takes some time for mold to penetrate that deep into the wood, so it is rarely seen home construction because the construction wood has a chance to dry from the time it is nailed in place. A second kind of mold damage to wood is seen in exterior wood that is exposed to the weather, especially in decks and in outdoor patio covers and trellises. It is usually called dryrot, but it is actually a mold which grows in wet conditions. The dryrot mold grows when the wood is drying after becoming wet. The mold likes the damp wood fibers, and will penetrate into the interior of beams and deck planks, especially in corners and seams where water is trapped so it cannot dry quickly. Dryrot mold can destroy the fiber strength so it is so soft that you can push your finger into the surface of a board. This is the reason why deck planks are usually spaced at least 1/4 inch apart, so the water can drain, and air can dry the space between planks. So we see there are two problems with mold -- a health problem and a structural problem. The structural problem can be solved by replacing the contaminated wood members. But if the wood has not lost its strength (no soft spots), then there is no reason to replace it. You can simply kill the mold so it cannot spread, then take precautions so new mold will not grow on the wood. How to remediate mold that is causing health problems? For the health problems, the usual method is to first remove all the mold from the surfaces that you can find. Then kill the mold with a fungicide. Ordingary bleach (sodium hypochlorite) will do this (You can also buy a commercial fungicide to kill the mold instead of using bleach). Dilute your bleach with half water or use your fungicide and spray all the surfaces that were contaminated, where you removed the mold from. Be sure to scrub the surfaces with a green kitchen scrubber or brushes soaked in the bleach solution. Then after everything dries for a day or two, paint it with primer paint like Kilz to encapsulate any microscopic mold spores that may be remaining on the surface. The primer will coat these remaining spores so they cannot escape into the air where you can breathe them. Note: These mold spores still contain the myotoxins even after you use the bleach or fungicide to kill the mold, so they are still a health threat. If you are sensitive to mold, then be sure to wear a mask with a filter so you don't breath the spores while you are working. Also wear rubber gloves, and even tyvex overalls taped at the wrists and feet to keep the spores from getting on your clothes. You can throw the overalls and gloves away when you are done with the mold abatement. This is the general procedure that people pay thousands of dollars to hire a professional mold abatement company to perform. About the particular problem of mold from the porch header circulating through the house, here are my thoughts: Generally speaking, there is no code that specifies when a piece of lumber has too much mold on it to be used for construction. There may be some local codes, but I can not imagine how they could specify the exact dividing line where the amount of mold or type of mold is acceptable or not. Ususally, if there is an ugly mold growth, a framer will discard the contaminated lumber and replace it. But this seems to be a judgment call by the framer. From the scenario above, I have visions of a framer who was thinking that its a whole lot of trouble to dig that header out and replace it, so it is good enough to leave it be. If the mold was really bad, the building inspector could tell a framer that the wood he used is not in good enough condition to pass the inspection, and require that he must replace it. I have never seen this done, but then I have never seen a framer use lumber that had mold actively growing on the lumber that he used for his remodeling other than that black spotty mold we often see on new lumber. If your building inspector has no problem with the header, then the only remaining objection is the objection that you raise. Your concern may be that you simply don't like the idea of using moldy wood to enclose inside your home -- (an objection which I agree with). Or maybe someone in your home is having health problems because of the increased mold spore levels inside the home. In any case, this is a problem you need to address with your framer, because there are no laws I know of that require him to remove it. It is best to specify that all the moldy wood is to be removed before any work starts, and have the cost of remodeling include this work. Otherwise, you are dealing with problems that could have been solved in the beginning instead of later. Some other notes about remodeling and mold: The mold from new lumber is not as toxic as some varieties which grow when persistent water is leaking onto surfaces in your home. Any surface mold on the studs is contained within the walls, and will stop growing when the wood has fully dried (less than 90 days). I doubt any of the spores will find a reason to move from the surface of the lumber past the drywall or to the ductwork where they can migrate to the interior of the home. During the remodeling, there may be higher levels than normal for mold spores and dust levels. But this will subside to normal levels after the construction is done. Unless someone in the home is super-sensitive to the surface mold that sometimes is found on new lumber, it does not seem like it will be a problem after the construction is done. You can take precautions if you are concerned, such as special air filters fitted to the furnace or even an electtrostatic collector to remove tiny particles suspended in the air stream. To answer the question: Is the framer required to use new lumber instead of lumber that was weathered outdoor for years? Probably not. It depends on local codes and what your local building inspectors will accept. Hopefully your framer will replace old weathered lumber it to keep you as a happy client and reference for future work he does. You can read here to learn a little more about residential mold problems: http://www.cdc.gov/mold/stachy.htm con_j