Moving into the spacious blue rental house on west Medford’s Grape Street almost seemed like a fairy tale for Shelly Moss.

But her family’s two-year stay at 245 N. Grape came to resemble a horror movie.

Walls throughout the three-bedroom unit broke out in a rash of mold. The grayish, filmy, smelly substance was no ordinary fungus. No matter how hard Moss tried to scrub it away, it crept from under kitchen cabinets, stretching filaments across her pots and pans. It eventually infested the family’s clothes, bedding and mattresses.

"When you walked into my house, you wanted to throw up," the 30-year-old said. Moss’ apartment is one of five that have been carved from the formerly sprawling, two-story residence.

Water seeping from some unknown source gradually saturated the carpets, Moss said. If her children walked around without shoes, the stagnant fluid soaked their socks. Dirty water backed up into the bathtub when Moss ran a load of clothes through the washing machine.

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The fact that the dryer —a new appliance — burned out after only a few months’ use puzzled Moss. But a simple stovetop spill convinced her that something was horribly wrong with the home’s wiring. When Moss touched a wet rag to the range top one night while cooking in her socks, the electric shock knocked her to the ground.

Moss called her landlord, Donald Senestraro, who she said "jerry-rigged" the electrical system and insisted it was fixed. Senestraro has denied liability for problems with the house, blaming Moss’ living habits.

The range later burned out. Moss said she replaced it at her own expense. And as more and more moisture collected in the house, Moss’ children were plagued by electric shocks if they so much as touched a light switch.

Yet Moss said she believed Senestraro, varsity baseball coach at Ashland High School, would fix the problems when he had time. She resisted the idea of moving out. The low monthly rent of $525 allowed Moss’ three children to go to private school. Moss and her domestic partner, Carlos Avila, also could save a bit for eventually buying their own home.

"I didn’t want to lose my housing. I didn’t want to cause problems," Moss said. "We weren’t getting sick yet.

"Well that winter, we got really sick."

The family suffered headaches, nosebleeds and attacks of asthma and pneumonia. Moss called the city, but building department officials told her it was a health department concern, not a city housing code violation, she said. There was nothing they could do.

"We hear it all the time," said city building inspector Hugh Fechtler. "There’s nothing that we can enforce."

Fechtler said mold ordinances exist solely for commercial structures, not residences. "In older homes, rentals especially, it is common."

Moss and her husband decided to remove the moldy kitchen cabinets themselves. When they pulled the cabinets from the wall, water an inch and a half deep poured onto the kitchen floor, Moss said.

After placing the slimy cabinets and moldy mattresses on her front walk for disposal, Moss caught the city’s attention. Code enforcement officer Joe Jimenez told her to move the items but didn’t come inside and examine the remaining mold, according to a report he made on March 23, 2004.

"He wanted nothing to do with the mold," Moss said.

Removing a few moldy belongings from the house proved ineffective. Several months after Moss and Avila replaced the cabinets with makeshift shelving, the mold returned.

"It came back, and it came back with a vengeance," Moss said.

Senestraro agreed to replace moldy drywall, Moss said, but couldn’t move her family to another rental in the meantime. Moss said she wouldn’t consider staying in the house while construction released mold spores into the air. She suspected treating the house with chemicals was necessary to get rid of the problem for good.

Last winter, Moss consulted an attorney and made one final call to the city when she overheard Senestraro telling her neighbor that she could have Moss’ apartment when she moved out. Moss said she feared the children next door, who suffered from asthma and respiratory problems, would become ill if the family accepted Senestraro’s offer.

Fechtler logged numerous safety violations on Jan. 25 in Moss’ rental, including a burned-out electrical connection for the dryer, wall sockets with a three-wire plug in a two-wire system and an open ground. An electrical contractor was needed to correct it, according to Fechtler’s report.

The house had only one smoke detector, which did not work, Fechtler noted. The washing machine’s too-small drain caused backflow into the bathtub. Kitchen counters, porch steps and outdoor handrails were all dilapidated.

The walls were wet, Fechtler said. The mold growth, he said, likely was the result of old construction — possibly a leaky roof, ill-fitting windows and poor insulation separating shiplap siding from ancient plaster — exacerbated by Moss’ living habits. She had covered the windows with plastic, Fechtler said. Moss said she was trying to keep out condensation.

"It is just an old house that’s absorbed years and years and years of moisture," Fechtler said.

"Eventually, these old houses just start sweating."

The city posted the unit as uninhabitable, and Moss moved out that month. In March, she filed a civil suit against Senestraro alleging negligence and seeking $140,000 in damages for the family’s ruined belongings, repairs that weren’t reimbursed, health effects, and moving and storage costs.

"They complained for a year about water intrusion problems that were literally rotting away their kitchen," said their attorney, Ken Dobson of Portland.

"It’s just saturated with water in there," Dobson said. "As far as the structural deficiencies, this has got to be one of the worst I’ve ever seen."

Senestraro’s written answer to the suit denied Moss’ allegations, claiming she caused the damage. Moss misused appliances and electrical connections, failed to heat the home in winter, clean it or keep it sanitary, his response stated.

"When I rented that place to her it was nothing like the condition it is in now," Senestraro said in a telephone interview, declining further comment while the lawsuit is pending.

Senestraro, an Ashland resident, owns 13 other rental properties in the county. He bought the Grape Street house for $123,000 in 1995.

In addition to complaints at 245 N. Grape, city code enforcement officers investigated complaints of garbage accumulation and abandoned vehicles at Senestraro’s rental properties on Fourth, Ninth, Prune and Murray streets and Summit and Columbus avenues.

His answer to Moss’ complaint states he lacks sufficient knowledge to admit or deny a mold problem.

But in one of the building’s smaller units next door to Moss’ former apartment, Ruth Williams battles the same black fungus. It covers the shower walls and a nearby closet, immune to households chemicals.

"I wish they’d fix it, and they won’t," Williams said.

She said she complained to Senestraro’s property managers, refusing to pay rent until the mold was eradicated. In response, she received a threat of eviction.

Surviving on disability checks and her husband’s salary from Taco Bell, Williams’ family can’t afford to move despite the black mold aggravating the asthma her husband and two children suffer.

Renting from Senestraro for about a year, Williams pays $274 a month for the tiny apartment attached to the main house. The living room also serves as a bedroom. Next to it is a small kitchen and tiny bathroom.

"I think it should all be condemned," Williams said.

Moss said she happened to meet another previous tenant of the blue house who also complained of mold before moving out. An industrial hygienist sampled the air in Moss’ apartment before she moved out, confirming potentially toxic mold was present at a level capable of causing respiratory ailments, Dobson said.

While Moss awaits a May 16 trial on her lawsuit, her family lives in two travel trailers on an uncle’s property in Sams Valley.

Since suing her former landlord, Moss said she has been unable to find rental housing anywhere in the county and blames Senestraro. He said he believes Moss should be able to find rental housing.

But according to Dobson, Senestraro would only have to give Moss a bad reference to practically bar her from renting locally.

"I’m blacklisted," Moss said. "Whatever he did to us, we’re unrentable now."

Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail slemon@mailtribune.com. Reporter Damian Mann contributed to this story.