The first time I inspected a three-year-old oceanfront home in Cape May, what I discovered inside the ductwork stopped me cold. The gleaming exterior of this million-dollar property had masked a ventilation system so compromised by salt corrosion that sections were literally crumbling at my touch. The homeowners—a couple who had saved for decades for their dream retirement home—were about to face a $23,000 repair…
Last Tuesday, I found myself in Lisa Brogan’s living room, watching her point accusingly at an air vent in the ceiling. “That thing’s trying to kill us,” she half-joked. Three months earlier, her 8-year-old son had developed what doctors initially called “seasonal asthma,” but the timing was suspicious. Their symptoms had started just weeks after moving into their Toms River colonial – a dream home…