If your home has a basement and you live in an area that's prone to flooding, you need a sump pump to protect your family from the many damages that stem from standing water. To begin, flood waters can destroy the structural integrity of your home. Afterwards, those same waters often carry insects and rodents into your home and create the ideal environment for mold and mildew to thrive. No matter the specifics, standing water leaves homeowners with the burden of repairing their homes after a storm.

In central New Jersey, we're still recovering from the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. More than anything else, mold is still running rampant in homes and basements.

On vacation in North Carolina, a local restaurant recommended a trail for my family to hike. The family loved it, but we also saw the evidence of animals that hadn't. The first lost dog sign was on the side of the road; on the trail, we saw two more. Malcolm, our rescue dog, took the news particularly badly, and while we tried to call their names, we had no luck.

We assumed other hikers must have let their dogs off of their leashes, so we took extra care to make sure Malcolm enjoyed the trail as much as we did.

If there's excess moisture and poor ventilation, you'll find mold growing on almost any surface imaginable.

Our company has been getting mold calls from all kinds of sources: home inspectors before final sales; when water damage has been left too long; home-owners concerned by untraceable smells.

I have to make a confession; our family did not put up any holiday decorations last year.  We were not going to be around for the holidays, so I asked my children if they wanted to set up the tree, and they shook their heads and said “no.”  I was fine with that, less work for me, I just saved two days of setting up and taking down all of the decorations.