It is not ideal to bath very young children in an unheated bathroom to the dim glow of a camp light during a Canberra winter.
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But Annabel and Jonathan Yagos have no choice.
Since their home tested positive for Mr Fluffy asbestos six weeks ago, their lights, sliding doors, heating and cupboards have been sealed shut.
The family bought a four-bedroom home in Fisher in December as a place to raise Jacob, 2, and six-month-old Charlotte.
Having moved from Queensland, the couple had never heard of Mr Fluffy and only sought information after their solicitor contacted them because she remembered the home had come with an asbestos clearance certificate.
An asbestos assessor found such heavy concentrations of Mr Fluffy under the house he did not even go in.
Had they known this, Mr Yagos would never have crawled under the house himself just months ago to install insulation. Nor would he have let his toddler follow him for an adventure with a flashlight.
“I remember Jacob came out so covered in dust that we peeled off his clothes and put him straight in the bath,” recalls Mrs Yagos.
“The irony is that it was just weeks before that I was hammering nails in the walls to hang family pictures and I said to Jonathan “this place is really starting to feel like home’.”
Those nail holes are now covered with tape.
The family said it was almost impossible to live in the house and their church, St Peter’s in Weston, had invited them to live in a small house for the next couple of months. They are packing up a few belongings and moving out this week.
“Our assessor did not find asbestos in the house, but he did only a few sample tests.”
“To me, it is like being told there is a redback spider in a haystack and then being asked to lay your baby to sleep on the haystack. I am being told the risk is small, but my anxiety at the situation threatens to overwhelm me.”
Ms Yagos was present in the ACT Assembly on Tuesday to hear an update on Canberra’s asbestos crisis by Chief Minister Katy Gallagher.
The family has also just been approved for government assistance to live out of their home.
“We cannot afford to pay our mortgage and to then pay rent on top of that, especially given we are a single-income family at the moment,” she said.
Such is the level of upheaval in her family’s life, Mrs Yagos has had to defer her plans to this month begin a combined Masters and Phd at the University of Canberra in Occupational Therapy.
“I have never felt so empty in my entire life. I am unable to make decisions or to see a future for my family. It is too much to comprehend and too overwhelming to know where to start. We cannot pick our lives back up until the government steps up and tells us what it is doing,” she said.
“I think the government is doing a fantastic job with its taskforce, but I do not think these politicians or public servants understand the emotional impact of living in a contaminated home. I don’t think any of the Mr Fluffy families should be left in their homes – no one should endure the risk.”
