Skip to main content

Sometimes it's messy

Image
By Natalie
Our perfect little infant daughter has an elevated lead level.

When we painted the interior we actually moved out of the house. When we returned, the crew had cleaned and Harris and I then spent three days cleaning. Of course there was lead paint - that's why we were painting all the trim.

After we confirmed Margot's lead level, we set about a full wholesale cleaning of the house. We have a grid of ceilings, walls, floors, literally every surface in our house needs to be HEPA vacuumed and then wet washed. This is in addition to the HEGA filter we run upstairs and the two Trane Clean Air Effects units we had installed with the HVAC last year. We are on a mission to get the dust out of our house. It's not just about being neat and tidy, it's about neuro-cognitive effects for our daughter.

So on Saturday, when we woke up and I looked at the areas inside where they had completed touch ups and saw a fine layer of dust I literally lost it. I sat down on the bed and just started sobbing. I shut the door and just cried on the bed for half an hour. All the work was for nothing.  We needed to start over. Margot's lead level was just going to keep getting higher until we have to take more aggressive action to lower it.

Harris pointed out that we were almost there. He pointed out all of the amazing work that's been done on the house. He pointed out that we have mostly a home now, not a collection of rooms that can't be accessed due to hazards or deterioration.

I'll see it again soon I'm sure. Right now I just see a needling punch list of things I wanted complete last month.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

reflecting, thinking about what's next

By Natalie
Reading through the blog, mainly to look at the ruin that was our house and the wee little babes that were our babies, now walking, running, yelling girls and found this from January 2016 What's left - the girls bathroom, master suite, sunroom, tile patching in 2 bathrooms, butler pantry. Summer kitchen. Landscaping. We've completed the girls bathroom, butler pantry, and landscaping. The sunroom is ALMOST finished. After living in the house with three girls we've changed plans a little bit for the remaining work. We're opting to turn what would have been mine and Harris's bedroom, closet, and bathroom into a bonus room of sorts. We'll also leave the wall there and add the washer/dryer upstairs and some desk space so the girls have a place to work. We also will build a general storage closet up there so clothing doesnt have to go up and down to the attic each season. We've also decided we need a shower upstairs, so the clawfoot that is in bad shape up...
Post a Comment
Read more

Budget

By Natalie
Dad was asking about the budget and how we're doing so far. Initially we had a total budget of about $350k for the house. As we negotiated the purchase price up and found more information about what the house needed that budget went to a maximum of about $415k. As of today, we anticipate spending around $400k or ~$111/sqft. As a comparison, Oakwood cost us $90/sqft and we sold for $106/sqft and the new owners are doing all kinds of neat stuff we dreamed about doing. So far we're under budget in a couple of areas, within budget but ahead of schedule in some (which can also be read as over budget...) and just going to be way over in a couple of key areas. Our original plan including making a temporary kitchen that we could live with, but would be massively overhauled within a year or two. Instead we decided to do it right the first time and enjoy it the entire time. To this end, our temp budget for cabs, appliances, and counters, was initally $5,600. However, that's g...
4 comments
Read more

Walkway

By Natalie
We approach ten years together and three in the bunny manse. Those three years have been spent walking from car to house via a muddy little path. At some point I noticed the grass was always dead ~ sure sign of buried stuff- and started digging around uncovering four circular pavers and a hole where the fifth should be. But no more! Over chat Friday l says, hey, why don't we build a walkway, so we went to the despot and picked up supplies on Saturday while the elder was at a parents night out. We used the pavers that I literally bought 4-5 years ago off a neighbor who had extra. We moved them from one yard to another.  I know. Glamour. Little fever dream toddler wanted to play in the much a little.  Pop Pop came over and helped Madeline with her hustle.  When Harris got home, he added sand and leveled My job was to come up with the pattern. I laid out a couple on the cement walkway until I decided this one was best.  An...
2 comments
Read more