So, what's the deal with all the lead, anyway?
If you haven't been reading this blog since its inception (and, let's not kid ourselves, you haven't), you might be wondering about the mysterious lead contamination I've begun to post about again.
We bought our house in October of 2004. The house was built in 1934 or some such. It's old. It's also sort of a landmark in the neighborhood. The neighborhood is old as well. Our home purchase is now referred to by the DH as our "urban renewal experiment." Anyway, shortly after we moved in, a flyer went out about an informational meeting about lead hazards. I made the DH go and sign us up for assessment. The SFHOs had not had the house tested (even though they had infant twins) so we were sure that there was some lead, but we didn't know where or how much. I wanted to be put at ease. So, they came and tested. The interior was fine except for the closet door in the nursery (I don't call them SFHOs for nothing!)! The exterior was a different story. As near as we could tell, the damn house was still painted in lead paint! And, the SFHOs had scraped the house to make it look a little better, leaving all that leady goodness to sink into the soil. Our soil lead levels were 400 times the safe limit in areas! Bad news! But, and here is where I know I am among the luckiest people on the planet, despite all my bitching to the contrary, there was a major fund available from fine money from the old steel mill in town. We got our home encased in new siding (if they ever finish it), the closet door replaced, and all the excavating and minor landscaping to abate the yard problem, paid for in full. So, anyway, that's the deal with the lead. I'll have some knitting content soon. I promise.
We bought our house in October of 2004. The house was built in 1934 or some such. It's old. It's also sort of a landmark in the neighborhood. The neighborhood is old as well. Our home purchase is now referred to by the DH as our "urban renewal experiment." Anyway, shortly after we moved in, a flyer went out about an informational meeting about lead hazards. I made the DH go and sign us up for assessment. The SFHOs had not had the house tested (even though they had infant twins) so we were sure that there was some lead, but we didn't know where or how much. I wanted to be put at ease. So, they came and tested. The interior was fine except for the closet door in the nursery (I don't call them SFHOs for nothing!)! The exterior was a different story. As near as we could tell, the damn house was still painted in lead paint! And, the SFHOs had scraped the house to make it look a little better, leaving all that leady goodness to sink into the soil. Our soil lead levels were 400 times the safe limit in areas! Bad news! But, and here is where I know I am among the luckiest people on the planet, despite all my bitching to the contrary, there was a major fund available from fine money from the old steel mill in town. We got our home encased in new siding (if they ever finish it), the closet door replaced, and all the excavating and minor landscaping to abate the yard problem, paid for in full. So, anyway, that's the deal with the lead. I'll have some knitting content soon. I promise.
posted by Bitterknitter at 11:48 AM
3 Comments:
Thanks for the explanation. How awesome that the resolution isn't coming out of your pocket!
Whom does one contact to get an assessment done? My house was built in 1935. It's gardening season, and we're tracking tons of dirt inside. The kids wallow around on the floor, and I don't vacuum every day. :-/ I should probably look in to this!
Thanks for the info. :-)
Can you send me the info, too? Or post it so you don't get a gazillion more personal requests?
When we moved into our house, I wanted to have a lead test done since I was pregnant w/ Owen. After being told I was nuts by the realtor (and that I didn't understand buying old houses, even though we'd owned an old house before, but this isn't about my hated realtor), we found out that a lead assessment during the home inspection would cost like $2500. So we didn't do it.
I'm not that worried, since Owen just got his lead level tested and was fine, but I'm still curious about the process...
Love the haircut! I'm tempted to do that myself about every other day!
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