Abatement

A trying morning is when you have to get out the Yellow Book to find companies under the heading of "Asbestos Abatement and Removal, etc."

I won't go over the many rooms I've painted in the Nasty home since we took possession of the house in the summer of '07, but it seems like we've been working on the kitchen/dining room area forever.

First, we ripped down wretched, 80s era wallpaper. Then I painted the walls two types of green for the desired color scheme. Then after roughly a year I painted a small stripe of Millsport Blue at the top of the walls combined with light blue as the main color and off white on the chair rail and moldings. Then I replaced the hardware on the cabinets and painted the cabinets. Then we got a faux granite countertop and new kitchen sink put in. And now we're having professionals lay down some Allure flooring.

The flooring dudes ripped up the carpet in the dining room this morning, and that was about it since they're not going to go any further because they're worried the old flooring might have asbestos in it.

I have visions of guys in Area 51 suits and two-ply plastic cordoning off the area as they work and money mercilessly bleeds out of our bank account.

So I had to call a guy to come out and test samples of the flooring to see whether it's asbestos-laden. For what's it's worth, he didn't seem to think it has asbestos in it, so that calmed my nerves a bit. But we'll find out Friday once the lab report gets back.

In the meantime, we're stuck with flooring in the dining room circa 1974 (see picture above). It's godawful ugly, unpleasant to walk on in bare feet, and a reminder how I might be screwed.