Asbestos, I despise you!

I noted in my previous post that I thought the asbestos removal would be super easy. I was wrong, dead wrong. It was an absolute NIGHTMARE!!!! I got most of the plastic duct taped on Friday night but I ran out of plastic so I had to stop. I was really scared in the vacant house by myself at night. I think I have watched to many murder mystery shows. Anyway, I digress. Saturday was a busy, busy day. Dan started super early going up to his parents to get the trailer. My mom came down and got Sam about 12. I thought that my parents would watch him for us for 3, maybe 4 hours. Boy was I wrong. I started taping up the rest of the plastic and was ready to start removing the asbestos. I got the water tank filled and got all suited up. I had coveralls, shoe covers, a respirator, goggles, gloves and shorts that were WAY to big. I mention the shorts b/c that is something that bothered me a lot while in the prison I was in for 5 1/2 hours. They say once you get started, you aren't suppose to leave the contaminated area unless you have new coveralls and gear to put on. I didn't so I had to stay down there until I was done. The asbestos did come off pretty easy in most of the spots but it was just a lot of square footage to cover. The whole time I kept thinking that the basement room that had the asbestos wasn't that big. If you EVER hear me complaining that our basement family room is too small, kick me and kick me hard. Imagine if you will having your hands above your head for a good 5 hours with no water, no food and shorts that are falling off under your coveralls. Oh and no talk radio or music. Dan and his brother and friend were there half of the time I was working so I could atleast hear them working and talking so I wasn't as bored. Dan left to take the trailer full of junk to the dump and he was going to be gone for a long time so I had him get me some water but I didn't have him get the radio for me so it was a long 3 hours in silence. BORING! I was shaking and could barely move my finger b/c I had been holding that puddy knife scraping asbestos off the ceiling for so long my body was not happy with me. They recommend that after you are done scraping the asbestos off you should paint on a latex primer paint to seal in any asbestos that you didn't get. I was literally just throwing that primer on the wall with the roller. I had no pattern or anything, I didn't care at that point. I just wanted to be done. Danny finally came back about 7:30 and I was so glad I wasn't alone, stuck in the basement any more. I was planning on going to the Relief Society meeting with my mom but I wasn't done with the stupid ceiling and I couldn't leave so I missed it. Thank goodness I can put it on my ipod and listen to it that way. I was so happy to take off that stupid suit and respirator and be out of that basement. I am ridiculously sore today but sooo happy that it is over.

Don't look too close. I quite honestly don't care that it isn't perfect. We will probably have to texture paint the ceiling or something but I could care less. It is done and I am so glad about that. Notice the smooth ceiling instead of the popcorn (asbestos) crap!

On a lighter note Dan and his helpers got the kitchen gutted. We were going to try to save most of the cabinets to put down in our laundry room but I guess they were super, super hard to get out so they were only able to salvage a couple of them. Here are a few pictures of the gutted kitchen. Looks pretty nice huh? It is a mess in there right now b/c the only broom in the house was down in the basement with me and nobody could come down while I was working. That is my project tomorrow night. Clean up the mess and get ready to start painting and getting the floor ready for the tile.

The stove still works so I am going to try to sell that. Hopefully I will have as much luck as I did with the couch and chair.

I feel like poor little Sam has been neglected in the blog posts. I really have to get some video of how funny he has been lately. He walks everywhere now. If he falls he crawls to something to stand back up and will keep walking. I know I have said this a ton but the kid is just so funny and people LOVE him b/c he laughs so easily. I just thought I would show you one of the things he has been up to. Please ignore the nasty fridge that we have in our apartment. Anyway, I didn't think this carmel was open so I was just letting him play with it. Great mom, I know. :) I look down at him and see carmel coming out of his mouth. So gross but he sure was loving it. What a ham!

I don't think that I have ever blogged as much as I have the last week but I am really trying to keep up on it. I just forget things so fast that I am trying to remember this whole process. Maybe to remind myself never to do it again. Just kidding, I think that it is going to be well worth the work.