Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Asbestos - OK!

Whew! I'm in the clear!
The nice man who came to test my air said that I was way below the danger level and so I was in the clear. I'm so relieved, now I can really clean up after my demolition.
Finally all the studs are out. And by the way, I can't help that Jacques is in practically every picture of the house. He seems to know where center stage is - (it's with me).
The guy that came to test my air was really great. I said I was from California, he said where?, I said Whittier, he said, Oh Nixon . . . I said uh-huh! I also added that he met that age line of people who immediately said, oh yes, Nixon, when I said where I was from. He was very nice and laughed at that. (For those of you under the age line - President Nixon lived in Whittier and attended Walter F. Dexter Intermediate School, Whittier High School, and Whittier College; just like your truly). The asbestos man was from West Virginia and I must say, a real southern Gentleman - to the core, told me it was a privilege to meet me. Wow - that kind of thing can knock your socks off. It's always nice to meet nice people in Philadelphia, they are few and far between. But I must say, Angie's List really helps. The guys that came yesterday to take all of the asbestos away were really great. They even found some more, and took that with them as well. Now I have to find a heating guy to come fix the heating ducts, because they took those too. (sigh) It's amazing how it's all linked together.
Okay - so watch for the post about when I finally finish the studio. Things that need to be done in there:
- floors
- "finish" the doorway, so add molding, decide if I want to stain it or paint it.
- make the doors or find them somewhere. Someone told me there is an architectural salvage yard on Ridge and Fairmount, need to check that out. If not - I'm thinking of making some doors. I took a paper making workshop a while ago, we made 8ft. x 10ft. sheets of mulberry paper. I could cut one in half and frame it up, put it on casters and voilá; doors!
While the air testing was going on downstairs, I decided it was time to fix my chairs. When my dad and Ann were here at the beginning of July, we went to Virginia to visit another Lawrence collector. (T.E. Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia) On our way back we stopped at an antique shop and I got a steal on two beautiful chairs for $20.- I'm thrilled. But one was a little rickety, so today I took it apart and re-glued it. Of course I had to get new tools for this. Some wonderful clamps: I have been wanting clamps like this for AGES! The only bummer is that I couldn't get them in a size I needed. They either came with a 12" opening (too small) or a 24" opening (too big). So of course one gets the 24" opening because that will be more versatile. And the little ones with the 4" opening were irresistible. So now I have them too. And they did come in handy.
Here is a picture of Jacques jumping down from the upturned chair before I had a chance to get at it. It's amazing, I started working on it - the asbestos guy needed me - when I got back upstairs, who was sitting in it? … Why?… was there no other place for him to sit?!

1 comment:

McD said...

angie's list. . . you are a NPR nerd! I love it!