gorgeous!!

did you do 2 slabs on top of one another?

no, they just did double thickness at the edge and used plywood to double up and reinforce the rest of it...

just a diffrent question, looking at your fireplace, did you consider that the paint you removed could have lead? or any other area in the house were you removed paint? if so how did you managed to do so without putting your family at risk with lead itself? I need to remove paint from my house and is something that concerned me.Thank you.

Well, the kids haven't been allowed in the house during the renovation and all the places where there's old paint are being painted over with oil-based paint which is supposed to seal in the old lead paint. As far as the fireplaces, not sure. Once they're stripped, isn't all the lead gone?

no, it's in the air.

Even if it's stripped, as opposed to sanded, which presumably generates a lot of dust?

Like any dust, as long as you clean it out properly, you should be fine. There are special lead testing kits and some sort of special wipes you can use too apparently.

I grew up in old houses all my life, probably like most of you, and they were renovated, probably had lead paint, and I turned out ooooo, fia fiaososodifhjak a fl ...ok. Sorry, must be that persistent twitch I've had since I was young...wait a second!

We are definitely concerned about the lead dust issue, but we'll test the kids pretty regularly in the first couple of years. Hopefully there won't be any probs.

Most peds in the city test for lead regularly anyway. And you can get someone to check out your house for like two or three hundred bucks. Very extensive test and worth it in my opinion

To the previous poster: would you be able to recommend companies/people who do lead testing?

Thank you.

www.accuratebuilding.com

I think they do lead testing

I'd have to look in my home files for the name of the company we used. Lots of co-ops in NYC require seller to provide a lead test to buyer. More and more in the last few years. But they are great and tell you this window sill is high, these rooms are fine, etc. We actually repainted the trim one window that was high for some reason.

As far as those marble counters... one snag. Lemon and line juice will discolor/dull them. So whatever you do, make squeeze every lemon in the sink and wipe up every drop that touches the counter IMMEDIATELY.

hello, where did you get the salvaged marble from? It looks great!

Build It Green NYC
http://www.bignyc.org/

What material did you use for the counter (with the under-mount sink)?

Who fabricated your marble? It looks beautiful

You really do need to test for lead dust when you do this kind of an extensive reno. It can collect in between floorboards. One of the methods of abatement of the dust is to first use a HEPA vacuum cleaner. Then do a double mopping system with one bucket containing a TSP solution (Simple Green has TSP) and another bucket containing just water. Also good is to buy a ton of tack clothes to get dust off the walls and other surfaces. Not sure if this will take off lead dust in its entirety from those surfaces though, but can't hurt. I know, I know you don't want to tune in to all of this stuff. But with kids it's really important to deal with it. Lead levels in the bloodstream go away with time as long as exposure isn't still ongoing. So also test them now if you can. And test them again every so often. And serve up a lot of leafy veggies or give them some vitamins because that helps the body deal with lead exposure.

Thanks, Anon.

The reason landlords/homeowners should not test for lead is that if you test and it comes back positive you are forever bound to tell the truth as when you try to resell or rent to a tenant, "Yes, I'm afraid the house does have lead paint." Where if you never test you can always say, "Gee, I don't know, I have never tested it."