I thought my life was lacking its usual drama until two weeks ago happened. (Sidenote: You can relax a little bit. It’s not so big of a deal that I couldn’t write about it for two weeks, it’s just that Easter and other visitors have come in between “then and now” so I’m tardy on my dramatic reporting.)
I woke up one morning and saw that a house across the street had workman setting up for some type of home improvement job. With all of the houses around here being close to a hundred years old, lead paint is definitely a hot topic. Everyone’s worst nightmare with young kids is for a neighbor to have their house sanded in preparation for a new coat of paint. The lead tainted sawdust gets everywhere and easily travels into neighboring homes through doors, windows and on the botom of shoes that enter the house. So, our town has ridiculously strict codes including ones that require contractors to use sanders with HEPA vacuums attached to them. Painters are also supposed to completely encase a house in tarps to prevent the dust from traveling, and they’re supposed to wear protective clothing themselves with masks and respirators. Better yet, they are supposed to give all neighbors proper notice of this kind of work being done.
With that background established, as I brushed my teeth, I leered through the bathroom with my eagle eyes. I could tell it was definitely a painting job but there was only one tarp so I assumed that no sanding would be done. I went off to music class without a worry only to return to see the neighbor’s house covered in dust, one measly tarp blowing wildly in the wind and the dudes sanding without any protective gear. Their shoulders and faces were covered in dust. I immediately called my neighbor who has young kids and learned that she had abandoned her house with her two little ones earlier that morning and planned to be out all day.
I was still in my car a good distance from our house to minimize exposure and started to quickly freak out. Was I supposed to go into the house and just hope it wouldn’t travel? Did I have to check into a hotel? Lolo was overdue for her nap, and I didn’t really have the energy to stay out all day especially since I didn’t have enough supplies to last me. Staying out all day doesn’t really help either because if it’s in your house, you have to come back to it eventually. My neighbor called back and said she would meet me to talk about our plan of action. I called Matt and he connected with the painting company who was sending out the job’s supervisor to see what was going on.
He arrived and immediately took me for a paranoid and irrational mother who would eventually cause him extra work and a doozy of a headache. While this isn’t far off from reality, he didn’t have to show that he knew I was a lunatic. In a completely condescending way, he told me that he couldn’t help that it was windy and couldn’t control the weather and that he was complying with all codes. In fact, he was working with an inspector on this job.
Wha? By that logic, if you don’t control the weather but it’s raining, you would still paint a house. No, you wait until it stops raining. If the one tarp you have is waving horizontally in the wind, you either add more tarps or adjust to the current conditions and postpone work.
He was obviously annoyed and wanted to disperse with us as soon as possible and said, “Fine, I’ll tape your windows.”
So, work stopped as the men traveled over with ladders to tape the windows on our two homes. At this point, I’m leading the charge with Matt covering from his office by making calls and researching on the internet.
As they tape our windows, I call the painting company’s main office and say that while this guy is trying to manage the situation, what they’re doing is still not making sense. The one tarp, the lack of protection for the men sanding, not adjusting to the weather, etc. I said, I’m concerned and I don’t think this guy is going to appease me. So, Matt gets in touch with the town inspector who is on his way to check out the work. While we’re doing all of this, we realize that this house is just over an invisible township line and they live in a town with no lead restrictions and their inspector is out of town for the Easter holiday.
However, I think I barked loud enough at the main office to cause others to intervene, and the job was shut down for the day. Bam!
While our town’s inspector did come over, he couldn’t do much because it was outside his jurisdiction. But he did allay some of my fears and was glad they had agreed to tape our windows.
The next day, the painters showed up with full on Tyvek space suits, masks and plenty of tarps. They overlapped the tarps around the house and actually anchored the bottom edges to the ground so they weren’t waving in the breeze.
The job supervisor never showed up again to check on anything, but I was defintely more satisfied. I couldn’t quite relax as the sanding progressed through the weeekend, and I did end up calling once again when a tarp detached from the house. But, all in all, I am glad I spoke up. What’s a few more people in town thinking I’m out of my gourd if it saves Lolo from lead poisoning?
stinkerbean 
