Like a lead weight

It's no joke, houses are money pits.  Sadly, I'm in love with my house, so Jon and I will do whatever it takes to get it in the right condition.  Our place is a 1900 Victorian house that we absolutely adore.  Beautiful floors, high ceilings, and structure-wise, it's in great shape.  But, since we are moving to DC soon and we are going to rent it out, we have a lot of work to do to get it in the right shape.

The main thing we are working on at the moment is the lead paint issue.  In Massachusetts, any house built before 1978 is assumed to have lead paint, and a $400 inspection told us exactly where the lead paint is in the house and what we have to do to fix it.  And since you can't rent to anyone who has a kid under the age of 6 if there is lead paint i your house and it's against the law to not rent to families because they have kids under 6, we have to get this fixed.  Also, Jon won't let me peel wallpaper and paint walls until this is fixed, so it's my top priority.

So, we each did some online training, took a test, mailed it in, and got authorization to do minor things to the house, such as cap baseboards that kids can gnaw on, encapsulate surfaces, and remove doors and shelves.  Jon is going to a day-long course that will authorize him to do even more.  My hope is to get things encapsulated by the end of February so I can start with my other "fun" projects like wall color in March. 

Here's being hopeful!!