dining room project - stage 1... asbestos?!

Before we remove the popcorn ceiling, it's important to check for asbestos. Houses built prior to 1979 have a high likelihood of asbestos being in the popcorn texture. After that, it was banned, but contractors were able to finish using their stock before they had to completely stop. That means houses could have been built after 1979 and still have asbestos in the ceilings. Since our house was built in 1982, there is a chance, albeit small.

We sent it in to an asbestos testing facility yesterday, and should find out today if there's asbestos. If there isn't, the project will move forward as expected. If there is asbestos, then we'll have to do some serious thinking. There are four possible outcomes: 1) paint over the popcorn ceiling yet again, 2) apply a ton of joint compound over the popcorn ceiling to add a "smooth" layer on top of it, 3) remove the asbestos-infested popcorn ceiling ourselves using approved procedures, meaning it'll be 100x more a pain in the ass, or 4) pay a lot of money and have professionals do it. I have no idea what we'll do, but probably something easy. At the same time, I feel like anything we do with this popcorn ceiling that isn't removing it is just stalling the inevitable. That popcorn ceiling will be gone, it's just a matter of time.

In the mean time, here are some poorly taken pictures of the current state of the paint:

Hard to tell in this picture, but the paint is really uneven (look to the left of the outlet)

Accent wall one color, side walls another color, and ceiling yet another color (or a thinned out version of the side wall color?)

Scraped off a small patch of popcorn for the asbestos test