Older home rehab

[Darrel K.]

I have a small unoccupied 800 sq ft older house (1950's) that needs a window replaced (dry rotted frame) and drywall work including new ceilings in the kitchen and living room. The plan was do this work myself but lead based paint laws are a concern. From some limited research it appears a homeowner can do the repairs without being RRP certified if they are the occupant. If the house is rented then the contractor or homeowner needs to be RRP certified. Is this correct? I imagine the laws are the same if the house is to be sold, but I haven't seen anything in print yet. So what is my best course of action? Just bite the bullet and hire a contractor or is RRP work going to be outrageously expensive? I noticed that the RPP class is only 8 hours/$300 so maybe that's an option? If anyone has a rough estimate on what I could expect to pay a contractor for the new window install, ceiling, and paint (I'm out of State so getting quotes right now is a little problematic) that would be a big help. Is $4500 realistic? The kitchen and living room portion that needs the new ceiling is probably a total of about 300 sq ft. Also what are the asbestos laws/requirements?