Cost Effective Renovations without sacrificing Original Details

We want to update electrical and plumbing in a 100 year old house (and add A/C). We had thought since doorways and windows had been stripped of paint that we would be clear of major lead hazards. However both of our children have tested for elevated lead levels in only 7 months of living in the house. We drink filtered water. The soil was tested and is awful, but we’ve limited the kids exposure in the back yard. Since kids were tested we did at home tests that showed lead dust on stripped windows to be laden with lead. Certain floorboards in the house, when stepped on, appear to smoke when a fine dust seeps up.

So we are now looking at replacing plaster walls and floors. For safety sake I could part with those, especially since floors pretty bouncy and thin. But door frames and floor boards are impossible to match. Our contractor & architect are saying that to selvedge floor boards and doorways is next to impossible if we replace plaster walls and do gut reno. Does anyone have comparable experience? Electric will be easier to update if all walls come down rather than piecemeal working around plaster. But I don’t want to lose all the beautiful woodwork. Should we hire a lead abatement professional to get their feedback on all the most harmful areas? Pick and choose our details? Heartrending, but the cost of keeping all details is beyond what we can budget.