Thor, Matt and I spent the week dry-walling in the living room where the half wall was removed, cleaning gooped up paint off the walls and cleaning up the disgusting mess created by the insulation that rained down when we took off the kitchen ceiling. This stuff was so foul that Thor even broke down and wore a face mask.
Friday:
We were trying to clean up because Thor was hoping to move in over the weekend. The goal was to have things cleared out at home to move them and to have the sanding done and things clean so we can bring things in on Saturday. I was at home cleaning when Thor called me in despair. The spackle wasn’t drying, there was no way to finish sanding and things were a wreck. An adjustment to our plans needed to be made, and it’s hard to admit the goals you set are a little too ambitioius. Fortunately help was on the way. (more…)
Tags: bbq, cabinets, cleaning, drywall, janis, meg, moving, pat, randy, salvage, sanding, scrap metal, sink, spackle, stripping, trim
Back yard mess
We went back to the house today after the vacation and the 48 hour waiting period for the floors to dry. The yard was just as bad as I remember. I don’t know how much longer the neighbors will put up with it. We were so excited to see the new floor with out the water stains and the holes filled in. We arrived only to find that Matt had taken the key home with him after he had stopped by to take some more measurements!!
We had frustratingly locked all the windows and were unable to break in. I suppose we should be comforted by this fact. At one point Thor contemplated cutting one of the screens, he wanted to see the floors so badly, but was talked out of it. I was then accused (for the first time in my life) of being too optimistic because I pointed out we can just wait until tomorrow to get in. (more…)
So I spent the day stripping paint off of the trim, and this post was originally going to be a How-To, however, the process was so inefficient and frustrating I don’t think that I can presume to tell anyone how to attempt this process.
I want to strip and stain most of the trim in the house because it’s all original and it all matches and has the same pointed detail at the top. Plus I love the look of all matching unpainted stained trim that you see in a lot of those old craftsman homes. The trim that was above the demi-wall between the living and dining rooms I intended to put above the large window in the sunroom to help integrate that room with the rest of the house and not have it look like such an addition. 
So after reading several how-to’s, I though i could easily tackle this project myself in not much time. Perhaps these people who wrote these how-to’s, who made this project sound so easy, did not have seven layers of paint to contend with. Perhaps they did not have to deal with the unbelievably dark stain and several layers of varnish underneath the paint. I hate them. The paint did not come off easily or evenly. The wood underneath looks a little splotchy due to the chemicals and uneven paint.
For others stuck in this nightmare, when I figure out a good way to do this, I’ll let you know. Here are the pictures from my first attempt.
