Ye Olde Red Brick House

When I first started this adventure, I had grand visions of stripping all of the wood.  After many Sundays spent stripping the wainscoting, plate rails and window frames... that gradually changed. It has taken me years to get to where I am.  So, I changed plans...  and decided not to strip the box beam ceiling.  The main reason is that I would like to have a functioning dining room this year.  Everything is piled in the center of the room.  Table, chairs, hutch, china cabinet, etc.  It will be nice to actually eat at the dining room table. What the dining room looked like during my walk-through.  All the walls, windows, wainscoting and plate rails  are now stripped of paint.  The plan is to sand all the wood down,  and use an oil to bring it back to life.  I would love to shellac it,  but that would probably cost a fortune.  After I paint, it is going to look similar to this.  I am going to distress the beams, so the redwood peeks through. With turquoise walls, instead of red.  Wainsco

Wow, it has been 6 months since I blogged. I took the winter off from taking care of my lawn.  Regretting it now.  My daughter and I still raked the gazillion leaves during Fall, but I did not put down any weed preventer before winter.  I have no more grass. Seriously,  the weeds choked the life out it.  This little weed is the evil culprit that has made my back ache this month. I have pulled 100's of them.  Yet, they keep multiplying.  I am not the only house fighting the weed invasion though... every house on my block has a yard that looks like mine; except their yards are not as large.  My daughter and I got the lawn mowed yesterday.  Then I sprayed quite a few weeds with Roundup.  There is no way I would be able to spray the entire yard...  so I have a bright idea... I am going to spread all of these wildflower seeds in my lawn.  If I have to have weeds, they might as well be pretty ones.  California is in a major drought this year, so I will do my part in non-watering.  I have

The bathroom door looks so much better!  It took about 2 hours to get it this pretty. There are some stubborn bits of paint in the crevices, but nothing the sander won't fix. Hopefully, I won't wait 2 more years to do that.... I cannot make any promises. I may not be doing any paint stripping today. My oldest daughter and I are going to a movie at 11:00 a.m. We are going to watch ' If I Stay '. There will be popcorn and nachos involved, and possibly a couch afterwards. 

Using the heat gun lasted approximately 30 minutes. I honestly do not know why it is so hard to use the heat gun on the beams. The paint just does not want to budge. I have to hold the heat gun in one place about 30 seconds and then can only scrape about 1/2 inch at a time.... I risk burning the wood this way, so resorted to Citri-Strip. I love this stuff for walls, furniture, etc, but not so much in high places.  It took about 3 hours to get this much done: Using a liquid stripper is a nasty job and the clean-up takes way longer. Old varnish is gooey and gross and drips down onto everything.  With a heat gun, all you need is a broom and dust pan when it comes to cleaning up.  With liquid stripper, you have to scrape, wipe, lather on more stripper, scrape, wipe, clean with a gazillion rags, wipe down with afterwash.  Even though the clean up is more time consuming, the wood is much prettier afterwards. And the citrusy smell is so pleasing to the nostrils compared to burning paint/varni

So... I had it all planned yesterday to stay on that ladder for at least 6 hours. I made it to 4. Not only does it feel like 150 degrees up there, but I kept burning my fingers. Three times to be exact. The third time I screamed, really loud and almost fell off my ladder. I have a blister on the tip of my index finger that hurts just as bad this morning.  Heat guns and 100 year old varnish do not get along. Use your imagination for a moment... heat gun in left hand, scraper in right. The paint starts bubbling, The scraper kind of stalls in the varnish as it heats up, then suddenly it gives... right hand goes flying into the tip of the 1000 degree heat gun. Insert *SCREAM* here.  I am hoping I have a pair of thick garden gloves somewhere around here, because I would like to get at least half of the beam done today.  All the picture rails are done! I am crossing my fingers that I can just sand the rest of that paint off. I really dislike using the Citri-strip on them as it gets on the pl

My Labor Day weekend goal is to start sanding all of the redwood in the dining room. I woke up bright and early this morning and started stripping the rest of the paint off of the picture rails. I hope the stain covers the scorched parts... *crosses fingers* Right at this very moment, I am taking an ice cream break because it gets hot up there by the ceiling. And.... I burned my thumb on the heat gun. You know that little piece of metal on the end that gets up to a 1000 degrees? Blisters are forming.   I also need to finish stripping this colonnade and the beam that separates the dining room from the living room.  If all goes well today, I can start sanding tomorrow! I have been looking forward to that day for so very long!! Back to work I go...