Ye Olde Red Brick House

Another Sunday, another day of stripping paint in the dining room. I lathered the first window up with Citristrip and let it soak in for about 30 minutes. I won't dare use the heat gun around my old glass. I got the last 2 panels stripped! Getting the Citristrip residue of the window took an entire hour and a half. I hate, make that HATE getting the residue off. I use mineral spirits. I am considering buying the stuff specifically for removing the Citristrip residue. It was pretty expensive.... but so is my time. The hardest part of paint stripping are the curved edges. If it weren't for curves, I'd get a lot more done in 4 1/2 hours! 

I stripped paint in the Dining Room for about 5 hours yesterday, but there were a few breaks in there due to paint stripper exhumes trying to kill me. I got quite a bit done. It would go so much quicker if I didn't have to use Citristrip as it is such a messy and not so fun job cleaning the residue off of the wood. Cleaning up after the heat gun is so much easier! I was extremely happy to see that the window frame is redwood as well. (The window frame in my bedroom was not redwood, therefore it was painted). I'm thinking about 4 more Sundays of paint stripping this side of the room and I can start sanding/cleaning the wood for staining.

Being that I only strip paint on Sunday's (my five year old grand-daughter lives with me and I don't like her to be around the fumes), this paint stripping project goes on and on and on.... I will be so glad when I'm completely done and can paint my dining room red and white. Hopefully by Christmas. :) Today, I am going to strip as much paint as I can in this area: 

For the past 3 Sundays, I have been organizing my sunroom. There are times when I feel it is the 'junk room'. It ends up being a storage room for stuff that I don't want to keep in the garage, or won't fit into my bedroom or craft room. There were a few times when I just wanted to throw everything in a yard sale just so I don't have to step over it anymore. Last weekend, I had bought 2 more of those large steel shelves. But, it wasn't enough. I went and bought two more! I went to the 99 cent store yesterday and bought 9 more plastic baskets and 4 small ones. I'm proud of what I got accomplished! Next weekend, I can start stripping paint again!   BEFORE (RH side of room) (omg, this is embarrassing)           AFTER               BEFORE (center and LH side of room)  AFTER      BEFORE (wooden bookshelf) (with a smudgy camera lens) AFTER  I have a LOT of paint supplies, power tools and chemicals. Thank goodness...

My daughter and I went to a swap meet last Sunday and I found the most amazing wooden trunk for $25!! I couldn't really afford this right now, so did not buy it right away. I left it there, and walked around a bit to 'think about it'. But, I knew what a great deal this was! It will look fabulous as my new coffee table once I paint the living room.   I will probably paint it white... something like this:     Source   or black like this: Source   I stopped at an antique store on the way home from work on Monday, just to see if they had any fir comparison. They had 2.... and the prices were $80 for one a little smaller then mine, latches broken. The other was a whopping $220! It was slightly larger, with all the hardware. Both had 'sold' tags on them. I totally scored!!

Way back in September, I organized all of my paint supplies and was soooo extremely happy to be able to find stuff. Granted, it has been almost a year, but my sun room looks nothing like that pretty pretty space I worked so hard on. It's a mess! I have to search for almost everything I need... so instead of stripping paint the past 2 Sundays, I have been organizing. I love how once I start organizing, I just want to do more... We are also having a yard sale next weekend... so that helps to keep me going.   I went to Kmart and bought (2) more of those heavy duty shelves. Discovered something really strange... my sunroom floors are not even on the LH side. There was so much of a difference that the little screw thingy that adjusts the height wasn't even long enough. Luckily, I had 3 yard sticks handy. Perfect size to keep my shelves level!    I used these for stacking my gazillion frames and vintage art. I seriously need therapy. I can swear without a d...