Since my last post we have had to refocus our attentions in another area. We don't live in the old farmhouse so that means that we have another house to up keep. Most of the time I love the fact that I don't have to live around the mess I am creating, where I can just close the door for another day. But there are times when trying to work and maintain 2 places is difficult. I think the house we are living in must have felt like it was being neglected, after all I never talk about it here. So it decided to draw attention to itself and spring a leak......behind the wall.....behind the shower that is glued to the wall.....under the flooring....and ruin the drywall......in the bathroom. So we had to gut the bathroom to ....fix the leak......install new drywall......new flooring.......new shower. So since this is a blog about (whisper) the other house that is why there hasn't been any updates. (I can't type too loud because I am sitting very close to the bathroom). I hope the bedroom doesn't have similar insecurities.
I have come to the conclusion that stripping a 100 coats of paint is the easiest and cleanest stuff to strip. Varnish is hell, one coat of paint a pain but alligatored paint another whole story. Some of it just pops right off and other parts are stuck like glue. So you end up with whole sections clean with islands of paint speckled through out. This poses a problem, can't use the Silent Paint Remover because it covers too big of an area and the clean wood turns brown very quickly, a heat gun has a similar problem. Although with a heat gun, it is easier to do a heat sweep. You know, not letting the heat stay in one place too long, just sweeping it over the area. That sometimes releases the paint enough to scrap it off. The rest needed to be done with brute force. Since I don't have much brute force capabilities I call in........Clarke. He has the strength to just scrap, the unable to budge, no matter what I do, stuff.
Oh no is that rain clouds I see..............
Well with that explanation out of the way and can say we are back at "The Big House". I think things got worse while I was away. I truly believe that the paint alligatored worse than it was before with big pieces of paint just falling away.
It has rained here for over a month so maybe that is what is making it worse. Since there is a moment of summer, I figure I have to strip paint while the sun shines, so I picked 2 windows that looked really bad.
I have come to the conclusion that stripping a 100 coats of paint is the easiest and cleanest stuff to strip. Varnish is hell, one coat of paint a pain but alligatored paint another whole story. Some of it just pops right off and other parts are stuck like glue. So you end up with whole sections clean with islands of paint speckled through out. This poses a problem, can't use the Silent Paint Remover because it covers too big of an area and the clean wood turns brown very quickly, a heat gun has a similar problem. Although with a heat gun, it is easier to do a heat sweep. You know, not letting the heat stay in one place too long, just sweeping it over the area. That sometimes releases the paint enough to scrap it off. The rest needed to be done with brute force. Since I don't have much brute force capabilities I call in........Clarke. He has the strength to just scrap, the unable to budge, no matter what I do, stuff. They don't look too bad with a new coat of paint.
Oh no is that rain clouds I see..............
Nancy
