Ready for Paint

I spent two very long days stripping paint off the vintage white patio set.

As usual, I was pretty obsessive about the prep work. I watched several Youtube videos about prepping outdoor furniture for painting and most of those folks just took a quick wire brush to flaky paint before their repainting, but I'm way too picky for that. When I bought this set, I could actually see outlines of old paint below the top coat. I would not have been happy with that long term. I'd rather do it right the first time. Besides I'm not someone who needs to change the color of my patio set every season.

It was kind of nice to find a use for the leftover paint stripping supplies. We still have two opened containers of KleanStrip and Jasco and had quite a few wire brushes that had been useless on the wood, but they were perfect for the metal.

Waiting for the paint stripper chemical to do its work.

It is funny to look at the photos of the set. To my eye, the bright metal color almost makes it look like it's still white, but I can assure you, I stripped the decorative parts down to bare metal.

I'm actually a little perplexed about the metal. When I first found the bright silvery metal, I thought the set was aluminum, but it's magnetic. I've never seen iron sets that are silver like this. It glimmers very pretty in the sun.

Now, I'm actually wondering if it's galvanized iron but I doubt I'll ever know.

Anyway, after a quick wash, the set will be ready for priming and painting. Now I just need to figure out where I can do it and not get overspray all over the house.

Weekend Update

We had a little bit of movement on our bathroom remodel this weekend. Jeff and I finished staining, lacquering and installing the molding back in place. I also stained and lacquered the windows.

Today I'm finally working on sanding and staining the door. I finished paint stripping this door way back in September and it's been kicking around the garage ever since.

The tile in this bathroom has been a headache ever since we started this project. Our latest problem is that DalTile doesn't carry solid 2x2 tiles so I've been looking around for other options. I ordered samples from a couple commercial outfits for decorative 2x2s, but I am also thinking about just glazing my own.

I went to Georgie's Ceramics over the weekend and picked up some bisque tile and I've glazed them. Now if I could just get back there during their business hours to have these fired, I would be able to see if this is a workable option. (Jeff has a temporary job gig right now, so the car is always gone during the day.)

These are unfired glazed bisque tiles; these are not the actual colors. The glazes will change color when they're fired. The final colors are actually glossy gold, rust and dark green.

Well, back to my sanding project. At least it's beautiful outside today.

As Usual, Paint Stripping

I probably shouldn't bother to post daily updates when I'm doing paint stripping. Yeah, I did more paint stripping. Today I started stripping with the chemicals. I got a late start but I still got a decent amount finished before I called it quits.

I now believe the medicine cabinet door is a modern replacement because of the way it has been constructed. None of the other cabinet doors in the house are assembled like this. Maybe it was a custom size frame? At least they used douglas fir.

Jeff and Eric started putting woodwork back into the bathroom in the window area but I haven't taken pictures yet.

Bathroom Progress

We're making pretty steady progress now. I spent several hours yesterday stripping paint from most of the pile of woodwork we need for the bathroom. I've just got one piece left to finish today. Ironically, this went fast enough that I'm adding to the pile. I'm going to go ahead and strip some pieces we don't immediately need so I don't have to go thru this messy process again for quite a while (I hope).

This is the original crown originally installed above the windows. I couldn't find a modern equivalent without having it custom milled so I decided to just strip this piece since it removed in one piece.

Here is the stack of wood for the bathroom, all stripped with the heat gun. I started on the medicine cabinet door, but discovered it had been painted with one or two coats of paint and that's actually too thin to remove with a heat gun. I'll hit it with chemicals on the next pass. Now I'm left wondering if they replaced the door previously, or if they stripped and repainted it.

While I was stripping paint, Jeff primed the bathroom. Then, later in the evening I painted it twice. We decided to go with the white hyacinth we've got painted on our ceilings throughout the house because it was a pretty good match to the tile. I had expected to paint the room in the ruskin room green, but it just added one more color and I thought it was too much. (We didn't bother to paint the areas where the tile wainscoting is going to be installed.)

Our mosaic tile floor plan fell apart because of the mismatched red tile. We can't get either the cinnamon or the red tiles in less than 6-8 weeks and we don't want to delay the project that long. And there is still no guarantee the reorder will be the correct color so we simply decided to change the plan AGAIN. (I think this might be Plan D.)

I dug through my period catalogs and my pinterest tile board and I found this nice two-color border from a circa 1900s American Encaustic mosaic tile catalog. Of course we didn't originally order enough green tile to do this new pattern, so we have to order more green, but that hopefully will only delay the project another week.

Barrett was planning to start laying the tile floor today, but because of having to reorder the tile his schedule is delayed again. I truly hope this is the last major delay and we'll be able to get started next week.

Paint Stripping Progress

I went this morning and bought the cedar for the ceiling. We discovered when we built the fence that cedar has a lot of variation in its color so Storm and I spent at least an hour picking thru the tongue and groove display to find pieces with a fairly uniform color. I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks installed.

I still need to go and buy the new fir molding but I thought I should strip the paint on the old wood first so I could see what would be reusable and what pieces need to be replaced.

I spent several hours stripping wood today. I got thru the first pass on quite a lot of the wood I need to strip for the master bathroom. It went even faster when it occurred to me that there were a few pieces I could just flip over and send thru the planer. On those, I just stripped the edges and whatever drips of paint had run down the backside. I need to strip about 4 more pieces with the heat gun, and then I can turn to the chemical stripping step.

Yuck, More Paint Stripping

I just keep repeating to myself, "This is the last room. I CAN do this."

I was originally planning to just replace all the woodwork in the bathroom with new fir, but my initial hunt thru the molding catalogs of our local suppliers doesn't give me much faith I'll be able to find the crown pieces I need. So, I went and took a peek out in the garage to see what we had to salvage.

Jeff and I dug around and I discovered quite a few of the pieces removed without breaking. And I was able to find more than enough of the flat trim boards to install around the windows and for the baseboard trim. And the door casing removed without breaking (much) so I'll go ahead and strip the paint off that.

I really only need to buy a couple replacement pieces and strip the paint off 52 feet of painted trim and we'll be set.

Last Door Stripped!

I'm feeling very happy to be almost done! This door just needs a tiny bit of touchup with dental tools and then I can sand it! This was, finally, the last painted door in the house.

There will be a bit more paint stripping of woodwork once Jeff and his friend start demo in the master bathroom, but otherwise, I am done! :D

Door Nearly Stripped

After many days of rain, our weather was finally decent again, though a bit humid, so I spent another quiet day with my heat gun and iPod. I am nearly done with both sides of the door. I haven't done the edges yet. A couple more hours will finish off the paint stripping with the heat gun then I'll have to turn my attention back to the chemicals.

In the category of simple pleasures, the fans on my gaming computer started rattling. Probably I could have just removed them and cleaned them well and reinstalled them, but I discovered I could change them out for $8 and have glowy purple fans.

Yeah, the photos are awful because I tried to take the pictures without the light on or camera flash and I didn't want to go dig around and look for a tripod. You guys get the idea; my computer glows purple now, instead of red. LOL

Last Door!

I have started stripping paint on the last painted door! This is the upstairs bathroom door and since the floor up there is inaccessible, I figured this was as good a time as any to get started stripping paint.

I've been working on this project in short bursts, like an hour or two at a time. I am not going to ruin my hands again; it took 2 weeks for them to heal last time. Also, the forest fires are pretty bad in Oregon so we have an advisory to avoid prolonged outdoor activities.

After about 4 hours in, it got pretty tempting to have this door dipped, but then I remember all the other doors we had dipped came back with the large top panel cracked. Apparently when these doors were made they pieced the wood for the top panel and they come unglued with the soaking. Besides, I would rather spend bathroom budget on tile.

I just keep telling myself I can do this ONE LAST TIME!!

Backtracking

I stained the door to my sewing room too dark. :( I stained it at the same time as the closet and it also ended up being too dark.

I left it hanging in the doorway since I finished that room to see if I could live with it. Nope, I can't. It will bother me every time I see it during the next 15 years we plan to live here. So, I figured this was a problem easily solved by 80 grit sandpaper.

It doesn't look so dark in the sunlight, but trust me, it looked very dark in that closed hallway.

As expected, sanding the profile was a pain, but luckily we have lots of handy contour sanding bits. I think this is good enough to stain now. I don't believe I have to get it back to pristine douglas fir.

Update on Friday: It's still a little darker, but it's better than it was.

Finished Shellacking

We pretty much took our time, partly because of the heat, but we've finished shellacking the bedroom.

Jeff is off playing this weekend with friends, but next week, we'll go ahead and repaint the room.

I didn't finish shellacking the door because I'm super unhappy with how dark it is. I stained that at the same time as the closet. I'm thinking I'll probably end up taking it outside when the floor is being refinished and sand it down again. :(

I'll probably strip the bathroom door at the same time, since we'll have 3 days where we can't walk on the hallway floor. (We're planning to have the hallway refinished as well, due to the ugly scratches the movers put on the floor.)

Shellacking Started

I didn't finish shellacking the sewing room today. I was moving pretty slow and I took frequent long breaks. LOL

I finished two coats of shellac in the closet. I really don't like how dark it turned out, but I messed up when I stained it. I was using the dregs of an old can of stain and I added some "fresh" stain and it clearly dredged up some of the pigment that had settled to the bottom of the can and it turned out to be much darker than normal. And I should have used a lot more fresh rags to wipe up the excess stain. Oh well. Luckily, it's just the closet.

I also finished shellacking the doorway into the room as well as one of the window frames. This will likely take me a few more days at this rate.

Now that the windows are back up and we can close them, the outside temperature is less of an issue. We have air conditioning and it is on. :D

I've left messages with the electrician and floor refinisher. I'm hoping they'll get back to me soon. I'd love to get this room completed and get moved back in by the end of summer. And it would be nice to get the guest room back too.

It's almost time to go dig through the paint in the garage and see what color options we have. I'm predicting hubbard squash. I'm pretty sure we have several gallons leftover.

Staining Finished

The second coat of stain is on. (This stain, because someone always asks, is Jel'd Wood Kote in cherry.) This brand of stain we like much better; it's easy to use and not terribly messy (as stains go). It also covers imperfections well.

This is the point where I freak out—just a little bit—because the wood is so dark. But then we put on the shellac and it brings out the pretty grain and everything is fine.

I also put the windows back in and shellacked them with two coats. It was nice to finish early today and have some time to goof off. :D

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we'll finish shellacking the rest of the room.

As an aside, we would have liked to go with lighter stain, but the woodwork on the main floor was originally that really dark mission brown color and we weren't sure a lighter stain would cover the imperfections once we removed the paint and sanded thru the stain on the woodwork. Our stain combo did its job well.

And, I have a matchy matchy problem; once we used this dark cherry stain downstairs, I had to use it in the rest of the house. :D

Staining Has Begun!

The other day when I said I was gonna fill the holes in the woodwork...well, I didn't do it. I couldn't find the wood filler and I was too lazy to go buy more. But then yesterday, Jeff gave me a hard time about it, so off I went to the store. Jeff filled holes while I removed and stained the windows.

Then this morning I stained the second coat of stain on the windows and stashed them in the bathroom, out of the way. And then we had to sand the woodwork again to remove the excess wood filler. After a break to let the dust settle, we vacuumed and wiped down the woodwork. Then we set to work staining.

Ugh, we still hate Mohawk Wiping Wood Stain. This is our third can of it, and it's just awful; so runny and messy. Yup, Jeff forgot about how runny it was and spilled some on the wall. Oh well, we are planning to paint again anyway.

Not sure why all the pictures are turning out blurry now.

I'm pretty sure we spent more than 8 hours working today and I'm so tired. I'm just not used to this much physical labor. I'm pretty sure we'll both sleep well tonight, which is a good thing, because tomorrow we need to hop out of bed and do the second coat.

We are racing to stay ahead of the weather with this project as the forecast calls for 100ºF weather by the end of the week. Blech. Once it gets that hot, there's not much chance I'll be leaving the gaming lair in the basement. :D

After Before Pictures

I've cleaned up the room a bit and here are the pictures of the woodwork after paint stripping and sanding, but before staining. We're mostly doing prep work today (i.e. removing hardware, windows, vacuuming dust, etc.). We might not start staining until tomorrow, but I hope to do at least a little this afternoon.

At this point, we've been at this project for 3 weeks.

No Rest for the Wicked

We have finished sanding!! We were determined not to do this for another day so Jeff and I forced ourselves to get this project finished tonight.

I looked up the weather forecast and was really bummed to find a 10-day heating trend. By next weekend, it's supposed to be in the high-90s. No f-ing way am I working on staining and shellacking in that kind of heat.

I had expected to goof off this weekend, but we can't do it. We've goofed off too much over the past two years. So, me being the slave driver I am, we are starting staining this weekend. It has to happen.

I'll take some pictures after I clean up the room and vacuum the woodwork to prep for staining.

Oh, the Dust!!!

Ugh, sanding the woodwork sort of sucks. If we were doing more than one room, we would definitely have to figure out dust collection. I can only sand for about 40 minutes before I have to take a break and let the dust settle.

If I really applied myself, I could have finished today, but ugh, the dust. I couldn't stand that many hours in that room. I'm hoping Jeff and I will finish sanding by Friday night, then we can feel good about goofing off all weekend. :D

Today I finished sanding the closet with 80-grit and 100-grit. The wood had more paint embedded in the grain so I started with the rougher grit. I won't bother to use 80-grit in the rest of the bedroom. I also finished sanding the baseboard with 100-grit. I still have the windows and the entry doorway.

After I finish with the 100-grit, I think I'll go back over it quickly with 150-grit. I'm not sure that I'll bother with a finer grit than 150. I guess it will probably depend on how tired I am. LOL

Again, it's not really worth posting pictures. It still looks pretty much the same as earlier photos. I may try to sweep up the dust tomorrow and take some pictures before I get started sanding again.

Fiddly Details

Paint stripping seems to be one of those activities where you are never really done. You can spend a staggering amount of time trying to clean up paint out of all the crevices, but eventually you have to just declare it "good enough" and move on. I spent a few more hours the last couple of days cleaning paint out of crevices on the crown mouldings and door jambs with dental tools, despite my declaration last time that we were done. Seems like I do this every time.

I also finished stripping paint off the window in the closet. Now we really are at the point where we can fill holes and start sanding. Really, for sure this time. LOL

Jeff has been working with his friend, Eric, everyday this week. He usually is the one who does projects like filling holes in the woodwork, so I guess I need to go dig around and find the wood filler. I really want to keep this project moving along. Sanding, here we come!!

Over the weekend, alas, we got a distracted with our video game again. I never seem to be able to do real life house projects on the weekends anymore. Instead, Jeff and I basically "cleaned house" in ArcheAge and dealt with getting rid of "stuff". We had land and a house and lots of chests that were full. We were sort of pack rats and we're now trying to clean house, so to speak, so we can close out this chapter of our lives. It is possible we will go back and play some more ArcheAge in the fall, once our summer projects are finished, so we're trying to get our character's affairs in order for a long, possibly permanent, break in the game.

Family House in ArcheAge

Two Week Progress Report

I finished the third pass cleaning up the picture rail last night and Jeff did a bit more detail work on the crowns. I've gotten the woodwork in the closet cleaned up so it is "good enough." (My standards for inside a closet are a bit lower than for inside the bedroom proper.)

We still haven't figured out what to do with that bad patch on the baseboard. We'll take a closer look at it and see if we can remove the spackle and get it filled with wood filler. If not, I'm contemplating just covering it with a blank utility box cover.

Jeff has started digging spackle out of nail holes because it makes a lot more sense to fill them with wood filler before we sand. But, once we finish this bit of repair work we will be at the sanding stage! Woo hoo!

Given the hot weather we had last week, and how unproductive we've been for the last couple of years, I'm pretty happy with how fast we're getting through this project. If we keep on it, I think we can finish the woodwork and painting by the end of the month. I'm actually thinking about scheduling the floor refinishing so we have a hard deadline. :D

Dental Tools, for the Win

We are having oh so much fun playing with dental tools. At least the weather has cooled down so we can manage to work for a few more hours a day.

We are getting pretty close on these two crowns. Believe it or not, you don't have to get every last bit of paint out of the crevices; the stain should cover it pretty well. It's better if you don't dig too hard because you'll damage the wood if you keep after it with the tools too much.

We're also cleaning up the picture rail. It's a little bit of a tedious project because of all those curves and edges.