It is the little things that make you happy when you are remodeling your house.
The little things like wonderful large paint blisters when stripping the trim.
Blisters on the paint, not from the paint stripper dripping on my hand. I would certainly wash that off quickly and I would certainly be wearing gloves and a mask, and safety goggles, and be in a well vented area.
I am very careful with things like that. I would not be a spur of the moment person who walked by and was totally tired of seeing the nasty old painted trim which I had given up on months ago and dropped what I was doing and dug out the paint remover.
The sad thing is that these layers were under a layer of off white and two layers of pink and a layer of burgundy paint.
And under these layers were ( actually still are) a layer of off white and a layer of dark purple ( new color find for the house). These layers do not blister. They melt into a goo.
I know now why I haven't been scraping paint for a while.
I see on Houseblogs, all of you DIYers who have great success removing paint. I hate you! Ya'll make it look so easy. You have tons of tips and suggestions. Heat guns, different products, different scrapers, toothpicks and potions. In one mighty sweep you are able to take off a hundred years worth of paint from your trim.
None of it works for me at this house anyway. Maybe it is me, maybe it is the house. Maybe we are both extremely stubborn. But the paint in this house wants to stay on the trim.
If it weren't for all the gunk under the layers of paint, I would just leave it and add to the layers.
But there is the gunk, painted over gunk. And, I hate painted over gunk.
ps. I do not have any blisters, Mom. But I did not wear gloves, or a mask, or goggles and I lived to type about it.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Home Improvement Happiness....
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6 comments:
Jenni, don't worry, it is not you. I'm sure all those people who make paint stripping sound so easy have just forgotten how tough it is. Or have blocked it from memory!
Mom and I did one small bathroom's trim and a door, the rest of the woodwork in the house was stripped by professionals. Yes, it was very expensive, but Mom said she wanted to see it done in her lifetime. Who was I to argue?
It is hard work, very frustrating, labor intensive, and messy, but worth it in the long run. Just keep at it.
-Christine
Strippin' is a hard messy job. Patience and persistence is what it takes.
However, do take care of those talented hands of yours. Your photography and art work needs to be on display. I've seen work just as good as yours in National Geographic.
Sheesh! I come every day for a week to the same picture of your gran (fab gran, by the way) and then I skip it for three days and look at all I miss!
I stripped the woodwork in my living room for two freakin years. it isn't easy. It is hateful and odious and bad and hell. But if you don't wear a mask, you get scabs inside your nose that take six months to go away. Trust me. I mean, not that I'd know.
Well, it's not MY paint stripping that has seemed easy, I'm sure! :) I can barely scrape up the courage to go and finish the new front door!
That big paint blister is awesome.
I hate stripping !!!
Eugh...Scabs in your nose for 6 months.
Thank you Jennifer, Ege, Christine, I was feeling like I was the only one who wasn't getting anywhere with the stripping.
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