Paint Curls...

I have been removing the paint from the doors we bought months ago at our local Habitat Restore for the laundry area.




I have been using the heat gun which is working great on this door. (It doesn't work so great on the doors that belong to the house. ) Does anyone have any hints on the best way to remove the paint from the grooved trim at the panel?

And ....that is the longest paint curl that I have had in two years of stripping paint. It just made me happy.

Again.....

There it is again. On the hall closet. More pepto pink. I don't know why I would think it would have been a different color.

Was there a sale on pepto pink once, or was it really THAT popular a color?

Take a look at this trim... I mean really..... How weird it that? The same color(s). I bet the chips would match.

(the door picture is from the archives- last June)

Home Improvement Happiness....

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.

Dressed in Pink

I have noticed that many of our house blog neighbors homes were once adorned in Pink. I believe at one time or another, almost every surface ThirteenEleven was pink. (There is evidence of at least 3 shades.) Most of the rooms the trim was painted the same shade as the walls.
Pink, Pink, and More Pink.
Pink over exposure.

The picture I missed was the plastic pink wall tile found under the paneling in the bath. It was found and ripped out very fast so we could repair the rot on the walls and floor. I could not believe they even made plastic wall tile. That was before I knew of the demand for the plastic bath wall tile for the mid century modern folks.
Sigh.... I would have saved it.

The brick on the fireplace--once painted pink.
The cast iron fireplace cover---pink.
The mantle---pink too.
The mullions---once pink.
The subway tile on the bedroom fireplace--once pink.
All pink.


Was your house ever Pink? Let us know and show us pics.

Day 1 Pictures

Day 1 at ThirteenEleven..... The long awaited beginning, starting point pictures of our home 15 months ago. The pictures give you an idea on just how dirty was this place. Probably the second dirtiest place I've been, maybe the third. The thing the pics don't show is the smell. Eugh!!! I couldn't get it out of my nose for days. Then Mom suggested using the ol' Vick's in the nostrils trick. ( Yes, the very one the police use to hid the smell from murder scenes.) EUGH!!! AGAIN !!! ----- Well it worked.
Day 1 at the house was really Day4 after closing. The dude living here just would not leave. Then he left stuff here and kept coming by to pick up other things. I think we were very generous with the time we gave him and the fact that we allowed him to keep coming back to pick up stuff. But, considering the bullets and bullet holes found everywhere in the house, it was probably the best idea to let him take his time and not to anger him.....Yikes.

So here they are...

Entry Hall ( looking from front door)

*note* Pepto Pink.. Lovely choice of color.

Also note this is the wall paper didn't want to come off the walls,and made me a true disbeliever in all the store bought paper removal solutions and systems.

Living room to sun room ( left)

to dining (right) Yep, it really is Pink Carpet.

Dining Room

See that moldy moisture spot to the left.

Yes, anything like that means, whole walls have to be removed and re-built.

Including replacing the interior workings of the double hung windows.

Keep that in mind for future projects.

Main Hall back to front, then front to back.

*Notes*

-The carpet was really dirtier than shown in the pics.

-The wallpaper covered the well known Pepto Pink.

-Why would anyone place sconces on the moulding?

-Lovely drapes covering the washer/dryer area.

(To date... no doors added to wash dry area)

Front Bedroom.

"That is a Groovy light fixture, dude."

We sold it at the yard sale and the lady was going to paint it red.

Dining Room.

Why are there bricks on the hearth? Is that blob near the hearth the reason Puppy won't go in this room?

Living Room

Wow what a mirror! and it was PLASTIC !!! We were so lucky it came with the house.

Note* The mirror was not glued to the wall. It was hung on a nail and they painted around it. See the pink peeping through underneath. It went well with the pink carpet. See the logs crammed in the coal burning fireplace. They plugged in and had a red light bulb inside. Lucky Again !!! That is a bug bomb on the vent.

I insisted the former owner to set those off before he left.

Half Bath

Note* Each door in the house had a dead bolt lock.

Middle Bedroom

I forgot about the top layer of wallpaper. Two other layers were underneath.

Why was stuff left in the drawer? This is the cabinet, when removed revealed a fireplace and the infamous hearth the fell to the basement.

Back Bedroom

Showing the carpet that was over the vinyl that was over heart pine floors.

Bath

Last Cleaned in 1989. The black stuff around the sink was facial hair ( Maybe?) where the dude shaved.

Many Thanks go out to Mom, Aunt Lynne, and Marlene who cleaned this room before it was demolished for re-building. We were able to use it for a while, while we were here working. Then it became a hole in the floor for 3 months, complete with a ladder providing quick access to the basement.

I've saved the best for last.....

Kitchen

Words really won't describe the status of this room. It is best described using guttural noises. Go ahead, give it a try.....EEUUGHH, EeeeE, Augh!!! UGH.

Notes* That is cat food left for the cat he left here for two weeks. I told P.O. "Puppy hates cats". Thankfully, the trap provided by the animal shelter caught the cat before Puppy. I am not sure what the trails of splatter goo are on the floor and carpet. Did I tell you, This room made me gag. There was a pot left on the stove that had something black inside. Shout outs go to Uncle Irv, who helped take down the cabinets and 'hawl them to the street. In the pic showing the pantry, there is a door above that was full of beer cans. Beer cans were in most of the hollows in the home.

Hall

Hall to front door
The space had two layers of wallpaper on top of this lovely pink paint, and atleast 2,437 nail holes.
Uncle Irv was counting them at one time.


paint: white marigold. Base had to be removed when house was leveled.
Hall to Bath
new HVAC return added. The switch to the left has too many wires, than I know how to install. If anyone knows, please let me know.... So I can install this switch. One switch controls one light, but I have 3 sets of wires.......