The Jaundiced Eye:
It wasn't bad, it was just really white
The Jaundiced Eye:
The house felt like it was covered in a white sheet
The Jaundiced Eye:
Like it was waiting for someone to come home and take it off
The Jaundiced Eye:
Thats why we did it
The Jaundiced Eye:
we took down the hideous thermostat and phone lines
The Jaundiced Eye:
And applied the first coats of stripper
The Jaundiced Eye:
The first time anyone painted the woodwork, they chose band-aid brown
The Jaundiced Eye:
We discovered that a repair had been done.
The Jaundiced Eye:
Long ago the neighbors house burnt down and water damage from the fire necessitated the replacement of the top rail of the wainscot.
The Jaundiced Eye:
Gentle, orange based strippers were not effective enough so we switched to heavy duty chemicals.
The Jaundiced Eye:
Why not use a heat gun? Because the Redwood is too soft and can burn quite easily.
The Jaundiced Eye:
Once the right stripper was found, progress begins to be made.
The Jaundiced Eye:
At this point I had my doubts. The woodwork was in pretty rough shape, and was uneven in tone.
The Jaundiced Eye:
I realized that I am now at the old varnish. It appears to have blackened with age, and thats why they painted it in the first place.
The Jaundiced Eye:
Mineral spirits and green plastic scrubbys become my new best friend.
The Jaundiced Eye:
What looks like progress is really only the begining.
The Jaundiced Eye:
Months of detail work lays ahead.
The Jaundiced Eye:
I picked every last speck of paint out of this woodwork, using dental tools, paintbrushes, and tooth brushes.
The Jaundiced Eye:
In for a penny, in for a pound. The detailing was done in my spare time, after work, and on weekends.
The Jaundiced Eye:
After more than a year Puma is wondering when I will ever be finished.
The Jaundiced Eye:
After 1 and a half years of stripping, I finally have stained the wainscots.
The Jaundiced Eye:
I chose a dark red-mahogany stain, topped of by a 5 coat polyurethane finish.
The Jaundiced Eye:
I decided to leave the framing a nice crisp white, and did the walls a warm fall-like orange.
The Jaundiced Eye:
The entryway is so much warmer now.
The Jaundiced Eye:
The house is happy again.
The Jaundiced Eye:
We took the white sheet off of our 1910 Edwardian.