Oh Dan, just hearing you tell this story reminds me of when I traded a perfectly good house for a hundred year old apartment building. I don't regret the trade, but the stripping of the window paint just about killed me and I was only 30 years old. I thought my hands would never recover. Between that and peeling eight layers of wallpaper interspersed with coats of paint off the 12 foot ceiling, I wondered at my sanity many times. Yes, replacing the base boards and window frames would definitely have been a better idea. It's funny how all of our friends suddenly have very important things to do during these nasty projects, but when you have the baby and she grows up to admire her amazing dad, it will be well worth it. I still think my dad who is a true Do-It-Yourselfer, can walk on water. Grin... Betsy
At 05:46 AM 11/9/2009, you wrote: > > >So, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I decided to rip down the canvas >wall paper covering, taking with it some 80 years of paint, including lots >of lead based paints. I sealed off the nursery, taping the door closed, >had a big box fan exhausting out one window with the other window cracked >open. I had my respirator on, and a jump suit. I pealed all the paper >off the walls and ceiling in pretty short order. I bagged it and sealed >the bags. Then I shop vacked the hell out of the room with a heppa filter >on the vac. > >All went quite well. Unfortunately, Teresa and I made a monumentally >stupid decision after that. Being good parents to be, we discussed the >fact that due to past water damage, the paint on the window sills was >chipping and pealing so we should probably strip that paint off and >repaint them. What a fucking nightmare. I spent about 20 hours over the >weekend in a respirator, painting stripper on the trim and scraping it >off. The stripper worked well on the first umteen layers of paint, it >literally bubbled right off. After a second application of stripper, I >was still fighting with the last couple of layers of paint. I finally >gave up and just scraped it all down so that there was no loose material. > >My hands are scraped and sore from smashing them on corners, edges, >radiators, and exposure to harsh chemicals. My back and shoulders are >killing me from hours on the floor scraping the damn baseboards. > >I attempted making the pitch of just ripping out the trim and putting new >stuff in, but that didn't fly. It would have been so much easier though. > >Anyway, it is done, sort of, and now I have to deal with patching up the >walls a bit, and finishing the trim work on the closet. > >SHEESH! > >-- >Blue skies. >Dan Rossi >Carnegie Mellon University. >E-Mail:<mailto:dr25%40andrew.cmu.edu>[email protected] >Tel:(412) 268-9081 > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
