Our Lives Are Full of Scraping

Noel has been a busy busy boy the last week or so. For an hour or more every day he dons HEPA mask and grabs the heat gun or Silent Paint Remover (on loan from the neighbors), and attacks various bits of pink. This is because, unlike myself, he has conceived of a sudden intolerance for the pink.

One area where we will switch to chemical paint remover (we have several gallons of Peel-Away just itching to be slathered on the trim) is this decorative bit where the second floor is cut away. It just doesn't clean up as nicely with the heat methods.

The baseboard does, however, come nicely clean. Big flat-ish areas are best, I suppose.

The niche is made of plaster, and thus totally sucks as far as paint removal. I'm going to give it a try with Peel-Away and see what happens. I have to admit that I always thought I would like having a niche, but I am not very fond of it now that I live with one. I'm still mulling the idea of putting a narrow, tall window here and letting more natural light into the stairway.

Another odd little spot: they painted the floor pink along the handrail. Fortunately, it came up easily.

And the big project has been the Accordion Room door, and the surrounding trim. While it does make the hallway much darker to not have the pink, it also makes it, well, a lot less pink. This will be really nice when we repaint the doors white.

And finally, one of my favourite things in the house is this riser near the top of the staircase. It has a funny dent in it that looks to me like a guy sitting on the toilet reading a newspaper, and I call it "The Pooper." When we repair the staircase I'm sure it will disappear, along with all the other weird dents and gouges, but for now I think of him as part of the family.

Technorati Tags: paint removal, renovations, victorians, woodwork

posted by ayse on 05/05/09