{"id":274,"date":"2011-11-21T21:28:42","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T02:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=274"},"modified":"2014-09-03T22:32:17","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T02:32:17","slug":"i-have-lost-my-mind-painting-the-house-part-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=274","title":{"rendered":"I have lost my mind: Painting the house Part 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

The main motivation for repainting my house at this time was the paint that was literally falling off.\u00a0 This means that in order to paint we have to strip the woodwork.\u00a0 I would normally have done this first and then paint everything after but the winter is coming.\u00a0 I didn’t want to spend\u00a0all that\u00a0time scraping paint off to run out of time and then have old wood exposed to the snow all winter.\u00a0\u00a0 So the rest of the house got painted and I have been going a little bit at a time on the trim, only exposing as much as I could get repainted before winter.\u00a0 Not ideal but what are you gonna do.<\/p>\n

Getting paint off of wood is quite a job, even for someone who loves it.\u00a0\u00a0And there are many options.\u00a0 Chemical strippers are effective but messy, and toxic.\u00a0 The scraping is only part of the job since the clean up is a huge pain.\u00a0 There are grinders and various other contraptions that all work with various levels of effectiveness.\u00a0 Trust me, I have read a lot on this.<\/p>\n

I picked the Speedheater<\/a>.\u00a0 It is an infrared heater that you point at the paint for 30-60 seconds which softens the layer closest to the wood so that it can be scrapped off easily.\u00a0 When the scrapings cool they harden and\u00a0can be swept up easily.\u00a0 There is no chemical to neutralize and globs of melted paint to deal with.\u00a0The heat doesn’t get warm enough to vaporize lead if you have a lead paint problem.\u00a0 It also takes off a ton of layers at one time, and\u00a0from what I could tell at least 12 in my case.<\/p>\n

There are disadvantages too.\u00a0 It’s very hot so when it’s August and 85 and you are holding it above your head I suggest you wear gloves.\u00a0 I was not in the beginning and when my hands started to sweat they slid on the handle\u00a0and I screamed lovely words when the 500 degree metal hit my arm.\u00a0 It’s not heavy but when your arms are already tired from the scraping\u00a0for hours\u00a0this thing feels like a ton.\u00a0 And lastly it’s not cheap, but depending on the size of your job the price for a large amount of chemical stripper may not be either.<\/p>\n

Part of the trim, especially the horizontal pieces that tend to have water sitting on them, was so soft and rotted that I just used a putty knife and gentle scraped.\u00a0 I found that if I used the proper pull style paint scraper it shredded the wood.\u00a0 It probably took a lot longer this way\u00a0but my arms lasted longer.\u00a0 I think most people who watched this would have laughed\u00a0at how gentle I was being and maybe that’s from all the furniture I refinish.\u00a0 I just really wanted to do as little damage as possible.<\/p>\n

Here is a before on the window and porch sill\u00a0in it’s cracking paint glory:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So here are some pics of my scraped trim:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As you may have noticed, I have only scraped the face trim and the first part of the inside window trim.\u00a0 This was also a time precaution.\u00a0 I got the outside part done while it was warm enough and I can then cover the window with plywood and take the window sashes out later.\u00a0 They will need to be scraped and glazed which is a whole other mess that will be dealt with later.\u00a0\u00a0It’s neverending really.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The main motivation for repainting my house at this time was the paint that was literally falling off.\u00a0 This means that in order to paint we have to strip the woodwork.\u00a0 I would normally have done this first and then…
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,23],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/IMG_0256.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1J4KT-4q","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":264,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=264","url_meta":{"origin":274,"position":0},"title":"I have lost my mind: Painting the House Part 7","date":"November 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the reasons most people love old houses is the beautiful old wood trim detailing. It adds character.\u00a0 It's the jewelry.\u00a0 I am one of those people. The downside of wood trim is that it does not last forever.\u00a0 It's lifespan depends on\u00a0it's care and maintenance.\u00a0 Wood from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Before & After"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/IMG_0286.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1203,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=1203","url_meta":{"origin":274,"position":1},"title":"An Antique Dresser","date":"May 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"So let's get back to some furniture makeover, shall we? \u00a0I have a backlog of wonderful projects to show you that I have finished but haven't posted about yet. \u00a0I am blaming this tiny child to be for using up all my energy. Today I bring you one of my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Before & After"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/KSD-Gly-Dresser-Soygel-2-.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":213,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=213","url_meta":{"origin":274,"position":2},"title":"I have lost my mind: Painting the house Part 2","date":"October 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Since I had a clean house I figured I should probably prime it.\u00a0 So I got all my supplies out and thought \"Well, this shouldn't take very long. Maybe I could get the primer coat on in one day, by myself.\u00a0 I mean it's only one story, sort of, right?\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Before & After"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/IMG_0106.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":256,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=256","url_meta":{"origin":274,"position":3},"title":"I have lost my mind: Painting the house Part 5","date":"November 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"So now that the shingles are all blue we move on to an accent color. I have an overall vision for the front of my house that will take me awhile to complete.\u00a0 This includes taking out the metal framed windows enclosing the porch (that are actually just storm windows)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Before & After"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/IMG_0111.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":538,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=538","url_meta":{"origin":274,"position":4},"title":"The cane back chair makeover","date":"February 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"So one night a friend of mine brought me this chair that no one wanted anymore. \u00a0It was very easy to see why. Exhibit A - the broken caned back: \u00a0 Exhibit B - the disgusting vinyl seat: \u00a0 Exhibit C - the paint spattered wood: \u00a0 And so I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Before & After"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Kelly-Sherman-cane-E1-784.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":800,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=800","url_meta":{"origin":274,"position":5},"title":"The Office Trim in Progress","date":"June 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"So as I mentioned yesterday I am well into refinishing the wood baseboard trim that was originally installed in my house in the 1930s. \u00a0It has been an adventure from the start. \u00a0This is one of those projects where you know you are opening a can of worms and you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Before & After"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/stripper-on-trim-.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=274"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2208,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions\/2208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}