Our New Old House

In tearing out a cabinet to install the dishwasher, we discovered several paint colors our kitchen had once been:

Color Inspiration: strained peas and mac n’ cheese.

[tags]paint, photos, kitchen, dishwasher[/tags]

Spring is here, people! That means I get to work on my windows!

My goal for the windows is to take them apart, reglaze them, refinish the wood, and put them back together better than ever.

Here I am with my first window to dismantle.

I took off the front stop and then the lower sash came right out.

The stop between the two sashes was a lot harder to get out. It’s not just nailed onto the frame. It is inserted into the frame about half an inch. I’m going to have to break the stop and then insert a new one when I put it back together.

Once I got that stop out I was able to lower the top sash to take it out too. The top sashes were all terribly painted shut and I spent a good 20 minutes tapping a putty knife into the cracks around the edges to loosen the paint.

Here are the ropes for the weights. Someone must have replaced these sometime in the recent past because they’re in great condition.

Now with the sashes out, there was a giant hole in my house!

Here are the windows waiting to be restored. I need to finish stripping the paint off the frames before I start working on these.

I made sure to label each one so I know where to put them back when they’re done.

I took more pictures but I guess they haven’t ended up on my Flickr account yet. All the windows are out of the front bedroom now, though, and I’m working on stripping the last of the paint off the window frames.

[tags]bedroom, windows, paint, woodwork, photos[/tags]

This weekend I stripped another door.

Today I put another coat of polyurethane on the test door. It’s looking so cool!

Then I worked the rest of the night on the front bedroom. No pictures yet because darn it, after all that work it doesn’t look like I did much. But I kept heat gunning the paint off the window frames and baseboards, then I applied Citristrip to the front window frames to take off what was left of the paint and the excess varnish. It needs another round.

It feels like I’m getting nowhere right now, but I’m sure I’ll feel better in the morning. My arm’s just sore from all that scraping.

[tags]varnish, woodwork, heat gun, Citristrip, paint removal[/tags]

I’m very close to finishing my first paint stripping project. There were two wood doors in the basement of my house when I moved in. Both had several layers of paint. I never planned on putting these doors back up in my house so I decided to use them as practice pieces so I could learn how to strip paint. Maybe it’s the fumes from the mineral spirits, but as I’m nearing the final phase of restoring the wood to its natural beauty, I’m getting really sentimental about this door.

I had never used a heat gun before but through a little experimentation on the door, I learned how. I learned how long is too long to leave CitriStrip on a project (3 days = way too long.) I learned the miraculous power of mineral spirits to dissolve even the gooey-est mess (3-day old CitriStrip.) I learned that wrapping a terry cloth towel around a flat head screw driver is a great way to get the gunk out of carved molding and cracks.

Most importantly, I learned why these houses are called Craftsman houses. In uncovering the layers of paint I uncovered a timeless beauty that was built to last for generations. Even though the design is simple and functional, every surface and joint is constructed with skill and care. The men who built this door paid attention to the grain of the wood, made sure the saw’s cut was perfect, sanded the door by hand, lined up the joints in the molding by hand. Their hands, not some lifeless machine, touched every part of the door. Nearly a hundred years later, the quality and beauty of the door still glows warmly, bearing the scars and wrinkles of age, but no less beautiful for them.

Those of us who fix up old houses can sometimes see the benefit in “flipping” a house quickly, using all modern materials, making a house clean and functional, but not really taking the time to seek out its inherent character. That’s fine for some houses. In fact, it’s really the best thing to do for a lot of properties. But when we come across a house that still has all that beautiful Craftsman quality buried underneath the layers of paint, paneling, and wallpaper, we discover that a quick fix and a coat of paint just won’t do it justice. We feel a responsibility to the craftsmen who built the house, and through the process of restoring it to its original beauty (or updating in a way that maintains the house’s unique character) we feel a kinship to them.

In a way, I feel like an apprentice to each of the master craftsmen who built all the parts of my house. On some days I’m a lowly plaster mixer, fumbling around to find the correct ratio of powder to water. On other days I’m a carpenter’s apprentice, learning to double check my measurements and square up my work. But since I’ve never done any of these things before, I’m relying on the house to be my guide to how to fix what’s wrong with it. I guess in a way I’m getting instructions from the craftsmen themselves through the work they did on the house.

This may be getting a little metaphysical, but it’s hard to describe the feeling I get just placing my hand on the bare plaster that’s been covered up for 60 years under layers of wallpaper, or running my hand along the bare wood I’ve just stripped and prepared for varnishing. Something inside me wants to send a message into the great beyond to all those craftsmen, saying, “I appreciate the care you took in building my house. I’m doing my best to learn how to continue caring for it. In the meantime, please excuse my fumbling.”

I don’t think I expected to feel this way when I started out on this project. Brandon and I really looked at the house as an investment, a great experience in the meantime, but ultimately with our eyes on the prize of getting a good return for our money. There was nothing wrong with that earlier mindset, but I’m grateful for the new understanding and appreciation I have for my house and the people who built it.

[tags]doors, paint, photos, woodwork, craftsman, bungalow, house building, rehabbing, old houses[/tags]

Today I started removing the paint from the woodwork in the front bedroom. With the heat gun the paint just LEAPED off the wood. I swear I heard it whimpering, “I surrender!” on its way to the floor.

After I removed the paint in the bedroom, I went downstairs to spray some paint onto the metal I stripped last month. I chose a hammered bronze finish.

Here are before pictures:

I’m sure you all remember my super flattering shot with my gas mask:

Here are after pictures:

Baby steps…

[tags]bedroom, paint, photos, woodwork, heat gun, stripping paint, registers, fixtures, doorknobs, spray paint, Rustoleum[/tags]