4/01/2007

A Little Progress

I made decent amount of progress today, both inside and outside the house. I finally got some sanding done on the staircase (joy!). I can honestly say that I'm about halfway done with the railing and spindles. The treads should be much easier and less time consuming. I've been procrastinating with this project, since it's just so damned tedious. There is no good or easy way to get paint off of this type of woodwork. Paint stripping sucks to begin with, let alone on curvy, intricate woodwork that you can barely reach. I hope whoever originally painted the woodwork in this house receives his/her eternal reward in the 7th circle of home remuddler's hell...

After I got a sore back from my sanding contortions, I went outside and vented my frustrations on the blackberry bushes (aka brambles). They've been taking over the utility easement for the past 2 summers, and I just got sick of them. I ended up with 3 large bundles of cuttings, which I plan on ceremonially burning tomorrow. I even dug one huge bush out by the roots. If you've ever had to deal with these things, you can understand why. They grown insanely fast, and they can dominate an area within a couple of years. And they have thorns. We have a few bushes marking the edge of our property that I didn't even realize were there until today, since they were just about covered in blackberry branches. I'm now able to walk back into the woods from the side, which I haven't been able to do since we bought the house. My arms look like I attempted suicide using a safety pin, but at least the blackberry bushes are dead.

4 comments:

The Litter Box House said...

Hey there! Good job at keeping up with the staircase. If you've got some tips and advice, I'd love it. I'm hoping to start work on our staircase this summer. I need to strip paint from the railing and spindles plus sand off the highly glossed carpet pieces on the treads. What type of stripper do you like? And I'm not talking about the fe/male kind!

Di said...

There is NO easy way to strip a stairway, as far as I know. It's tedious, back-cramping work. What I did was to use a hear gun on all the parts of the stairway that I could reach easily. The rest (like the "inside" part of the spindles where they face each other) was done with a methyl chloride stripper. I've also used SoyGel and Citristrip with success, but the methyl chloride is faster (and more toxic). Now, I'm sanding everything using a random-orbit sander, and a Skil Octo sander. The Octo has attachments to get into all the hard-to-reach places, and it's a life saver.

The Litter Box House said...

Thanks! I appreciate the details. I think we have all those items except for the stripper.

Now I'm even more excited about this project...but of course once I start, I'll probably hate it. I just need to think about how disgusting my stairs are and the fact that they drive me crazy daily. AARGH!

I'll be reaching for my heat gun soon. Stand back!

sarah said...

LOL! Yeah, I used to sport that "safety-pin" look after wrestling with my damask roses. I actually had someone ask if I was into self-mutilation. 'Course that was back in HS, so they probably thought I was some troubled teen. Nope, folks, I just enjoy roses a whole bunch. If you have to do this again, might try thick flannel shirts to keep the damage to a minimum. We need someone to make welder-style gloves, for the serious gardener!