By which I mean the dining room wallpaper stripping, as of around 11:30 last night.
Went on and scrubbed the mill dirt off the plaster around some of the windows, too. That and general cleaning to remove the old paste and any remaining bits of wallpaper backing will go on for a bit, as it's a long, wet, filthy, tedious job. If one
could enchant a broom into bringing endless buckets of clean water (à la
The Sorcerer's Apprentice), it'd be tempting to consider making it happen.
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| Before cleaning |
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| There's probably lead dust in that bucket, considering the plant a little way up the river. |
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| Clean. Relatively-speaking. |
4 comments:
What secret did you use to take the woodwork off? Mine requires the jaws of life.
I started a gap by hammering in the blade of my 5-in-1, then introduced a short pry bar with a thin splayed end into it and gently worked the gap larger. Helps to do it close to the nails, to avert cracking. When the gap is maybe an inch wide or so, I start working the prybar along the length of the piece, widening it up, to avoid straining any one area.
For really difficult pieces (like the baseboards, or where the builders drove 3" nails into the exterior plaster and brick), I used a small crowbar after the gap was wide enough. The nails I pulled through the back using a nail puller.
Yeah, it is kind of like the Jaws of Life!
Why is the woodwork off? To protect it during the work, or for refinishing? I love that dark craftsman-type woodwork.
It's off because that was the most effective way for me to strip and refinish it without wasting a lot of time and materials and messing up the adjacent walls and floors. Several of the previous owners had painted it, and it's going back to the Craftsman look. All shellac. :-)
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