The second flight of stairs

My son Arthur and grandson Jack were here visiting last week. That time just flew by! But while they were here, Arthur helped me with two projects I've been meaning to do. One, he cut back a lot of the dead wood and "suckers" out of the trees and bushes in front of our house. I love the way it looks now! And I'm going to plant a succulent garden there - beautiful and drought-resistant. Arthur loves succulents and he inspired me. He has a greenhouse full of them at his home in Portland. We went for walks in my neighborhood while he was here and saw many yards full of beautiful succulents. It makes perfect sense in our perpetual drought situation.

     The other project he got me started on was the second half of our stairs going up to the second story. Wayne and I had taken the carpet off the lower half long ago, and had sanded and more-or-less finished the steps and landing nicely. But we left the carpet on the second half of the stairs "for later". Funny how longer "later" can be! Here was the first half.

     Arthur and I stripped that dirty old carpet and its underlayer off, and he got all the nails and boards and staples out too. Of course, like the first half, the treads and risers are covered in a yucky brown and fully leaded paint. Who knows why? And it's worn, so people must have walked on it for a long time "as is". Ghastly.
 
We don't like to sand leaded paint in the house, and I don't like wearing that big mask to avoid breathing in all that lead. So I am stripping the stairs of the lead paint before sanding. And I'm using a safer stripper so I don't have to wear a mask at all. The kind I'm using is called Citristrip, and it works very well. It has to stay on about 30 to 45 minutes, and then you scrape it and the paint off. I have to use a wire brush on the treads because the wood grain is grooved and there's paint in them thar' grooves. Still, it works and it doesn't eat your hands or poison you. Here's what I've done so far. More tomorrow.
     When the stripping is finished and the sanding is done, we plan to varnish and seal the steps. They don't really need to be stained as they're quite a nice color. Can't wait to have beautiful stairs!
     It sure was fun having Arthur and Jack here, and not just because they "helped". Now I miss them, of course!

The hutch: New life for an old project

I've been working on my hutch for years, trying to get it back to its original finish - the one that matched all the beautiful dark wood in the house when it was built in 1917.  I finished stripping the paint off the windows above the built-in just in time for my son's wedding. . . in 2000. Yikes, that was almost 14 years ago.

Over the years, I've done a bit more here and there. Last week I picked up the project again after a long time of no action. I sanded the paint off one more drawer and replaced the drawer pull. Here's how it looks now on the left. You can see the drawer I just did - it's the large one on the bottom.

This thing sits in the middle of my dining room, and I can't believe it's taken me this long to do. After all I use it as a bar and display center for some of my dishes, and I guess I've looked at its unfinished state so long I hardly notice it. That's all changed. I'm still far from finished, but I have a new commitment. I WILL get it done this year.

So far, most of the work has been done with stripper. I tried the humane, not-dangerous-for-humans, green kind and it just didn't work on this paint. There are at least three layers, the bottom two part of an attempt at "antiquing" the hutch. They are dark gray and couldn't have been attractive even when they were new. Anyway, those two layers are gummy, and nothing gets through them stripper-wise except the really strong stuff. So I have to wear a ventilator mask to use it in the house, although I did the first part, the windows, without it. Hopefully I won't come up with some dread disease. The ventilator mask is a pain in the neck, and I really dislike it but oh well. Have to do it.

The drawers I did with a small sander, and of course I took them outside to sand. I'll do the same for the cabinet doors on either side of the drawers. I'm not sure yet what I'll do for the glass doors, but the remaining painted parts of the frame will have to be stripped in place with the stripper. And the mask.

When I finish stripping, I'll stain the whole thing and finally brush a couple of layers of shellac on it. That's how all the rest of the wood in the house is finished, and the trick will be to match it as closely as I can. Fortunately, none of the already stained and shellacked wood butts right up against the hutch, so 'close to the same' will be just fine.

I never thought it would take this long, but when I'm done it'll be a thing of beauty. Can't wait!