Another week has flown by...and we are moving along on the house. To me, there aren't many negatives about this house, but there are a couple of issues that Captain Man and I need to work out. The house only had one small (itsy bitsy) bathroom. Both of us wanted another full bath added downstairs, but there just did not seem to be enough room to fit one in. We vacillated back and forth on where we could squeeze one and finally decided we may be able to fit one in at the foot of the stairs. It would be centrally located on the main floor but easy enough for guests to access at the bottom of the stairs. But it would have to be small. So this past week, Captain Man framed up the new bathroom. And it will be tiny, but should work fine.
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| The new tiny bathroom |
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| Another view of the bathroom to be |
A half bath would be a bit more spacious, but we really wanted to have room for a shower. We think it will work. I have stressed over the placement of the toilet, sink and shower enough now. Captain Man tells me it will work, so I am leaving that bit of worrying alone for now.
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| The master bath ceiling frame up |
We have also completed the ceiling framing for both baths. We are lowering the ceiling in these rooms by 4 inches to allow for ventilation fan installation.
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| Ceiling framing |
And I have started on the other negative of this house. Like I said, there are only like 2 things.... the other-removing paint from the trim. The trim was painted a couple of years ago, but all of it is flaking off. Reason...originally the trim was painted with an oil based paint...and then painted over with a latex paint. Not good. I have researched this quite a bit and cannot find a easy fix. All recommendations indicate it will require hard work and a lot of time to get it off! Good luck with that!
I am not particularly fond of all that toxic crap they have for this sort of project. So, while in Lowes, I found a "safer" citrus stripper claiming to be less toxic than the rest. I purchased a good respirator mask and chemical gloves and set out to try this product out on the first of three mantles. After opening all windows and doors (wanted to have good cross ventilation!), I put on my gear and started on the mantle. It's a gel like substance and I started off with a frugal amount....did not work so well. After about an hour, no bubbling noted. So I reapplied with more and left it for about 2 hours, and that worked. The paint bubbled up and was easily removed on the flat surfaces.
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| After the first try |
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| Second time was better |
The biggest issue, other than being extremely messy and gross, is the trim in this house has lots of nooks, crannies and ribbed moldings. It is so hard to get into these places to remove the paint. It bubbles off fine, but I need something to get the paint off those intricate moldings. There must be some sort of tool made for this, so I am researching for that now.
Captain Man is telling me this is way too time consuming and we should just scrape off the peeling part, sand it down and repaint with a latex over oil paint and hope for the best. I am scared to do that, as most of what I have read states you probably need to get all the old paint off or you may have more peeling paint later 😟
We will see how this goes. There is a LOT of trim in this house!
The electrician is coming today, and plumbers should be here on Monday. Captain Man and I both have returned to work, so we are doing this on our "off work" days. But we are pleased with progress thus far.
Off to work we go!
Until next post....
Enjoy!
