Hi again! It’s been a couple of weeks since our last post and again, we had quite a lot of things going on which were larger projects nearing completion, thus it made since to wait. Plus 2 weeks seems to give us some good “meat” to talk about.

One of the significant accomplishments this week was finishing our “test wall.” I know this doesn’t sound like much but this was the wall that we began scraping the very week we moved here. The reason it’s been a work in progress for so long is for two reasons: 1) it was the wall that had “everything” in it and 2) we used it as a test. By “everything,” I mean it had trim, crown molding, a window, completely rotten boards, drip rale, old caulking and unusual corners with trim.

We called this the “test wall” because, since it had all of the above and was out of sight of the poor neighborhood putting up with us, we used it to test pretty much EVERY kind of paint remover system out there (believe me, there are more than you would think). With our intent to strip the current paint all the way down to the bare wood on each and every piece of wood on this house before we begin to repaint, we knew we had to find the best method out there.

After research with government restoration websites, advice from local artisans, painters and architects, websites, internet videos as well as good old fashioned neighbors and handy-men, we pretty much tried everything (we can give you some good pointers if you yourself are questioning which method! lol).

This poor wall had us trying your typical chemical paint remover, hand scraping, paint sanders, paint strippers, paint grinders, infamous heat ray lamps from Switzerland (yes, we did), and a pressure washer – both plain water and…hold on…crushed walnut shells mixed with the pressure washer (environmentally friendly and slight abrasion, which we need). You name it, we tried it. This was the wall to test it all. lol.

The winner you ask? It ultimately was a combination of everything. Because this wall had it all (rotten boards we had to replace, chunked up large scabs of paint, holes in the wood, windows with too much paint in the corners, etc…), we needed to use it all.

Part of this process also was Paul had to find replacement boards for the 6 rotten ones. The problem was you can’t find that width anymore in the stores and lumber yards, so he bought wider boards, then cut/ripped them to the correct width before nailing them up. This process played out similarly with finding the appropriate matching trim to fix the window and roof line. He also caulked every nail hole, every space in the siding, edge, etc…

After the primer and 2 coats of paint, we now know how these tools work, what works best on the wood and this wall is DONE! Well, except for the window. LOL. I have the window out and am re-glazing it now. I’ll post a pic once we get it installed so you can see the final, final test wall picture. We think it looks amazing. Keep in mind these boards (99%) of them are the original wood from this home, and you may see some variances in the wood but considering the age, honestly I hope I hold up that well at this age! Besides, we think it’s part of the look of an old home and has a beauty to it.