More Goodies

Sink: Kohler Brookfield Tile-in sink


Faucet: Kohler Fairfax

Kitchen Dreams

Here is the most updated kitchen plan.

Flooring: Zinsser Amber Shellac , This piece has about 6 coats on it that is what it took to get the color that I was looking for I'm hoping it doesn't take quite this many coats when we do it for real but we will have to see
Trim: Minwax PolyShades Bombay Mahogany I'm a bit on the fence with this one right now it's a bit darker and redder than I originally had pictured. On my Menard's run this afternoon I picked up a couple more colors to try Antique Walnut, Olde Maple, and Royal Walnut. Samples will be forthcoming.
Paint: Valspar "Blue Grass Mood", the yellow is the color for the stairs and back hall "Like Butter"

Cabinets: Shenandoah Breckenridge Cherry Spice http://www.shenandoahcabinetry.com/products.asp?id=24


Counter tops and Back splash: Tile American Olean , I was inspired by this room layout from Rejuvination, we were originally thinking a black laminate counter top but I don't think this will be very much more expensive and will look much better





Lighting: The Quimby from Rejuvination. One over the sink and two over the peninsula. These will most likely be the only light in the room other than under cabinet fixtures.

#1 old house repair rule

Don't assume that an quick and easy project will ever be quick or easy.

Case in point:
The drain in our old cast iron Kohler sink was getting really slow, so i figured it was time to clean it out. Pretty easy huh? Well that was my thought anyway.

As I was taking the drain pipe apart, the trap tore it's self apart. So i took the sink of the wall and completely cleaned out the drain and sink parts. Erin will be running to the store to get a new trap. I would but I'm on call and leaving the house would guarantee that I would receive a page.

More Paint stripping fun - Week 10

I tried the Jasco green strip on the bathroom door, on my scale it seemed to be fairly non-toxic I used it with out gloves a couple of times. One of the problems with the Jasco is that it tends to make things very slippery so a couple times I took the gloves off just so I could hold onto my scraper and picks. Now as for the smell it was not horrible... it's difficult to describe it smells kind of sweet, with an undertone of ick maybe... rotting fruit. For ask Kicking power it did pretty good on the door frame it removed the post heat gun residue in one application with a lot of scrubbing with the steel wool on the window where I didn't heat gun it took about 3 coats. Overall I was pretty happy with it, it seemed like I could put on a fairly thin layer and still get it to work. I'd been leaving on the stipper about 24 hours because of my work schedule but I think it would have been more effective if I could have gotten to it after 12 as it seemed to dry out a bit.

Here is the latest finished door frame the bathroom door. My plan is to knock out the last two doors next weekend that is if the family visit doesn't take up too much time. My parents and my grandma from New York are coming up on Friday to see my little sis's portfolio show over at the university. I wish that we had more progress to show by the time they show up I feel like we've gotten very little done since my parents were here last. It's just so hard to get stuff done if you work too much over the weekend it makes the week damn near unbearable but you have little progress to show with only one day of work. I know it'll all come together eventually. Here is the door to the back hall the bottom squares on the left and right I did with the Jasco green strip the top center square is a work in progress with SoyGel. The SoyGel is doing a good job I saw a fair amount of wood after the first round. However I hate that I have to order the SoyGel online so unless it's significantly better than the Jasco I'm going to stick with the Jasco.

Last weekend we picked up the new windows for the kitchen I'm very excited that soon we will be getting rid of this huge vinyl eyesore and putting in two smaller windows
Well I'm off to add some paper to the stairs and dig out some cracks.

The Verdict

Here is the window panes after removing the first round of Peel Away 6. In the "Ass Kicking Power" category of the triad Peel Away 6 falls flat.
There were some things I really liked about the product. First of all it was a different consistency than the other paint strippers I have used thus far it was a bit more pasty and made a little less of a mess during the removal. Second of all I liked the cleanup, that it used denatured alcohol rather than mineral spirits. Then there was the smell... seemed to be a bit milder than most. It did do a good job on my test spots on the back stairs but that isn't really enough for me to purchase this product again. The back stairs are shellacked if I was patient enough I could sit there with my denatured alcohol and scrub that finish off.

I did decide to try the peel away on the door to the stairs. Here is a side by side comparison
This is after using the heat gun and two rounds of stripper. Citristrip on the left and Peel Away 6 on the right. I think the citristrip results are far better, the thinner texture allowed Citristrip' to better permeate into the grain and into the cracks and crevices.

Next door frame, I will try Jasco Green strip. I used it on the doors that I have taken down into the basement and I am interested to see how it does on a vertical surface.

Kitchen Door - 8 Hours Later

Here is what the door looked like at 7:30 this morning. I am cautiously optimistic.

Kitchen / Stairs Week 7

I think I may have to stop titling these posts with the current week... it's starting to get a bit depressing. On to the progress :) I finished up the doorway to the dining room, sans the top molding we removed it for repair. Now we only have 4 doorways left arrgh. On our other project, Chris finished up the ceiling in the stairway and I washed the stairs down. I'm hoping I can get them covered up tomorrow night, so we can get into some plaster repair yipee.

In addition to the trim on the dining room door I also got started on the door to our back hall. I'm very nervous about breaking the glass while using the heat gun so I've resorted to chemicals only. This is the first pane I tried this is after 2 rounds of Citristrip, letting it sit for 24 hours both times. I'm less than pleased with the results so I've decided to try once again try to look for the holy grail of paint strippers, non-toxic, smells like fresh air, removes all of the layers of paint in one fowl swoop. I know this is probably a futile task but whatever keeps me sane right?


So I've decided to try Peel Away.... it seems like many people are fans of this product. My local Lowe's store had only Peel Away 6, so Peel Away 6 it is. So how does it do on the scorecard for the holy grail of paint strippers. 1. Toxicity-Seemed to be pretty friendly I did allow the stripper to touch my bare skin and it didn't seem to burn so, so far so good. 2. Odor - Peel Away smells faintly of urinal cakes, but even so it is the best smelling paint stripper I've used thus far. 3. Ass Kicking power - TBD...



I decide to do two panes of glass... one I covered in wax paper and the other I left out to the elements we will see tomorrow night if Peel Away is the answer to my quest!