It dawned on me today how priorities have changed. For instance, I am very excited about the infrared paint remover which arrived in this morning’s mail. It is made by Viking Sales and is called “the Silent Paint Remover”. We’ll be able to get the paint off of the woodwork more easily and for less money than if we used the typical chemical remover. We’ll still need to wear our respirators but, “The Silent Paint Remover™ is a high quality tool for removing paint, varnish, adhesive, silicone caulk etc. The tool uses infrared heat to soften paint and varnish adhesive, silicone caulk etc. After the substance is scraped off with a high-quality scraper, you can paint immediately.” We also purchased received a Milwaukee heat gun and an attachment.  We bought these products after a lot of internet research. We’ll let you know how it all works out. Between these two products, we will soon see wood trim again! Well, once it warms up enough to open the windows. Although, it’s 50 degrees outside today, I’m thinking that may be warm enough!

New toys…I mean tools!

The thing is, I’m more excited about these new tools than I am about buying shoes, or getting my hair highlighted. What a girl wants it the right tool for the right job. I could rephrase that to read, what a girl wants is the right outfit for the right occasion. Same emotion going on here.

I thought I’d share picture with you of the boiler room wall before and after washing, sealing and painting. When I said I saw walls change color, I wasn’t kidding.

The boiler room wall during washing…left side dirty – right side new color!

Boiler room walls are done

We have made great progress with our basement walls. I learned to work the circular saw. Now I want to buy a “chop saw”. More power! Straighter cuts! Faster! See, what a girl wants!

Walls are going up

Circular saw girl

Working it out.

Recycling what we can

Old growth and new growth.

We have recycled as much wood taken down from the old walls as possible. It’s excellent quality wood. A couple of interesting facts about the wood used in the original 85 year-old walls. First, the old studs are true 2×4’s (inches), compared to today’s studs which measure 1.5×3.5 inches. Second, they were grown differently. Look at the width of the growth rings in the picture above. The old wood is on top, the new is on the bottom. Today’s new pine is grown as a crop, fast growing, hence, tight rings. The old pine was a hard pine, not like today’s soft pine. These old studs are like iron!

The electrician will be here next week to re-wire the house. Then we can put up sheet rock, paint the new walls, lay a floor in the enclosed storage area and move on upstairs to begin removing paint from wood trim, restoring a floor and restoring the windows. Have I mentioned the silk Roman shades I’m making? That’s for another post.