While, yes, in need of some extra money, no one here lacked clothing for this stripping and the only pink lights were from my computer monitor suffering pink death. This weekend I tried both lye stripping, and the super-heated sort which I built from Ocean Manor House's instructions.
The goal was to strip the cold concrete front porch, a slab built on blocks and infill. One morning, months ago, the sprinkler was tucked away behind the porch swing when its timer turned on and the porch was doused for nearly an hour. Lifting up the rubber-bottomed doormat a few days later, the thick paint underneath sheeted off. I tried a similar path with wet towels overlaid with garbage bags but it didn't seem to work as well. So I wanted to try lye after reading around the internet of its usefulness on painted brick.
The recipies I read were mostly the same; two parts water to one part lye, and add a solution of flour or cornstarch to thicken. The biggest thing for me to overcome were the warnings to stand back, it will splutter when mixed! Don't breathe the fumes! (which were pretty noxious) So I expected fireworks! The lye was from Lowes, in crystal form for drain-cleaning, not flakes. Amazingly, the only thing it did was melt the plastic container it was mixed in. Through several glass jars I tried again, and added flour or cornstarch. The directions never specified when to add, and my flour solidified into funnel cake and the cornstarch looked like spray foam. I left the liquid part on the porch overnight, and now it has hardened into crystals.
Although equally as ineffective on the cold porch floor, the heated paint remover worked wonders on the interior wood. I have a layer of gold milk-paint underneath everything, so the heater only stripped down to that layer (like most of the store-bought chemicals I tried) but that was fine since I was aiming to restore moulding details and fully close thickened doors, not turn it to varnished wood. It is a good thing too, since I scorched the pantry doors on my first two tries. The best time for me to scrape was when the paint turned into bubbly cooked marshmallow consistency, which would be just before the crunchy tan part happens.
I think I'll continue with the heater for the interior and might just go buy another rubber and jute doormat to use to strip the porch, one 2x3 square at a time. The lye is almost gone anyway. With all the trouble I had keeping cat tails and feet out of it, it's probably for the best.
Top-down, bottoms up
Ha! In your face flooding/thugs with guns/suicidal neighbors/crappy renters/burglars on bikes! Two blocks away (across the train tracks) is the #19 neighborhood in America to retire to in 2007! For those of you who wonder why/how we stick around, this must be the answer, brought to us by Money magazine. Rub off on us, Riverside property values!
In other soft news, I ordered on clearance four top-down-bottom-up roman shades for the bedroom. Our house is very near its twin next door, and a little bit higher, so its kitchen window and deck view is our bedroom. Sometimes I am ashamed our pillows get pressed against the windows since we lack a headboard, or wish for privacy when reading on the bed in the sun. These shades are great, and well worth the year I waited to find them at a good price. At night I can look wistfully up at the moon and the stars, and no one can see me and think I'm cracked.
The shades haven't been through the 12:15 AM barbecuing ritual yet, when our bartender neighbor gets home and sets up dinner on his deck with a 1200 watt camping lantern. I can always cover the backsides with Blackout. His house has been for sale for a year. Perhaps he will move sometime?
In other soft news, I ordered on clearance four top-down-bottom-up roman shades for the bedroom. Our house is very near its twin next door, and a little bit higher, so its kitchen window and deck view is our bedroom. Sometimes I am ashamed our pillows get pressed against the windows since we lack a headboard, or wish for privacy when reading on the bed in the sun. These shades are great, and well worth the year I waited to find them at a good price. At night I can look wistfully up at the moon and the stars, and no one can see me and think I'm cracked.
The shades haven't been through the 12:15 AM barbecuing ritual yet, when our bartender neighbor gets home and sets up dinner on his deck with a 1200 watt camping lantern. I can always cover the backsides with Blackout. His house has been for sale for a year. Perhaps he will move sometime?
Pissy Post
After waiting 1 1/2 months for a rescheduled landscape design appointment, I took time off work today to meet with the guy at the house. Something went out of balance just when I was leaving work, and then (not to let on about the state of our security) I sat in my car at the gate of my workplace for more than 5 min. waiting for it to open, while the guard was maybe staring into space in the tinted booth next to me. I frantically searched my cellphone for the nursery number but it was listed as "000-0000". Me. Useless.
So when I arrived home 10 min late, there was a message from the guy with no callback number. I tried 5 different numbers in the phone book before I got hold of him. He had been by, had "drawn the yard out" and said to come pick up the plans at the nursery. And then I said, "I was hoping to try to meet you so we could talk about traffic patterns and plants suitable for swampy areas and the limited light in my front yard." He said, quote, "I don't need to know nothing about traffic patterns."
I vented to Jason a bit later and he observed that my idea of a lanscape designer was not what this guy's idea was. Well, yes. I had a plot survey for him and the new house colors and even wanted to ask about shed placement. Guy wanted to hear none of it and talked over me. I found a new place in the phone book while I was talking to guy on the phone, a specifically "woman-owned" landscaping/irrigation/waterscaping business. I will give them a try instead.
So when I arrived home 10 min late, there was a message from the guy with no callback number. I tried 5 different numbers in the phone book before I got hold of him. He had been by, had "drawn the yard out" and said to come pick up the plans at the nursery. And then I said, "I was hoping to try to meet you so we could talk about traffic patterns and plants suitable for swampy areas and the limited light in my front yard." He said, quote, "I don't need to know nothing about traffic patterns."
I vented to Jason a bit later and he observed that my idea of a lanscape designer was not what this guy's idea was. Well, yes. I had a plot survey for him and the new house colors and even wanted to ask about shed placement. Guy wanted to hear none of it and talked over me. I found a new place in the phone book while I was talking to guy on the phone, a specifically "woman-owned" landscaping/irrigation/waterscaping business. I will give them a try instead.
The taste of slimy water
Good news for me, the electric box in the laundry room won't need to be moved, and only the cable holes need readjustment. When I planned this out, I completely forgot about the dryer venting. It will go in the wall and through the attic now, but it's a shame because one of my only projects this summer was to install a pretty, flush vent in the stucco-drywalled sun porch window currently hidden by the dryer. But now I can reinstall a window there.
I'm still waiting for the crawl space to dry out enough so it's not sludgy and slippery to work under there on my knees. We thought about pumps and drain pipes but a low-tech solution occurred to me- why not raise the crawl space/swimming pool vent openings? Right now they are at ground level and make an excellent drain for storm water overflow. The crawl space bottom is 2-3 feet lower than the yard level. That might sound pretty stupid, but it seems to be the result of building up the yard with infill to encourage quicker draining. This explains why our 1928 driveway ribbons are 6" below the topsoil. And as this is Florida and we live on infill creek bed, maybe parts of the yard did indeed sink sometime and need refilling.
I can't say how many times we thought about moving during this week-long storm. But, improvements must be made so we're not flipping them onto a buyer as it happened to us. It would be super if those improvements don't include me trying to suck the end of the garden hose to make a crawl space siphon.
I'm still waiting for the crawl space to dry out enough so it's not sludgy and slippery to work under there on my knees. We thought about pumps and drain pipes but a low-tech solution occurred to me- why not raise the crawl space/swimming pool vent openings? Right now they are at ground level and make an excellent drain for storm water overflow. The crawl space bottom is 2-3 feet lower than the yard level. That might sound pretty stupid, but it seems to be the result of building up the yard with infill to encourage quicker draining. This explains why our 1928 driveway ribbons are 6" below the topsoil. And as this is Florida and we live on infill creek bed, maybe parts of the yard did indeed sink sometime and need refilling.
I can't say how many times we thought about moving during this week-long storm. But, improvements must be made so we're not flipping them onto a buyer as it happened to us. It would be super if those improvements don't include me trying to suck the end of the garden hose to make a crawl space siphon.
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