Restoring an 1895 Victorian Home in Northern California. Restoring an
1895 Victorian Home in Northern California. Restoring an 1895 Victorian
Home in Northern California. Restoring an 1895 Victorian Home in
Northern California. Restoring an 1895 Victorian Home in Northern
California. Restoring an 1895 Victorian Home in Northern California.
Recent posts
If you've been following along, aftertrying and then giving up on some of the more environmentallysensitive paint stripping products, I went back to thecaustic products. Shasha Kidd left acomment the other day saying that she had the exact same experiencelast year at her place.In the post I mentioned that in thepast I had used Jasco Professional Semi-Paste and was going back tothat. She mentioned that they had used Jasco but also used KleanStrip and preferred it better. Naturally I had to do a side-by-sidecomparison of the products. Regardless of what the results would bethough, I knew for a fact that the results would only really apply tomy situation. As I wrote the other day, every paint stripping job isdifferent.Both products are identical in price,about $9.99 a quart...
read more at The Petch House
Posted 11 weeks 2 hours ago.
Well, you can't say I didn't try. I'm an environmentalist at heart. I want to do the right thing, but sometimes it is just too hard to be right. I tried the “green” environmentally friendly paint strippers and it just is not working.I wrote about my tests with two such products the other day. It seemed like it was going to work, but in the end it was just too difficult to get the timing down. I planned to really start the paint stripping this weekend, so on Friday I applied the Safe Strip to a four foot section of base board. Four feet is short, but this was to be my real world test. The plan was to leave it on over night and then strip it off Saturday...
read more at The Petch House
Posted 11 weeks 4 days ago.
At some point in the last 30 years or so someone put sheetrock over the plaster in the 2 parlors. So they wouldn't have to fit it around the head blocks, which extended 2.5 inches over the top of the casing, they sawed off the tops of the blocks. Today I finally took the last of them off. Where should we put the drapes? Here? No, how about over here? No, I like them here better. How about here...Not everyone should be allowed to use a drill with a Philips screw driver bit.Goop factor eight! This gives you some idea of how bad the paint is in this room. That is the profile of the casing.Replacements are standing by...
read more at The Petch House
Posted 12 weeks 5 days ago.
In case you're just tuning in, I'm in paint stripping mode in the parlors. The woodwork is redwood and was originally painted, so the goal is not to get back to bare wood where I can do a clear finish, but rather to get rid of the layers and layers of paint to regain definition in the high Victorian millwork and to get rid of the many drips and runs from past, poorly applied paint jobs.I have stripped coatings off wood in seven wood intensive rooms in the house. By “wood intensive” I mean all of the rooms either had a wood dado of some type going three to four feet up the walls or, in the case of the stair hall, a highly ornate banister. All of these rooms also had high Victorian fluted casing, plinth blocks, and head blocks...
read more at The Petch House
Posted 12 weeks 6 days ago.
I got a post card in the mail last week for an Employee Discount of 40% off the purchase of window treatments. I must order before February 21st and spend at least $1,000. Spending a $1,000 at Smith+Noble would not be difficult at all. Ordering before February 21st would be a challenge, but for 40% off, I'll make the effort. The only real challenge is that I hate making these design decisions in the first place and being rushed to do it would really suck. My thought was to just order the same roller shades I put in the dining room and then later I can decide on drapes...
read more at The Petch House
Posted 15 weeks 4 days ago.
I'm looking for your torrid, sexy stories about stripping. I want stories with lurid details and climactic endings.I'm talking about paint stripping, of course. When I strip the paint in the parlors I'm going to try a different approach to stripping than I normally do. Kelly made a comment on my last post about methyl chloride paint strippers, which is what I normally use. Actually, what I normally use is a heat gun. Here was my response to Kelly.If the original finish was shellac, then it is a no-brainer for me: heat gun.If it was originally painted and a flat surface then I will also use a heat gun. I go this route in this case mainly because it quick. I don't have to apply stripper, wait for it to work, test it, wait some more, etc, etc...
read more at The Petch House
Posted 18 weeks 3 hours ago.
I'll be the first to admit that I can be tough on local business people who I don't feel try hard enough to get my business. Maybe too tough at times. Regardless, I want take a moment to praise a local business person who did a good job, on time, for a competitive price. In short, he did his job and did it well.I've had this on-going saga with a tree in my side yard. It has had some dead and dying limbs on it that I've wanted to cut off for the past three years. Three of them hang over my phone lines and every winter I think it is just a matter of time before I lose phone and internet service. I've considered trimming the tree myself, but it is a good 25-feet tall, and like I said, it hangs over the phone line...
read more at The Petch House
Posted 18 weeks 2 days ago.
It's never too early to begin to stress about design choices like paint colors, window treatments, and woodwork finishes. This is really the part of the process I dread. Over the next few months I can look forward to countless sleepless nights and hours spent looking at paint chips. And if history repeats itself I will spend $75 on paint only to decide I don't like it after it is on the wall.Oh, what joy.One of the things I have thought about doing with several rooms, and then later chickened out, is to paint the frieze and ceiling sky blue and then sponge on big, fluffy white clouds. Then hire a local artist to come in a paint on a few blue birds streaking across the sky...
read more at The Petch House
Posted 18 weeks 6 days ago.
Now that the kitchen range hood is nothing more than an unpleasant memory it is time to get back to the even more unpleasant task of dealing with the plaster in the parlor. There are no two ways about it, working with plaster, whether you are talking off or putting on, is a mess.For those of you who are not long time readers of the blog, the plaster in this house was put on in unique fashion for the time. The walls on the entire inside of the house are sheathed with 1X8, T&G “plaster boards”. Plaster boards were milled locally in the Carson Mill at the turn of the century. The boards have dovetail grooves running the length of the boards, spaced 2-inches apart...
read more at The Petch House
Posted 19 weeks 3 hours ago.
I think this entire house could be considered to be my white whale, but in this instance I'm referring only to the newly built and installed range hood. The installation was somewhat uneventful, in that I didn't drop any tools and damage anything, I didn't spill any paint, and I didn't knock any unintended holes in anything. I'm especially nervous and cautious when working in a room that is essentially finished and used every day, like the kitchen. When working in a room like this, my mantra is, “Above all else, do no harm”.Building the housing for the Broan PM390 Custom Hood Power Pack Module was pretty straight forward. Fabricating boxes from old redwood T&G bevel board is the same type of construction I used in the cabinets for several rooms, so there is really nothing to figure out...
read more at The Petch House
Posted 20 weeks 3 days ago.
(1 vote)
Recent posts
If you've been following along, aftertrying and then giving up on some of the more environmentallysensitive paint stripping products, I went back to thecaustic products. Shasha Kidd left acomment the other day saying that she had the exact same experiencelast year at her place.In the post I mentioned that in thepast I had used Jasco Professional Semi-Paste and was going back tothat. She mentioned that they had used Jasco but also used KleanStrip and preferred it better. Naturally I had to do a side-by-sidecomparison of the products. Regardless of what the results would bethough, I knew for a fact that the results would only really apply tomy situation. As I wrote the other day, every paint stripping job isdifferent.Both products are identical in price,about $9.99 a quart...
read more at The Petch House Posted 11 weeks 2 hours ago.
Well, you can't say I didn't try. I'm an environmentalist at heart. I want to do the right thing, but sometimes it is just too hard to be right. I tried the “green” environmentally friendly paint strippers and it just is not working.I wrote about my tests with two such products the other day. It seemed like it was going to work, but in the end it was just too difficult to get the timing down. I planned to really start the paint stripping this weekend, so on Friday I applied the Safe Strip to a four foot section of base board. Four feet is short, but this was to be my real world test. The plan was to leave it on over night and then strip it off Saturday...
read more at The Petch House Posted 11 weeks 4 days ago.
At some point in the last 30 years or so someone put sheetrock over the plaster in the 2 parlors. So they wouldn't have to fit it around the head blocks, which extended 2.5 inches over the top of the casing, they sawed off the tops of the blocks. Today I finally took the last of them off. Where should we put the drapes? Here? No, how about over here? No, I like them here better. How about here...Not everyone should be allowed to use a drill with a Philips screw driver bit.Goop factor eight! This gives you some idea of how bad the paint is in this room. That is the profile of the casing.Replacements are standing by...
read more at The Petch House Posted 12 weeks 5 days ago.
In case you're just tuning in, I'm in paint stripping mode in the parlors. The woodwork is redwood and was originally painted, so the goal is not to get back to bare wood where I can do a clear finish, but rather to get rid of the layers and layers of paint to regain definition in the high Victorian millwork and to get rid of the many drips and runs from past, poorly applied paint jobs.I have stripped coatings off wood in seven wood intensive rooms in the house. By “wood intensive” I mean all of the rooms either had a wood dado of some type going three to four feet up the walls or, in the case of the stair hall, a highly ornate banister. All of these rooms also had high Victorian fluted casing, plinth blocks, and head blocks...
read more at The Petch House Posted 12 weeks 6 days ago.
I got a post card in the mail last week for an Employee Discount of 40% off the purchase of window treatments. I must order before February 21st and spend at least $1,000. Spending a $1,000 at Smith+Noble would not be difficult at all. Ordering before February 21st would be a challenge, but for 40% off, I'll make the effort. The only real challenge is that I hate making these design decisions in the first place and being rushed to do it would really suck. My thought was to just order the same roller shades I put in the dining room and then later I can decide on drapes...
read more at The Petch House Posted 15 weeks 4 days ago.
I'm looking for your torrid, sexy stories about stripping. I want stories with lurid details and climactic endings.I'm talking about paint stripping, of course. When I strip the paint in the parlors I'm going to try a different approach to stripping than I normally do. Kelly made a comment on my last post about methyl chloride paint strippers, which is what I normally use. Actually, what I normally use is a heat gun. Here was my response to Kelly.If the original finish was shellac, then it is a no-brainer for me: heat gun.If it was originally painted and a flat surface then I will also use a heat gun. I go this route in this case mainly because it quick. I don't have to apply stripper, wait for it to work, test it, wait some more, etc, etc...
read more at The Petch House Posted 18 weeks 3 hours ago.
I'll be the first to admit that I can be tough on local business people who I don't feel try hard enough to get my business. Maybe too tough at times. Regardless, I want take a moment to praise a local business person who did a good job, on time, for a competitive price. In short, he did his job and did it well.I've had this on-going saga with a tree in my side yard. It has had some dead and dying limbs on it that I've wanted to cut off for the past three years. Three of them hang over my phone lines and every winter I think it is just a matter of time before I lose phone and internet service. I've considered trimming the tree myself, but it is a good 25-feet tall, and like I said, it hangs over the phone line...
read more at The Petch House Posted 18 weeks 2 days ago.
It's never too early to begin to stress about design choices like paint colors, window treatments, and woodwork finishes. This is really the part of the process I dread. Over the next few months I can look forward to countless sleepless nights and hours spent looking at paint chips. And if history repeats itself I will spend $75 on paint only to decide I don't like it after it is on the wall.Oh, what joy.One of the things I have thought about doing with several rooms, and then later chickened out, is to paint the frieze and ceiling sky blue and then sponge on big, fluffy white clouds. Then hire a local artist to come in a paint on a few blue birds streaking across the sky...
read more at The Petch House Posted 18 weeks 6 days ago.
Now that the kitchen range hood is nothing more than an unpleasant memory it is time to get back to the even more unpleasant task of dealing with the plaster in the parlor. There are no two ways about it, working with plaster, whether you are talking off or putting on, is a mess.For those of you who are not long time readers of the blog, the plaster in this house was put on in unique fashion for the time. The walls on the entire inside of the house are sheathed with 1X8, T&G “plaster boards”. Plaster boards were milled locally in the Carson Mill at the turn of the century. The boards have dovetail grooves running the length of the boards, spaced 2-inches apart...
read more at The Petch House Posted 19 weeks 3 hours ago.
I think this entire house could be considered to be my white whale, but in this instance I'm referring only to the newly built and installed range hood. The installation was somewhat uneventful, in that I didn't drop any tools and damage anything, I didn't spill any paint, and I didn't knock any unintended holes in anything. I'm especially nervous and cautious when working in a room that is essentially finished and used every day, like the kitchen. When working in a room like this, my mantra is, “Above all else, do no harm”.Building the housing for the Broan PM390 Custom Hood Power Pack Module was pretty straight forward. Fabricating boxes from old redwood T&G bevel board is the same type of construction I used in the cabinets for several rooms, so there is really nothing to figure out...
read more at The Petch House Posted 20 weeks 3 days ago.