Stairway to....this is NOT Heaven

Hey Everybody!


It's been a long week so far.  Is it just me, or does it seem like the week after a holiday week is always extra long?  Part of why this week feels so long is because of the nature of the work that I've been doing around the house.

There's really not too much to show, but that's not because it hasn't been hooooouuuuurssssss of work.  Seriously, I think I worked for two hours last night, with not too much to show for it.  But as  we all know, it'll be worth it, eventually.

 So, as you can see, almost all of the white paint is gone from the stairs themselves, and the trim along the stairs.  That was pretty simple, all things considered. The thing that takes longer is, the old varnish.  See how the risers on the two steps at the bottom of the picture above are still dark, and kind of shiny? Varnish. Horrible. Old. Varnish.

When you put stripper on it, it gets weird and gummy.  Bleh.  You can't scrape it.  You can't strip it.  What the hell am I supposed to do with it?!?!  After asking the internet, and all the men I could find at Menards, the answer was basically ::BLANK STARES::...Woof.

In a moment of frustration, I started just picking at some varnish that hadn't been hit with stripper, and to my surprise, it came of pretty easily!

After a solid three hours of working, I have FOUR stairs that are scraped and ready to be hit with the sander.  In other news: my thumbs are still numb.  I'm telling myself, "Hey Self, if you lose feeling in your hands, you'll be able to work for a lot longer!"  We'll see tonight if that logic holds up....

If anyone has any other suggestions for how to get this varnish off, I'm all ears!


K

Sorry for the unoriginal song choices today.....like I said, it's been a long week!  


Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven

AC/DC - Highway to Hell


CSN - Long Time Gone