Project Trim

We had begun to strip the trim in our living room, but after 2 years of sporadic effort we had only managed three windows, the fireplace mantle, and the bookshelves that flank it. When we heard from a fellow blogger and home restorer (Thank's Heather!) that she had hired someone to finish the trim in her home we were so excited. There was hope in sight! Someone else was actually willing to strip paint for us?

So we get his number and call him up and learn that he also does exterior painting. They work for an hourly wage and thought it would be three guys working for six to eight weeks with 2 working full time and one working part time. After adding it up we decide that with some juggling of funds, tax returns, overtime, and closing out a retirement account from another job we will actually have enough to do both the exterior painting and the interior stripping and refinishing.

That first morning I stay home from work to make sure that they have what they need and that things will be ok with our dogs. They arrive promptly and quickly get to work. I hover around inside not quite sure what to do with myself. Spying through the window I see a worker painting with a brush. "OH No" I think, they are already painting without any prep. We have made a huge mistake. So I rush outside and discover that it is actually stripper that he is brushing on. I can't believe it. They are actually going to STRIP the outside of our house!

It takes about three weeks and they remove about three quarters of the paint on the exterior. Then another 2 to paint it, and it seems that there are 4 guys now working instead of 3. The hourly wage plan is starting to hurt and the interior trim still isn't started!

After much discussion and the promise that the interior will only take 2 weeks we decide to continue, but also decide that it is a good time to refinance and to take some extra cash out of the equity.

Four weeks ago we moved all of our furniture from the living room, dining room, and front "TV" room into our garage. We did this so that so that we could undertake the project of having our wood trim stripped and refinished. Since then we have been living in our back 2 bedrooms and the kitchen. It is surprisingly comfortable, but we are starting to get sick of it and are now spending much more time in the back yard.

The trim in the three rooms is finished and beautiful. They also stripped a hallway and were going to refinish it, but we have decided that we had better finish it ourselves and save some of the equity money for central heat and air.