Window Rot - Or How I learned to stop worrying and love the heat gun...
This weekend kicked off "rotpick-fest 2005"; meaning we started pulling out our windows and picking out the rotted areas on them and their corresponding window sills. Was it fun? Sorta. I mean, there's something entertaining about giving your windows what amounts to a big chemical peel.
And dear lord, the satisfaction of watching the paint bubble up into big soft blisters under the glare of the heatgun...dude that's just cool. (P.S. no matter how hard you try to avoid touching the hot part of the gun...no matter how many times you run the mantra "it's hot" through your head while working...you WILL burn yourself at least minorly, at least once...it does not reflect on your intelligence.)
We got 2 windows (of 14) started this weekend. We started with the push-out casement windows and will work our way around the house to the double-hungs. We're gouging, sealing, epoxy sculpting, painting, rehanging, weather-stripping, and hardware repairing. It will not be a small task but i'm so anxious to have house openings that actually open as the hot weather approaches.
I'm also psyched to have the wood stripped so it can be repainted sans annoying, sloppy glops. (Are we kidding with the drippy paint? Did 3rd graders paint our trim? and our windows shut for that matter?) That's right. We're stripping and REPAINTING. We like the white trim. blah blah gorgeous wood...i dont want to hear about it. It brightens the place up. And turns out, frequenly little budget bungalows werent done up in fine mahoganies and oaks but in mere paint grades. Our house is one of these. If the next h.o. wants to strip it off though, they owe us a box of krispy kremes for leaving them with substantially fewer layers of paint to slog through.
Cant wait to play more with that heat gun. You can bend PVC with it!!!!
posted by merideth @ 5/24/2005 03:36:00 PM
13 Comments:
As a witness to part of this window situation this weekend, I have to say that these girls are IMPRESSIVE.
I did my own little ethnography of the housemade girls as I sat on the couch in work clothes and a cute work bandana(clearly for show only, as I quickly realized I was out of my element and retreated to familiar territory).
In my studies of their emic language use, I have written down some of their strange words to reasearch at a later date: Torque. Epoxy. PVC. Faux Bronze. And my favorite, Orange Stripper. Such a strange and wonderful experience to watch them in their natural habitats.
And if the windows weren't enough, Merideth made a fabulous BBQ dinner too. Is there anything they can't do?!?
Forget Playboy. A picture of an attractive woman stripping paint off a window now get's my pulse going.
I'm still healing from my own paint gun burn...received while stripping my own windows. I'd make a bet on who gets done first (you or me) but it's a sucker bet. You'll win, I'll be lucky to get done by winter! :)
wearing gloves when using the heat gun usually cuts down on the burns. I didn't know wood rotted in California, I guess there's more moisture in S.F.
I hear ya on the white paint. We've got it and I like it (though it's starting to chip). At some point, I'm going to do what you gals are doing... Unless you freelance? When's the next time you're in Southern Illinois? ;-)
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hmm bend pvc huh? I could make a few quilting frames that way. I'm so much better at the DE struction part of home owning, but we also suffer from elementary school painters as previous owners who painted all the windows shut as well. Which is totally awesome in a house with no air conditioning and only one window that opens on the third floor and two that open on the main floor.
Last year the baby and I hung out in the grody basement watching movies (he moved less then) because it was too hot everywhere else.
PS...nice pic ya poser!
I was going to do a post about how I painted my living room and all of the trim on the first floor of my house but I realized that Meribeth would quickly put my little home improvement project to shame. I didn't take pics of the event because unlike Meri, I did not make painting look effortless. I would have been the girl covered in paint, tripping on the drop clothes and cursing the dog for having the balls to shed while I was painting. ***Note: I just felt bad about writing balls because I still feel guilty about getting Barley fixed.***
wow...look how everyone sooo knowwws about the stripping and the paint gun...
grex i think that flattering comment shows that you're officially consumed by a love of restoration :)
jeannie ouch! 2 built ins? that's a loooot of strippin'!
oh derek dont you know, we dont need no stinking gloves! also there is plenty of rot (both dry and regular) in the bay area...it rains consistently and heavily from november to april and during the summer we have the fog...we're all about the moisture!
Brit dude! i didnt pose! i didnt even know she took the photo! and plus grex liked it :) ps. you had a duplicate post so i pulled one down
the rest of you are nutty, nutty girls
One of the really cool things about doing dumb, dumb things is that there is no expiration date or statute of limitations on realizing your dumb move. Two summers ago I chipped and pressure washed however many years of paint off the exterior of our place. The little nav gas bottle got used quite a bit but now I realize a heat gun would have been much more appropriate.
ooooh! Now I have heat gun envy! I stripped all the wainscotting in my dining room with the nasty, gooey stripper chemicals that kill brain cells. I swear I lost the ability to do all higher math funtions for at least 6 months. We are currently up to our necks in a new stripping/painting project and I must ask; what is that beautiful paint effect in your livingroom? Can we steal it?
Niely & Vivian Morgan- Owners of a 1910 victorian in Richmond VA
I love that pic, too. Verrry sexy. :) I've raved about the heat gun on my blog, too; watching the paint bubble up and then peel off in great big hunks. Ahhhh, it's wonderful!
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