With struggling through the gooey TakCoat, I return this weekend to do a topcoat using Master of Plaster. This product is pre-mixed and I’ve used this in the past and it spreads very easily. Since it spreads smoother than TakCoat and I don’t have any mesh to deal with, this coat goes on quicker than last weekend. I get the ceiling done with white. After this cures for a week, I’ll do an extra fine coat for the ceiling and be done with that.

For the walls I try adding some pigments to the plaster. If the pigments come out nicely, I’ll leave the plaster, otherwise I’ll put wallpaper over it. I bought some earth pigments that I try adding to the plaster. It creates a subtle effect, but I learn that I should have dissolved the pigments in water before adding to the plaster. When troweling the plaster with the pigment, there are some streaks from the pigment smearing.

I end up with some extra time since the top coat goes on smoother and there’s no fighting with a mesh, so I start working on stripping the clawfoot tub. I flip the tub over and the bottom has a lot of rust. I want to remove the white paint and then sand off any of the rust before re-priming and painting the tub.

I remove the legs and apply some CitriStrip to the white paint to see how it goes. It starts bubbling up pretty quickly and I’m able to scrape a layer off. Although the CitriStrip doesn’t seem to deal with rust very well, so I’ll either need to get a rust remover or use some abrasives.

The legs are very rusted and coated with paint with lots of nooks and crannies. I’m going to try using the crockpot to remove the paint for the legs.