Woodwork

With all the plastering done, this weekend is focusing on getting the woodwork finished up for staining. Everything has had one pass of scraping and stripping so now is a bit more scrubbing to get rid of any white haze left over from the paint. I apply a coat of stripper to the window and door moldings and then scrub it off using stripping pads. After that, I give everything another scrubbing using AfterWash solvent (which I think is mostly acetone). After the AfterWash I then do another scrub down with TSP.

Scrubbing down the woodwork and also previewing the potential wallpaper styles.

I made the epoxy repair to the damaged lock area on the door molding and that has cured for a week. With the epoxy set, I use sandpaper to shape the repair to follow the contours of the molding. Next I’ll dye the repair to help blend in with the real wood.

Sanded repair to match the molding.

During a break from the work, we head up to Avalon to check out a demolition sale. The house sold a few months ago for about 7 million dollars and it was built in 2006. I don’t care about homes from 2006, but it’s still disgusting to trash a house that isn’t even 20 years old. While the house is 7 million dollars, it is pretty unappealing. It doesn’t feel that impressive for the cost and when you see the interior - it’s just sheetrock. I feel like my plaster walls have better craftsmanship. It also feels completely unlived in with no character even though it is supposed to be in a Mediterranean style. When you detach yourself from history this is the result where you have a 15 year old multi-million dollar home and it’s considered dated and needed to be torn down.

Tearing down a 15 year old house.

Practically a shack! This place has to go!

Back at the old house that is still standing, Karen replaces the outlets with ones in brown. The outlets were a mix of black and white which didn’t match the brown bakelite theme I want to go with for the house.

New outlet, plastered walls and clean wood.

The last bit of woodwork is rubbing out the shellac finish on the doors. I go with a series of 600, 800 and 1500 grit sandpaper and then end with some fine steel wool to buff out the shiny shellac sheen. I use mineral spirits as a lubricant to help avoid cutting through the shellac. The rubbing out leaves a chalky haze once the mineral spirits dry which I then buff out with a rag. I’m not totally in love with how shellac rubs out because it does look scuffed so I’m going to try smoothing things out with alcohol absorbed into a rag. If that doesn’t work, I’ll make a rubbing pad and try a final thin shellac coat. For a final top coat I can either go with wax or try a varnish.

Haze from the rub out.

Rubbed out finish.