The void being filled

As you can see at left, I finally was able to satisfy my need for removing paint from wood. As I stood heat gun in left hand, scraper in right hand, feeling the burn in my forearms after a few hours, I thought to myself,"I missed.......this???"

I tarped off the room and had a fan blowing the air out to keep the fumes down, but I didn't wear a dust mask. Therefore, last night I kept smelling melting paint even though the work was long over with. My eyes got a little irritated too, but not bad.

But, I did manage to expose some nice oak! It adds so much definition to the room. The colors underneath the layers of whitish paint were in this order going back in time: lilac, baby blue, a dullish green, yellow, tan, and then finally and blessedly: shellac. God bless shellac for its protective barrier.


The stickers to the left are on the door in the den that leads to the basement. They are on the inside facing the basement. We think they are kind of interesting and plan to keep them when we clean up the door. We have no idea how old they are. They look kind of old.

I just now googled "The Culpeper Minute Men" to see if I could find some info and lo and behold I did. Culpeper is evidently a very historic place in Virginia and their militia were called "The Culpeper Minute Men." The top sticker is a replica of their flag. They were attached to the First Virginia Regiment, led by Colonel Patrick Henry, who is famous for his statement, "Give me liberty or give me death!" One of their members, John Jameson was instrumental in exposing Benedict Arnold, whom we've all heard of.

Replicas of this flag are sold on a number of sites on the web.
Interesting.....