This is where it all happens

It looks quiet now, but with an orbital sander and palm sander buzzing away, it reminds me of a race track.

Steve and I have been talking about the difference between the way we handled the wood trim on the first floor and second.

For the first floor, we stripped and refinished the trim room by room. We have decided this is by far the preferable method. A whole house-full of trim is just alot to deal with at once.

When you do a room at a time, you can focus a bit more on the minutae too. I'm not saying we are doing a sloppy job, but when I only have a smaller number of boards, I tend to get a bit pickier.

When you have a house-full, you get out the artists oil paint to obscure those stubborn tiny areas that don't want to take stain. Either way, it will look quite good, it's just there's no way I can go over every board with a microscope.

Friday night, we worked until 9pm and yesterday I put in a full day sanding the remaining old wood and then staining.
Obviously the boards with more detail take longer to stain and sand. They must be sanded by hand and then to get stain in the crevices, a putty knife inside a stain rag works wonders.

Steve spent half the day on the roof grinding out joints on the parapet wall and then joined the staining party in the backyard.




















The drying rack has come to good use. The top shelf has all the finished wood and we've been able to leave trim to dry overnight on the many lightweight shelves.

On the floor in front of the rack you can see all the new wood we have to deal with.

Here are a few more things that have made this project easier to tackle:

*Having a "kit" put together with all the tools needed. This way you're never seaching for an awl etc...
*Using Off! to avoid bug bites. (nothing more annoying than being pestered by insects while covered in sawdust)
* Of course, the drying rack.
*Making a chart and labeling system.

Back to finishing wood now!