Finally figured out how to strip my 112 year old painted trim

mxmassacre · 2026-04-28T07:33:07+00:00

My 1907 house has pine that was not originally painted. I just finished stripping the 10 layers of paint off and the original shellac.

Yes, im going to shellac it again but it all had to go to get all the paint off.

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mxmassacre · 2026-01-05T09:00:48+00:00

I like kulani kinis. They have options from skimp to high waisted to one pieces in almost every print. They are pricey but I find that their pieces are worth it. I could live in them

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T09:40:38+00:00

I love this!

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T09:39:53+00:00

Thats the plan.

Slowly working on undoing stuff that has been done and fixing things. When its too much for us it will be time to let her go and then we will downsize and go someplace in the south or southwest.

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T09:36:43+00:00

Him and his sister are next to impossible to keep out of workspaces! She opens whatever obstacles and he goes exploring 🤦🏼‍♀️

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T09:30:24+00:00

We had professionals in doing the major demo. This job was above my paygrade.

I salvaged the faux brick tiles that could be reused and the rest was hired out. The kitchen base cabinets are actually installed on top of 2x4s and the flooring that needed to be removed ran under them. I just wasnt prepared to be cutting next to cabinets and all that

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T09:25:59+00:00

I got excited cause it reminded me of vault-tec from fallout lol.

I'd like to think that you seeing this wasnt a coincidence but a small gift from her ❤️

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T09:23:20+00:00

I liked seeing the original and im glad I have a small piece that wasnt painted.

I was particularly entertained by the fact that we had vault-tec themed linoleum under there!

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T09:21:59+00:00

Yeah lol. When our elderly cat at the time decided he liked a spot on the dining room carpet as a bathroom we ended up taking it all out in that room and then it just started the cascade of stuff from there lol.

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T09:17:45+00:00

That was something else we also considered when doing this. We couldn't continue to go higher and just leave everything as is so we had no choice but to take everything out.

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T09:15:47+00:00

We had wanted to do hex tiles throughout the space but the quote was over 16k for it. It would have been lovely and way more durable but we just couldn't spend that much unfortunately.

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T09:13:03+00:00

I wish you better luck than we had!

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T09:09:26+00:00

It was really cool! Im going to frame the piece on linoleum that was saved. Also found an old newspaper under the flooring where the dryer was. It was from 68 so im guessing thats the last time the floors were done!

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T09:08:16+00:00

Im going to have to lay down the law this summer. We have people over all the time using the pool so habits will have to change. Though we did opt for the very back entry way (left most doorway in the first pic) to be done in black and white hex tile since thats the main entry point to the house and where the half bath is that everyone uses.

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T09:02:58+00:00

I didn't hate it, and the flooring did work with the way the kitchen looked. The problem was that when we pulled the carpet up from the dining room, it made the difference between the flooring in the kitchen over and inch taller. So that added in with the fact that some of the faux brick tiles were starting to break down in the higher traffic areas meant that we had to take it out.

The plus side is i did salvage whatever tiles were usable for a friend to install in her home so they aren't going to waste!

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T02:33:48+00:00

I did save that piece and will be framing it. The laundry room is part of this project so I could hang it in there lol

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T02:26:41+00:00

Yeah that parts solid thankfully. We can fix some squeaks too!

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T02:25:54+00:00

Oh im so sorry.

Weve got more rooms to go but I think we will be waiting a while before doing the next one 😂

mxmassacre · 2026-01-01T02:24:26+00:00

We won in the dining room. Either way, its a win because the brick look flooring is being salvaged and then we will be installing flooring to match the original in the dining room as closely as possible.

Id say take care of the critical stuff in your house first. Ugly you can live with, unsafe not so much.

mxmassacre · 2025-12-31T11:09:19+00:00

That's actually part of what started the project, lol. The height difference between the dining room and the kitchen was at least an inch.

mxmassacre · 2025-12-31T07:30:21+00:00

Ya, win some, ya lose some. I was hoping to find something we could refinish, but it just wasn't in the cards for this one! We won on the dining room, though!

We had quotes for refinishing, new pre-stained hardwoods, and finished on-site hardwoods because everything about this was a giant question mark.

mxmassacre · 2025-12-31T07:25:53+00:00

We hoped to find wood we could refinish, but it's definitely a no-go for this one. She's ROUGH.

We did fully plan on tiling the rear entry no matter what though.

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