The Petch House

Attention class! Come on, settle down now...

Authors:

Sort of a lite work day for me and my intern. There was some classroom time, a lab assignment, and a field trip.

The main job today was to put up the plaster medallion in the back parlor. This was the lab assignment. Since we had to cut the power to parlor and remove the existing ceiling fixture, I took the opportunity to go over...

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Time

Authors:

Sometimes it seems like there is never enough time in life to do the things you really want to do. {Sigh!}

In this case though, there wasn't enough time to finish the thing I really want to be finished with - The Plaster! When it comes to plaster it just seems to go on and on and on. Paint stripping is another one of those tedious chores...

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Plastering The Parlors

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So my intern and I haves been working on the plaster in the parlors. Oh, did I forget to mention I have a summer intern? Yes, The Petch House has a summer intern who is a recent graduate of College of The Redwoods' prestigious Preservation Curriculum. This moves the Petch House in to a whole new echelon of restoration projects. I mean an...

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Taste Test

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If you've been following along, aftertrying and then giving up on some of the more environmentallysensitive paint stripping products, I went back to thecaustic products. Shasha Kidd left acomment the other day saying that she had the exact same experiencelast year at her place.

In the post I mentioned that in thepast I had used
...

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Back To The Hard Stuff

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Well, you can't say I didn't try. I'm an environmentalist at heart. I want to do the right thing, but sometimes it is just too hard to be right. I tried the “green” environmentally friendly paint strippers and it just is not working.
I wrote about my tests with two such products the other day. It seemed like it was going to work, but in...

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What a Waste

Authors:

At some point in the last 30 years or so someone put sheetrock over the plaster in the 2 parlors. So they wouldn't have to fit it around the head blocks, which extended 2.5 inches over the top of the casing, they sawed off the tops of the blocks. Today I finally took the last of them off.

Where should we put the drapes? Here? No, how about...

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On Stripping Coatings From Surfaces

Authors:

In case you're just tuning in, I'm in paint stripping mode in the parlors. The woodwork is redwood and was originally painted, so the goal is not to get back to bare wood where I can do a clear finish, but rather to get rid of the layers and layers of paint to regain definition in the high Victorian millwork and to get rid of the many...

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40% Off Smith+Noble

Authors:

I got a post card in the mail last week for an Employee Discount of 40% the purchase of window treatments. I must order before February 21st and spend at least $1,000.
Spending a $1,000 at Smith+Noble would not be difficult at all. Ordering before February 21st would be a challenge, but for 40%, I'll make the effort. The only real...

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Petchhouse Forum

Authors:

I'm looking for your torrid, sexy stories about stripping. I want stories with lurid details and climactic endings.
I'm talking about paint stripping, of course. When I strip the paint in the parlors I'm going to try a different approach to stripping than I normally do. Kelly made a comment on my last post about methyl chloride paint...

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Shout Out

Authors:

I'll be the first to admit that I can be tough on local business people whom I don't think try hard enough to get my business. Maybe too hard at times. Regardless, I want take a moment to praise a local business person who did a good job, on time, for a competitive price. In short, he did his job and did it well.
I've had this on-going...

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