Wednesday

I started to strip the last pieces of the window casings for the Master Bedroom this evening and found the paint to be REALLY stuck to the wood. So much so that I might just write them off and replace them. I put 3 coats of stripper on the boards and the stuff still did not want to come off without a fight. But I think I will try the sander first and see what the does.




The second image is of the bedroom door. I got lucky on this (again) only one coat of paint! The only bummer is that both sides of the door are painted and I have to re-do both.

I have been sitting here for a few hours and I keep getting a smell of ashes that I think is coming from the fireplace. I double checked the damper and it is closed. I hope this isn't going to be a continuing problem. Or the second and third options are the dog just smells or is farting. Or a combination of all 3. What is pretty cool is ( sorry back to the bedroom door) that the door hardware is in great shape and the whole unit is mortised into the door itself. The original paint is still on the locking mechanism, but the old skeleton key is long gone. Looking inside the mortise, you can still see the chisel marks from the Carpenter that cut the wood out. I guess there where no pre-cuts from the factory back in the day. Something interesting I also found when removing the hinges was 3 pieces of old newspaper that was used as a template (maybe) to cut the mortise. I am not really sure.
One side talks about Gov. Smith bombed his own house for publicity and the other side talks about cancer in children.
I didn't find any dates and the paper looks as though the center is burnt out rather than cut. So, if any of my great following of fans of this blog might know what these papers are for, clue me!
I envision some half drunk carpender with a non-filter Pall Mall (or Lucky Strike, you choose) cigarette hanging out his mouth sticking that paper under there just to mess with some future owners head and chuckling about "I wonder how long it will take them to figure this riddle out" then taking another swig of half flat and warm beer like Hamms or Falstaff that was left over from lunch 3 hours prior. Who knows! The bloody mysteries of an old house!