We are having a great time renovating the little brown house on 2nd Street in Old Town Helena… once again, we are hoping the Nunnally House will shine as an honor to its past and a wink to its future. As our banner says, we are making progress!
Our contractor, Miracle Bill, has continued to deliver; we now have a few working windows and a nice little counter at the entrance; the exterior of the house is patched and painted; Greg has tackled sheetrocking and trimming out the bathroom, and we have all painted inside until our arms were falling off. But this week, my forward progress has basically stopped because I’ve gotten bogged down on ONE WALL. And this week’s blog update will be short because I have spent all my time on that ONE WALL— an accent wall of very old planks that was buried beneath many layers of decades old paint.
The irony isn’t lost on me; working hard to put paint on most walls while working even harder to take paint off another!
But there is just something about that old barn wood; those old planks that are rough, old, and hand-cut. Underneath the five layers of old paint, there was character, and I wanted to find it. A little paint stripper, a lot of elbow grease, a layer of wax varnish and a coffee colored glaze, and more time than I will admit to, and here are the before and afters. Was it worth it? We would love to hear what you think. (greg@arcarahomes.com or donna@arcarahomes.com).
Products used: Sher-Wood glaze by Sherwin Williams, hand sander with #40 abrasive disk, Polyvine wax finish, and a good face mask, gloves, and eye cover. (Use the paint stripper in a very well ventilated area, and clean excess stripper with paint thinner, taking care not to allow these products to touch your skin.)
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