0ld paint is an evil bitch. no nice way of putting it. the stuff on this house is lead based, so not only poses health and some environmental risks… but it’s damned durable stuff, despite it’s age. i feel somewhat relieved that it appears the house has only been repainted once in it’s 95 year life… because getting more than 2 layers of this stuff off would surely suck exponentially worse.

our first experiment was with an infrared “noiseless” paint remover, made from a space heater. this actually pulls off everything down to the bare wood surprisingly well, albeit a bit of a slow process. ok, very slow. one test area done (on the front of our house- poor choice in hind site), we decide to get some quotes on having the house professionally stripped. now… i’ll mention again that i was a contractor… and have had houses stripped in the past. with this knowledge, i fully expected it to be well into the thousands… but not into the tens of friggin thousands. super high quote? no.. that’s about what they all were.

next idea. after hearing some good reviews about Smart Strip, we decided to give it a try. i picked up a gallon of the stuff at the local Sherwin Williams paint supply yesterday. well knowing the silly high price of the stuff, i made sure that it was returnable if it sucked.

upon getting this cool new stuff home, i chose another test area; again on the front of our house… in full view of the street, all passers-by and visitors. (gotta remember to do this on the side of the house where nobody can see, next time). following the directions, i laid a 1/16″ layer along the test area.

now… before getting to the results, i also did more of this yesterday:

have 5 cubic yards of 3/4- gravel… the base for the concrete driveway. fun.tonight, after returning home from dinner at a friend’s house (where there were some killer home made tortillas… always a winner), i did a scrape of the test area. $54 per gallon. one gallon covers approximately 45 square feet. we’d need approximately 15 gallons to strip the clapboard and trim. did it strip the paint off well enough to totally justify the cost? i’d have taken a picture, but my disappointment was proof enough for me. it took off a great deal of the newest layer of paint (estimated at 50 years old)… but that’s it.
i’ll try a second test area, as well as a second application over the first test area… but so far the first impression: not so hot. that’s not to say the product is bad. i’ll keep open minded about it until the other test area results are complete… but if they have similar results, this stuff goes back. it’s supposed to take up to 4 layers at a time… so we’ll see.

Pros:	Cons:
non-toxic no harsh (or any) odor easy application doesn’t burn the skin	doesn’t appear to actually do much

over the past few weekends, some progress has taken place in the back yard!

built a cedar fence to cover the neighbor’s hedge…

the 4 foot by 4 foot raised beds are starting to grow food…

a 15 foot by 14 foot cedar chip filled play area (a play structure will eventually go in it)…

eco-lawn seeded…

also made some kick-ass escabeche… jalapeño, carrot, onion and garlic goodness.
just so i have this somewhere, the recipe:

10 large green jalapeños

2 carrots

1 small white onion

6 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

1/3 cup braggs raw apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup water

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon sea salt

slice jalapeño, carrot and onion… peel garlic cloves. sauté all of this for 10 minutes, until jalapeños begin to soften. add remaining ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes. put it in a jar, close the lid and refrigerate once it’s cooled. the longer it stays in the jar, the better it’ll taste (assuming the jalapeño was cooked well enough… it gets a funky bacteria growth if not, that kinda blows the flavor). hot damn is it good… basically had that and jalapeño onion bread for dinner.

made 2 of our 4 rain barrels today, also. portland has a pretty good storm water disconnect program going on… $53 per gutter drain that is diverted from the sewer + a reduced sewage bill.
we’re using 55 gallon barrels to store rain water, then use it for irrigation when needed: basically a barrel with the gutter down spout running into it… a hose bib at the bottom… and an overflow tube leading to an area that’ll absorb the excess water. we’re putting one on the carriage house, two on the back of the house, one on the front of the house. the barrels catching the rainwater from the house should fill pretty quickly given the size of our roof.

back to the work week, now. the weekends pass much too quickly. at least it’s light outside until 8:30 or so, which makes me feel like the entire day isn’t blown at work : )