Taylor’s Blog

After a much inhebreiated Monday evening celebrating my last day of work for 2006 and then a full
Tuesday of recovering I have started to do some much needed work on my house in Greensboro.. I have taken down most of the popcorn ceiling, and now whats
mostly left that I will tackle is stripping paint.. My folks told me about this stuff in the old house journal.. Soy Gel.. It’s made from soy beans.. It
looks like snot, and well you paint it on let it sit and then you remove the paint.. It has pretty much no smell, you can do it without gloves, and well
it’s just pretty rad.. It’s by far the easiest stripper I have ever used in my life, and it seems to work better than anything I have
tried..

Check out the fireplace I started stripping.. Removing paint from brick isn’t easy either.. I have the final (3rd) coat sitting overnight
tonight and then it should be 100% cleaned off.. Check out the progress.. I guess I also should thank my dad for coming up to GSO for 2 days to help
me..

This is how it looked
before..

After the first pass
(overnight)..

The stipper working its magic..
This is only after maybe an hour of the second coat..

Check out that yellow brick! I had
no idea it was there.. So much cooler looking than all white..

The room is getting
ready for a dance partay!

So there is where I stand.. I have a bunch more stripper up for overnight and hopefully I can get most of the trim
stripped.. If any of you ever need to strip paint I STRONGLY recomend this stuff..

So Thursday is my last day in Greensboro for a bit.. Off to
Raleigh.. Maybe i’ll see some of ya folks out Thursday night!

So I have talked about it, but I finally took the photos off of my camera.. I still gotta get the
Scarowinds photos off of my other camera but I left it at Sheilas..

So about 2 weeks ago I got a construction dumpster delivered to my new place,
ripped out a wall, and the carpet.. Today I have been taking down the popcorn ceiling, and in an effort to slack I decided the best thing to do was hit up
myspace and blog even..

The wall I took out was added in the 50s I think the previos owner told me.. Anyway the thing was not structural and made 2
weird shaped rooms out of what was one awesome room.. Perfect for dance parties or what not.. It had really thin drywall so I just kicked it all to
oblivion and then ripped out the framing.. The photos are extra cool though.. Maybe an animated gif would be best here?

Going..

Going..

Almost
gone now..

Once I got the rest of the framing out I took out all the nasty carpet in the house..

Carpet up, staples still everywhere.. I think it took Sheila and I a day at most to get
them all pulled up.. The floors are in pretty good shape, but they need a good sanding and re-finishing..

So this is where I am so far with taking down the popcorn.. It’s super messy and really
gross.. I am making good progress now that I have a garden sprayer to wet the ceiling down..

So this is most of hte crap I ended up putting in the dumpster..

Like my neighbor
said.. “It’s a shame you buy a new house and then you go and throw half of it away”..

So kids until next time there is my adventures in
fixer-uppers.. Maybe next time I will have plaster washers here and can start fixing the walls.. I’m gonna need a drink tonight after I am done with this
sloppy mess..