idots should not decorate!

[Russian Blue]

....when I asked my mom what kinda idot would paint over then wallpaper over a gorgous oak finnish my moms response was "a man" lol

That's funny. But I do know what you're going through.

We have been slowly renovating our house. We purchased a 100 year old 'handyman special' since the neighbourhood is beautiful and Rob needed a project to work on. And when we bought the house the former owners had painted the kitchen floors and stairs with outdoor green paint ( ) the walls were a mix of yellow ( ) and turquoise ( ). Lucky we can see past the cosmetic flaws since this house will be beautiful once we finish (if we ever finish.....).

Instead of a nice relaxing weekend coming up, we are stripping stairs! But guess what? Not only did they paint the stairs once but there is 6 layers of paint. Green, white, turquoise, pink, lime green and black is the final layer.

When we finish we will use a dark stain on the steps and paint the rest an antique white. We may place a runner up the stairs, not sure yet.

Here's the current picture....we're slowly seeing progress

[kuhio98]

My sister bought a house that was built in the 70's. It has a brick fireplace with a wood mantle. The bricks and mantle had been painted white by the time they bought it. One day her doorbell rang and a guy introduced himself as the one who had built the house. He did most of the work himself. He was just dropping by to visit so my sister and her husband invited him in. He just about cried when he saw the fireplace and mantle. Turns out the mantle was a special order (from Asia) huge slab of teak. He said it was gorgeous. Sis hasn't gotten around to carefully stripping all the paint off of it yet.