Heat Guns & Hairdryers

You may not agree with me on this, but the more I tinker with my house the more I realize that home remodeling is much like the cosmetics industry. This epiphany struck me on Monday night when I was using my new favorite paint-removal device on that god-awful, time-consuming door. Would you like to see the device?

It’s my hairdryer! No, it’s not. It’s a heat gun. You have to admit that some dim-witted, non-home remodeler would think nothing of picking up this tool and directing at their hair. Sadly, it would fry off every strand, but they probably had it coming.

To give the dim-witted, non-home remodeler a little credit, let’s do a side-by-side comparison of an actual hairdryer and heat gun so you can see just how similar they are.

Okay, let me rephrase. The heat gun looks a lot like old-school hairdryers.

The heat gun worked beautifully on the paint-covered door, much the way makeup removers wipe away layers of goo from a woman’s face, revealing her natural features.

Granted, I was scraping off thick patches of gunk, and hopeful there’s not many women who use those terms to describe their facial cleansing routine. But, in all honesty, we probably all know a few who do.

The above photo captures a total of 5 hours of paint stripping, using both chemicals and a heat gun. And I’m still not finished.

How ’bout we take a look at what is actually finished? I think it will make us all feel better. And by ‘finished,’ I mean ‘one step closer to being done than the door, but still not done.’

This wood was treated to an intense exfoliating session where its old, cracking surface was sloughed off to expose a new, fresh layer. See what I’m saying? This is exactly what women do to their faces.

In other words, that’s the trim that I’ve sanded with 80 grit paper. I have to go over all of it again with 220 grit before I can do any staining.

Most of the trim was not painted, but covered in 80-year-old old, blistering shellac.

Can you see why I wanted to get rid of it?

Just like all those infomercials that rely on ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos to reel you in, I’m going to show you a ‘before’ and ‘after’ of the wood I’ve stripped, but lucky you, I’m not trying to sell you anything.

And now, to wrap up this post, here are the heaps of wood that still need to be exfoliated. Not once, but twice. Then I shall apply a “moisturizer” (a.k.a pre-stain) and top it off with a layer of “foundation” (a.k.a stain) that hides its flaws while highlighting its natural beauty.

I think there’s a small chance that I might be able to finish this project while still in my 20s. But 30 hits mid-January, so it’s probable that I will spend my early 30s refinishing wood. And then it will most likely be time to start refinishing my face.

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