My Wife is a Stripper

As anyone knows, buying a house is a huge decision. It taxes your time, your relationship, and your wallet or pocketbook. For the 9-5ers, the nest egg is built and then gone with just 1 of the 150 signatures at the closing. When the dust settles  and you are left with the reality of your finances, you understand what it means to "do the work yourselves." And so while Jess is not about to hook for extra cash, she can strip wood like a boss. After handing her a heat gun and a scraper, she went to work on the focal point of the living room (and perhaps the house). After several days of work and a a lot of help from Norm Abram my brother, she has opened our eyes to what we saw in this pile of old wood in the first place.

While the picture gets us a bit randy, my brother pointed out that despite the way it looks, we are only about a third of the way done. What a chooch - why'd he have to say that? The remaining 66% consists of using dental tools to remove a bit more residue and hard-to-get bits, rub down the surfaces with some denatured alcohol and steel wool, perhaps strip, and then refinish.

All of this just for every bit of woodwork in the house. That includes baseboard trim, the coffured ceiling, the panels behind the radiators, etc, etc, etc. Did I mention there is a picture rail/molding likely also made from chestnut around the whole house? While we try not to think about it beyond the room we are working on, I'm glad my wife is a stripper.