Hardware Stripping

Thought I would share a quick post on stripping all of our door hardware.  I stripped all of the plates for the knobs when we first moved in but was left with all of the hinges painted with many coats.  When we had the paint stripped off of several of the hall doors several weeks ago, my friend, Chris, stripped the paint off of those hinges however we still had three closet and bedroom doors that needed work. 
Well, I figured that I better strip them before we put them back up (we had to remove our doors to refinish the floors).  Stripping paint off of solid metal hardware is quite an easy and quick process...

1. remove hardware
2. put into old crock pot (mine was from college but they have them at goodwill or estate sales all the time)
   
3. add a tablespoon or two of TSP
4. cover with water
5. heat for several hours 
6. wash hardware off in warm/hot water using a scrub or tooth brush and the old paint just melts away

Here are a couple pictures of the hardware soaking in the crock pot and cleaning it up in the sink after. 

Also a picture of the new nickel hinges that I purchased from Rejuvenation for the bathroom-the original nickel hardware was missing and the new hinges fit right in with no adjustments needed-wow, we were lucky!  Now just to stain the doors and put it all back up!  Living without privacy is interesting but I guess a necessary step in home restoration. :)

Wood Floors Refinished

I am proud to say that after a three year delay, we finally bit the bullet, cleared out the main floor of the house and had the floors refinished this past week-what a hassle but what a payoff.  Anyways, we cleared the house on Sunday after our halloween party, they patched all the floor vents and returns on Monday, sanded and then started the 3 coats of Swedish finish on Tuesday. 

We opted for Swedish finish because it is supposedly one of the most durable and resistant to scratches and other damage=great because we have two dogs.  We stopped by Tuesday after work prior to staying at our friend's house for 4 nights (super generous) and man, even with holding his breath, Steve got a headache and his eyes stung just being inside for a couple minutes.  I could smell the fumes from outside.  However, we moved back in Sat morning (are living upstairs for the week because the floors need to "cure" for a week before they have furniture on them and will only handle socked feet) and love looking at the floors.  Here are some pictures of before (wow, it was worse than I thought), when sanded and after.  There are white oak floors (rare size so very difficult to find the wood for patching) in the living and dining rooms and fir in the bedrooms and hallway (we had matching fir planks we had pulled out from the basement that we used for patching).

Floor Before (oak)

Sanding in dining and living rooms (can sort of see patched area in upper left hand corner)

Fir floors patches and sanding started

Done and beautiful!   All stains and divots from prior refinishing gone.

Fir floors