Kitchen Reno Part 2: Scraping!

So why scrape this paint off?  Why not paint over it?  Well, a few reasons.  One is I want the woodwork to go back the original stained woodwork like the rest of the house.  Also, there are soooo many layers of paint it just doesn't look good anymore.  It's cracked in some places and lumpy.  Second is although I will be painting the bead board there are so many layers of paint that the ridges are not as noticeable as they could be.  It is also lumpy, cracked and just looks bad as seen below.

You can hardly see the detail any more.

And.....welcome to my personal hell.  The trusty little heat gun I got for my birthday has really come in handy.  It is better than using stripper, cheaper and it doesn't eat your skin off like stripper although I have burned myself a few times.  However this is the most tedious and boring thing I've ever done.  It also takes forever.  It's hours and hours of work.  My legs are killing me from being on the ladder which after painting the house I don't know why.

So what do I do?  I decide to bake a pound cake...

This is what it looks like after scraping.  All this paint in hard crispy chips all over the floor.

So many colors.  The base color is this really dark blue.  I'm not sure if it was that way originally or changed over time.  Then we have beige, turquoise, yellow, green, blue, pink, beige again and this yellow.  But only half the kitchen is yellow.  The lady got tired and quit.  Can't say I blame her.

My daughter lending a hand and demonstrating holding the gun and scraper at the same time.  Wearing a mask is very important especially when removing old paint.  The fumes are awful.

I will definitely have to break out my trusty sander.  But I do feel like the wood just breathed a sigh of relief and said Thank You!!  It's going to be so pretty when it's done.

This is the wall where the stove is and this doorway goes into the dining room.  To give you an idea just this right here took almost two hours.  As anal as I have been about perfection over this I am NOT doing behind the stove or behind the fridge.  I have to draw a line somewhere.  ha

Hazards of the heat gun: Um, FIRE.  1.  You can't leave it on too long.  2. be careful when you're close to the floor.  I had pulled back the molding which exposed an old vinyl floor which started a very small fire.  Never the less scary.  Of course after beating it with the scraper it was only then that I realized I am in the kitchen with the sink very close to me.  Ha  I have a glass of water standing by just in case now.

So what have we learned with this post?  Bead board with 8 plus layers of paint is no good.  Solid wood work should remain stained.  Shelley likes to bake.  Water always near by when using a heat gun.

I leave you with this pretty picture.  We have sold our ceiling fan so we're limited on light.  The big cabinet we plan on hanging but can't figure it out right now.  Now imagine three kids and three dogs running around.