Why?!?! Why would someone...

[Cantousent]

Hours of scrubbing the fireplace bricks with paint stripper and steel wool. It looks much better, but I have to wonder why folks would paint a fireplace. ...And we're not talking some ugly, cheep brickwork either. This fireplace is sweet and some jackanapes thought it best to paint it? Not only that, but I had bare cement in the family room until I finished the fireplace. Finally, both fireplace and floor finished, but the whole experience almost killed me. Rat bastards! ARGHHHHH Someone told me once that owning a home is like building a cathedral... it's never finished. How right that was.

[Darque]

You gain much wisdom padawan :cool:

[PrincessSarah]

We have a really nice old duplex, with hardwood floors and a brick fireplace...ALL of the floorboards and window trims and door frames are painted white.

[Cantousent]

Well, it's gotta be easier to strip wood than it is to strip brick. You just have to be careful with the stripper lest it get all over the place.

 

Speaking of home improvement, I ordered a hot water heater from Sears. They quoted a price and charged me and then sent someone out to my house to install it. The guy comes in, looks around, and then writes up a bill for an additional $60.

 

I ask, "what's this?"

 

He says, "I have to do extra work to install it."

 

I reply, "Why didn't they tell me you might have to charge me extra?"

 

His response? He shrugs and says, "I don't know."

 

Well, I call Sears and the lady says she's sorry but the person who took the order should have warned me that there might be an additional charge depending on what the contractor sees when he arrives at the job site. Meanwhile, the contractor is taking the water heater off of the truck and getting ready to bring it into my house.

 

He says, "did you call?"

 

"Yes," I respond.

 

He starts to bring the thing up to my house and I tell him to stop. He looks at me like I'm crazy. With a silly look on his face, he asks me if I really don't want him to bring in the water heater. I tell him no, that I don't need his service. Man, was he angry. He simply left. Good choice on his part. Sears quickly refunded my money.

 

It's like that thread somewhere hereabouts asking about how hostile we are. I wasn't angry. I was damned angry. He was going to be wearing that water heater as a permanent appendage if he had put up an argument.

 

Well, I went and bought a water heater and installed the same thing myself. I went from... I dunno... something like $500 to buy it and have it installed to less than $200 and it's been working quite well for the last four years or so.

 

Wasn't really his fault, though. The lady at Sears should have warned me that there might be additional charges when I first paid for it. Instead, I'm surprised when he arrives. Never a good thing.

 

:Eldar'svoiceofadmonition:

 

Remember, contractors can be good or bad, but they simply don't have as much at stake in your home as you do. If you can do it yourself, you're better off than if you're forced to use a contractor.

[Kor Qel Droma]

Sears can be tricky sometimes. In my hometown , a lot of people that get fired from where I work end up working there. I bought a fridge from them and when it finally came the delivery guy was like ' you'll need to balance that'. so I'm like okay but when i pulled the instructions out they were generic and the place where I was supposed to adjust the legs ( or whatever you call them) has a nice piece of metal covering it. But there service plan kicks some ass. i own a condo and am jealous of people being able to do what they want in there own place. And renovating sucks big time

[Child of Flame]

"Why?!?! Why would someone paint his fireplace?"

 

Brain fart?

[PrincessSarah]

We were actually considering stripping all the wood trim and restaining it. But, A)That would be an ass load of work, 2)We really need to refinish the hard wood floors as well and C) It might not be worth all the money and effort if we don't plan on living here longer than another year or two.

[Phosphor]

You just have to be careful with the stripper lest it get all over the place.

 

Words of wisdom in so many ways I'm sure

 

I have yet to be a home-owner (though in about 2 years I shall be if all goes according to plan), but in every rented space I've lived in, there has always been lots of work to be done, mainly in painting and such.

Our current house had, and still has in places, what I call the Faux-Finsih Of Charles Dexter Ward on every millimeter of trim throughout the house. For those puzzled by my naming choice, Charles Dexter Ward was the titular character in a story by H.P. Lovecraft, a sorcerer of sorts whom liked to summon up all sorts of nasties, and a warning in the tale was "do not call up what you cannot put down!". This faux-finish is very much like that, nasty and impossible to fully put down. It took seven coats of paint (about 2-3 of primer, the rest actual paint) to satisfactorily cover this faux-finish, and even then it's still kind of streaky. This winter I need to re-paint all the trim in the house.

This faux-finish is a horrible, laquer-like entity, intended to look like richer wood, but instead looks like some laquer-ingesting beast of doom vomited it forth all over the trim. It's hideous, and it's everywhere.

 

We were actually considering stripping all the wood trim and restaining it. But, A)That would be an ass load of work, 2)We really need to refinish the hard wood floors as well and C) It might not be worth all the money and effort if we don't plan on living here longer than another year or two.

 

I hear you there. Our place needs the floors re-finished, some roof work done, some plumbing fixed and numerous other little things. The wood trim in our place is a good foot wide, and has grooves and other detail, and is very nice but stripping it down would be an epic task and not worth it for a rental.

If I were going to be staying here for many more years, I'd be after the landlord for work to get done, and be doing work myself, but I don't see the point in putting that much time, effort and money into it when we'll be gone in a couple of years and so leave him with a nicely re-finished house to rent for more money.

[EnderAndrew]

Our wood trim is similiar, and it's a decent sized house. One of our neighbors has a similiar place, but without paint all over the trim. The natural wood looks gorgeous, and brings some color to the white walls. But we have white trim on white walls.

 

Grrr.

[Phosphor]

You could paint the trim and/or the walls. The trim in my place is painted white (to cover the dread faux-finish), and with painted walls it looks fine.

[Cantousent]

Hahaha! That Charles Dexter Ward part was comedy!

 

You know, Cath, my wife, let me do whatever I wanted to do with my bathroom, so I painted the walls and trim silver, the ceiling a midnight blue, installed a midnight blue toilet seat, midnight blue towels (upon one is the morning star and the other the evening star), a beautiful, framed picture of a unicorn on one wall, a beautiful, framed picture of a wizard on the other wall, and a 9" tall 'knight' light. We get a lot of compliments on the bathroom.

 

Who says you can't do "geek" tastefully?

[PrincessSarah]

You know what's even worse than painted trim?

 

Carpet in the kitchen *shudders*

 

And it's not even NICE carpet. It's old and nasty and stained.

 

Our attic had like, 5 different paint colors before we redid it. We still need to paint our bedroom, and repaint the basement stairs.

[Phosphor]

You know what's even worse than painted trim?

 

Carpet in the kitchen *shudders*

 

And it's not even NICE carpet. It's old and nasty and stained.

 

Our attic had like, 5 different paint colors before we redid it. We still need to paint our bedroom, and repaint the basement stairs.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Carpet in a kitchen? That's just as bad as carpet in a bathroom! Nobody in their right mind carpets those rooms..

 

When we moved into our current house, the living room was light blue, and the stairway, upper hallway and kitchen were squash orange, all with that horrible brown trim. The bedroom was a dark grey-green (ceiling too, so it was like a cave even though it's the biggest room in the house) and the second bedroom (now my office) was bright apple green.

The bathroom was, and still is, white, though half of it is covered in terrible white and pink ceramic tiles.

I need to repaint this winter; it's been three years and things are looking kind of shabby.

[EnderAndrew]

I'm going to ask the landlord to rip out the carpet in the kitchen if they want us to renew the lease.

[Cantousent]

Painting the trim is only bad if the wood looks good underneath. I'll tell you now, some trim is better painted.

 

I do, however, hate all carpet. After taking up a variety of carpet, I have to say I hate it all. Nasty, disgusting stuff. Nothing you do to the top of you carpet can get the filth from underneath. If you have 3 cats, and we do, then you get three times the fun. Tear it out and put in flooring!

[EnderAndrew]

95% of our house is hard wood flooring. I wouldn't mind some tile or linoleum in the kitchen, however. The carpet must go.

[krazikatt]

I like carpet... but only nice new clean carpet - and not in the bathroom or kitchen - that's just icky. We have mostly tile floors downstairs and carpet upstairs.

 

Anyhow, wow Eldar, I can't beleive you stripped paint from your brick fireplace... you are a trooper. A lot of people paint brick believe it or not. I dont' know why, but they do...

 

As far as the white trim goes you'd better make sure it's "real" wood underneath. My house is fairly new and the mantel, and baseboards are made of some kind of MDF or something, so they are painted white. Can't really get away with stripping and staining that. Fortunate for me I happen to like the white

[EnderAndrew]

Our house was built in the 20s, and I'm pretty sure it's real wood.

[Cantousent]

Wow, Krazikatt, it's great to hear from you. How are you and Mr. Krazikatt doing?

 

The wife and I are quite well. The home improvement projects never end around here, although Mrs. Eldar does not hold with the actual labor. We have an agreement... she decides what she wants and I do it. Makes sense!

 

There are some times, rare though they be, where I will say not only no but hell no. Most of the time, though, I'm just happy to have her telling me what to do.

 

Now, if you think the fireplace was tough, let me tell you a story of a cat and a terrible desire to shred wall paper.

 

Yes, I have stripped the entire house of wallpaper. Some of the rooms in my single story home have ceilings 12' high. What is a not only but hell no item? Wallpaper. I won't abide putting it in. I won't buy a house with wallpaper already installed. I had to strip the stuff and paint.

 

Then, because I'm a fool, I was arguing with my wife over the huge amount of crap she has all over the house and I put my fist through the wall. There's a special place in hell for people who destroy their own homes in a fit of rage. I patched it, but it doesn't look very good. I'll have to redo the whole thing.

 

:Eldar'sshakinghisheadwithaforlournlookicon:

[Grandpa]

Rat bastards!  ARGHHHHH  Someone told me once that owning a home is like building a cathedral... it's never finished.  How right that was.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

And you have yet to discover that when the previous owners had the siding replaced, they merely covered up some spaces which should have been planked or sheeted in plywood. And ditto for the roof....

[Gorth]

I was arguing with my wife over the huge amount of crap she has all over the house and I put my fist through the wall.

You got a hamster named Boo ? :ph34r:

[Dakoth]

The simple answer to why some people paint fireplaces is some brick is ugly, the other is they do not relise what they are doing.

 

As for you Phosphor there is a product on the market called Killz usually in the paint department trie that before you paint and prime and you should (crosses fingers) have more luck.

 

Our wood trim is similiar, and it's a decent sized house. One of our neighbors has a similiar place, but without paint all over the trim. The natural wood looks gorgeous, and brings some color to the white walls. But we have white trim on white walls.

 

No such thing as natural wood trim as everyone usually stains then seals it. You have to remember wood is light yellow, or white and even if you just seal it it yellows with time, more so if you smoke. Let me know if you want to see the natural color of pine as that is what the trim in our 50 year old house is. Not stained just shelacked.

 

I can also think of 2 things worse than stripping a firepalce those are demolition on any walls with plaster on them, and installing slat board on plaster walls.

 

Home improvement can be hell as it is usually a second job but rewarding when it turns out good.

 

Also remember there are codes that need to be followed when doing certain things, plumbing and elctric come to mind.

[Grandpa]

As for you Phosphor there is a product on the market called Killz usually in the paint department trie that before you paint and prime and you should (crosses fingers) have more luck.

 

It's actually called "Kilz". The primer battlecry in the painting community is "Kilz'll Kill it". Kilz is a primer. The best dang primer ever created. If you hire a painter to, say, paint the exterior of your house, and he uses anything but Kilz, and refuses to use Kilz, fire him. Besides using substandard primer, he intends to water down the generic paint he bought instead of the expensive stuff you're paying for as well.

 

I've used Kilz extensively on exterior and interior jobs. Brick, wood, plaster, plastic, concrete, floors, walls, clabberboard, cedar (not my idea), oak, pine, particle board, clay tile.......

 

BUT....Do not use it on something that you may want to strip down later in life. It will be extremely difficult to strip.

[Cantousent]

Gorth, you nut! If I had a hamster named Boo, he could have patched the damned hole from the inside. That would be much better.

[Gromnir]

"You just have to be careful with the stripper lest it get all over the place."

 

ain't that the truth. we dated a stripper while we were in college, and it were a nightmare. couldn't get rid of her. she would show up at our dorm room, and at our job and outside our classes and at football practice.

 

what can we say? she were a "biostatistics" grad student with great legs... but she had issues. Gromnir were immature 'nuff at the time to think that dating a stripper were neato. sad thing is that we never paid 'nuff attention to her to even figure out what the heck "biostatistics" were... though we assumed that it were some very focused statistics thing that were applied to medical data.

 

HA! Good Fun!