When it rains, it pours

Last weekend I had the unenviable task of stripping paint off our architraves and doors.  The wonderful J had his first MBA assignment due so armed with my trusty iPod, a scraper, and my new toy, I tackled the four layers of paint on those doors.

Where has this heat gun has been all my life!

It was so easy to use, and other than sore arms from holding up the gun, and some minor burns from the super hot paint that falls on you, they are fool proof.

The green paint you see here is not actually green paint it is the bonding that was behind the old paint very sticky stuff that gets very very hot (talking from experience here!).

The old varnish sealer on the original wood was never removed before they painted.  I had smoke billowing off the wood while I was scraping - the smoke alarm went off twice!

Litres and litres of paint came off: 

And it rained.  Friday was the worst day but all day Saturday it drizzled constantly....

All my beautiful pier holes full to the brim with water!

And when it finally let up - we had a moat.

You can only imagine what this rain did to my beautiful footings!