Hopefully, unlike me, you live near a well stocked hardware store! I've found even the simplest projects turn into seemingly never ending undertakings that always require tools or supplies that I don't have.

Your diary may be quite large. Enjoy the ride.

Many older houses just used the "good" wood on the edges of a room because an area rug would cover the middle. Maybe that's why it looks mosaic.

We ripped out the carpet and started working on scraping the carpet padding of the oak. We cleaned and put shellac on the baseboards. Next we will rent an orbital sander.

Changing the two prong outlets to three prong. No ground wires......bummer.

Thought I would save 50 bucks and take off the drapery hardware and use the curtain rods for valances.

Here they are with the valances I picked up at HD. Just temporary but they give the house more of a "homey" feel and less like a "project" feel when we work on it. We are not living at the house yet.

The kitchen is circa 1950's. Today I stripped the window by the sink and will sand tomorrow. I also started to strip the shellac of the cupboards. I was pleased to find wood grain under all that shellac which gave them a "plastic" look.Here is the before pic.

Arcadiafun:

If your cabinets are finished with shellac, it will dissolve with denatured alcohol and will require very little sanding before refinishing. Denatured alcohol is very poisonous and you shouldn't breathe the fumes, so be careful, but it still beats the heck out of paint stripper.

Thanks Trebruchet. I had heard that but had the stripper on hand. I will give the alcohol a try.

I was thinking of all the things I like about home repair, including ladders, electric wires, razor blades, chemicals. Now to add poisonous fumes it only gets better. Wish me luck.