My job for today is: pole stripper.

And if that doesn’t sound right, let me clarify: I’m stripping paint off of wooden poles. As some of you may know, we’re in the middle of redecorating the interior of our house: repainting, reflooring, maybe adding track lighting to the hallway. Along our entryway, we have four turned posts that I think would look good in its original wood, stained rather than painted.

Last week, after a few hours at Lowes, my parents and I came back with the most powerful paint stripper we could find, and all the appropriate tools. But after testing an experimental patch, we realized there were actually SIX coats of paint on these poles (since the 1970’s)! So three hours of work actually only got me this far:

That’s when I decided I’d have to set aside at least an entire day to undertake this project. And that day is today!