Some quick information regarding stripping back to wood. Last year did these projects. Do not use chemicals, so used a hot air burner and a little Bahco scraper to do the whole lot.
The paint on doors and staircase was pretty good for melting off with use of the hot air burner. The varnish underneath it wasn’t. The floorboards had a surround strip of dark dry varnish too. The Bahco scraper was tedious but tackled the ‘getting rid of the floor and door old varnish’ job well. I’d recommend it all day long. My hands didn’t. Nor my knees. Nor my right arm either. 😳 Caught a patient who was falling and badly strained my right arm tendons and muscles. Took months on months to finally get comfortable again.
The blanket box was easy. Old Briwax to scrape off basically.
Jute carpet in the ‘future soon’ for the stairs and landing. Happy!
So it was little by little and most of the time was simply having patience to keep on at it. Once done. Waxed everything afterwards. Thing is. As a full time Staff Nurse the time to spend on house and gardening was pretty difficult. Things got very shabby! So it is good to have some quality time to simply do something on the place. After the stresses of the last two years it was essential for my biological, psychological and sociological well being to be honest.
Gray Summers 
That’s a serious amount of work to take on, I don’t think I could manage that and a full time job, bravo! And the results our outstanding, I like your style.
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Cheers Eddy. When I retired at start of July it was the garden that took president after indoor stuff and it was good to be outdoors with no full time job in the way. You know all about the endorphins fresh air brings. 😊 Hard to forget I was no longer in the nurse role initially. I’m actually still registered. I can re-register from this March until March 2023. But I won’t work in the role again. Only keen on becoming an aromatherapist and one to one conversational exchanges about people’s’ lives and recent experiences. How they’ve coped or changed.
You’ve been pretty active and productive yourselves too. That project of yours isn’t lightweight at all. I haven’t built a house or developed ‘The Good Life’ for real. Just some DIY. I think the biggest hardship in achieving for us all is dealing with those two awful years whilst getting on with dreams and ambitions. It’s great to realise what we’ve actually done and achieved positive outcomes. All the best. Cheers and thanks for your thoughts.
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