An Unexpected Day Off

I arrived at work at my usual 5:00 AM, and headed up to the office to copy our line schedule for the day.  I got upstairs, and there were no schedules.  I thought maybe the copier was down again, as sometimes happens, so I go back downstairs and over to tubing department to use their computer.

Only, their computer was down, too.  I noticed that the dispatcher's computer was up, so I asked him to print me out a schedule.  He did, but it was yesterday's schedule.  That's when I discovered that a vitally important system was down -- that system being our company intranet.  I asked the dispatcher why the IT guy didn't fix it, and he told me it was something they would have to fix in Dallas when their IT guy got in.

Oh.

I went to my work station and started brazing up the day's work.  At 7:00 AM, the lines came in, only they couldn't run because they couldn't scan any orders out -- that whole computer being down thing and all.  By 9:00, the powers that be decided the best course of action was to cut their losses and send us all home.  So, I got an unexpected day off.

And what did I do with my unexpected day off?  I'll tell you.

The people who lived in this house before me had very different tastes in decorating.  I'm told they were really in to John Deere, which is why the house is green and yellow.  Now, don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with green and yellow, but it just isn't me.  This mantle, for example, I never liked it.  Not the color, nor the paint they used.

I'm not sure what kind of paint they used, but it is very sticky.  When I put my vase on the mantle, it sticks to the paint.  I found a chipped spot a couple of days ago and started picking at it.

I was able to grab and pull large, stretchy chunks of paint off.

As you can see, there was another layer of paint under the first layer.  It peeled off as easily as the green paint did.

So, when I got home from work unexpectedly early, I got my can of paint stripper out of the shed and began stripping all the old stuff off.

I tried to do the edges, too, but for some reason, that paint didn't strip as easily.

I'll get it when my belt sander gets here Saturday.  Yes, I ordered a belt sander online, because I didn't want to get dressed and go to the store.  Until it gets here, I got a piece of regular sandpaper and did a small spot by hand.

I think it'll clean up quite nicely.   Once I get it all cleaned up, I'm going to stain it.  I haven't decided what color yet.  Probably oak or walnut.

Then I'll have to figure out how to get all that gloppy paint off of the bricks.  That's going to be a challenge.  Maybe I'll just distress them.

That might look nice.