For now...Uffa!
Strippers will do it the fastest.
* Put away the heat-gun!!!!
* Old oil paint just keep getting more brittle and yellowed.
* Yours is at the stage now where it should all be stripped/taken off; and sanded smooth again.
* Using strippers won't let lead get in the air. Check your cities regulations for waste-disposal however!!!!
* Normally it has to be wrapped in plastic 3 times over.

Faron

Thanks very much Faron, I shall strip it then and get it back to some semblance of normal. Poor old girl, the stories I could tell about this house. I'll tell you one: somebody put a vinyl floor on the original oak, and the vinyl's pattern was that of a parquet wood floor. Really, how odd. That took most of a Mpls winter with the handy hot air gun to pry the vinyl off but it's done and the floor looks pretty marvelous.

Appreciate your time!

My neighbor purchased a new Mercedes. He had seat covers installed over the leather..*s*

Vinyl must have been a new product then and the occupant must have thought that made sense. Cover it and forget it.

Michael

Yeah, the stuff people do....kind of scares ya!

Michael, I s'pose your neighbor was trying to keep up with you maybe...what with the MB-Maybach you must have ;) !!

Erin...Parquet VINYL over nice wood...hmmmm. Still shakin' my head on THAT one! It ranks right up there with my hatred of painted brick!!

Faron

Okay okay, you're forcing me to tell the other kitchen story. Love that one about the Mercedes---best not to touch the leather or something?? Sometimes I feel like Indiana Jones in this house, making archeological discoveries and not so much un-remuddling.

Thought I had a very very ugly wall and base cabinet combo with a cheapy formica countertop, so I decided to tear out the wall cab and have this new window installed there instead. South exposure is very important in Mpls. Was tearing out the cabinet prior to window guy arriving and realized, to my horror, that this was a built in that had been bastardized by someone's application of wood-grain plastic laminate. They'd removed the doors (sob), stuck dark wood laminate on all the surfaces, and installed MDF doors. No wonder it was so difficult to remove? Had I known, I probably would have kept it, but as it was chewed up by my removal efforts, I kept the base and am painfully taking down the glue goo and tossed the ugly doors, etc etc. These people apparently liked the *look* of wood, but preferred it in its plastic form.

*sigh*

Thanks again lads, appreciate it. Will be trying SoyGel first. We'll get her back to her full glory, poor thing.