Hi my name is Heather and I'm known as the "stripper" in the family and my husband is the "ripper". My advice is take a small section and work only on that section to ensure what is underneath is what you think is there and that you'll be happy with it. I stripped (as in taking off the paint off) door frames and baseboards only to discover the wood had never been sealed, so I couldn't get to the bare wood and had to repaint. Many years later I striped the handrail and the spindles on our staircase - 320+ hours later, the varathane went on and when I stood back I said " it would have looked JUST fine being painted. Having said that , it does look great and everyone makes a fuss (maybe because they know how much time went into the project). I don't think you'll be able to leave the spindles white as your striping solution will drip and run, I even had the problem of it running down my wall but I was able to sand and paint that area so no big deal. A note from the other side of the family, Heather stripped the bannister balusters and newel posts in our 1919 house that had 16 steps and a 10 foot return . She started with regular cheap stripper and then for the " finish" work cut the stripper with wood alcohol to prevent the gummy build up. The interesting thing was that when she started we thought that the balusters were square when in fact they had four grooves cut in the inside and outside faces. We guessed at between 14 and 16 coats of paint. We ended up selling the house a couple of years ago but the new owners absolutely love the house , especially the staircase.

How would you get a mattress up those stairs? A dresser? Spirals are great to access open lots above, but they totally suck to have for access to a 2nd floor. Your first fireplace pic is probably a electric one or a faux one. You cannot have wood that close to the firebox and it doesn't have a hearth. If the fireplace is as old as you say it is, then you need a chimney sweep out to inspect the flue. It may be damaged, but it is certain to be full of creosote. If the stone wall gets "hot" as you said, that's a BIG RED FLAG. It should only be warm to the touch. Your insurance company will want a report from a flue inspection before deciding if your home can be insured with that fireplace as active. My insurance company required that our fireplace either be redone or decommissioned. We chose to decommission and place candles in it. If you want to cosmetically redo the fireplace, you are looking at 3-5K. If the functionality is compromised and it needs to be rebuilt, then you are looking at another 3-15K, depending on what the damage is and which options you choose. Blocking off the flue and leaving it alone would cost you less than $500.

Some quick updates a month later: The buyers on our current home should be closing as I type this. Our closing is scheduled for Wednesday, then we move everything in between then and Saturday, when the professionals are scheduled to move the big items over. At the same time all of the carpet in the house is getting pulled and everything is being given a good cleaning. The most uncertain part of the move-in so far is that we need to have various locks repaired and re-keyed. That's going to be essential to the move-in since the front door is currently locked with no key and the back door is currently unlockable and secured only with a padlock. We have to trust our locksmiths have ordered the correct cylinders to get both doors working again. Finding parts for 100 year old locks was definitely one of the unanticipated challenges in buying a historic home. Luckily no part of the actual mortise locks seem to be damaged, but they are of a size that has made ordering replacement parts difficult, total hardware replacement is basically impossible without making major modifications to the door.Here's our back door. This lock set is completely functional except that the city tried drilling into the cylinder before finding they couldn't break a mortise lock that way and kicked in the door. What's especially frustrating, is just finding people who can and will do the work. Many declined the job knowing that mortise locks or old doors were involved without even seeing pictures. And several times in the process we've been told that we are better off just replacing the door, even when we were just looking for someone to replace or repair the door frame. I suspect this will be a reoccurring theme as we continue to work on the house. On the subject of trim, while repairing the aforementioned door jamb (a project that we've started before closing knowing that we need to get the doors locked right away), the casing that was pulled off is most definitely walnut. Since this was in the service stairs down to the basement, I can only assume that all of the woodwork in the house is walnut, with the exception of the front door, which appears to be quarter sawn white oak, I presume chosen for it's ability to stand up to the exterior elements. When I get a chance I still want to make a post on the research that I've done so far on this house, and what I've found about it's style and potential architect. Someone that we ran across who knew about the house had the same suggestion that we create a blog on our work and experiences.

Take photos from further back and post without your added black lines on them. It’s hard to see what’s going on. There are some code and safety issues, in addition to the aesthetics. You’d be wise to consult an architect.