Pictures say it all, the paint and stain is coming off. The arch between the living room and den:

Right corner built in bookcase:

One corner of the living room:

Wow! Rachel agreed to strip all the paint off in the living room and bring it back to its original glory. (She’s been hesitant to bring the wood grain back in the renovation fearing it would “make the room depressing.”) We’ve hired J & C Home Repair to help us out based on the praise they received over at 1912Bungalow.com (one of our favorites). So now Juan, Pablo and the rest of the crew are working their magic in our living room. I have to echo the praises we’ve read about them, there doesn’t seem to be anything they can’t do—and do well. When we bought our bungalow the living room ceiling beams had been painted over white.

We had four different contractors look at it and tell us stripping it would be just too much work, cost thousands and probably not worth the effort in the end. (My personal favorite was the developer who suggested we paint a faux wood grain over everything. “You can’t tell the difference.”)

Juan Reyes came over and said he could do it, no problem, and knew exactly what we were going for. He even noticed the crappy quality mantle that Fireplace Freddie had built and said we should re-do that while we were at it. He didn’t like the wood they used. Neither did I, I knew we’d found our guy. Work started soon after:

Well, two days later, our ceiling beams looked like this:

We found top grade Douglas Fir under all that paint with amazing grain. We’re getting excited.

J & C Home Repair • (626) 793-7091