The Chimney - A conclusion, of sorts. And doors.

 Last I wrote, I was knee-deep in in parging the chimney.
I had Friday off, so I swung over to the masonry supply place, grabbed two more buckets, and got it done. This time however, I:
1) Dumped the mix into my trusty kitty-litter pan to mix rather than try to mix it in the bucket, and
2) Added more water. Instead of 3ish cups, I went for a solid 4.5. I probably could have gotten away with 4.25, but it worked.

I had juuuuust enough to finish the 2 exposed sides of the chimney.

Where I left off. The raking light from the lamp on didn't help matters.

One side done - under natural light, it doesn't look half bad.

The second side done. It's not very smooth, but it's encased.

I'm curious to see how well this holds up. It seems very secure now that it's complete and curing. After talking with Ian, once it's good and cured in a month or two I'm going to top dress it with drywall compound. (The surface is certainly rough enough for it to stick now, where it wouldn't have stuck to the smooth painted/plastered finish that was still hanging around on the old surface.) I'll be able to sand the drywall compound down for a smoother finish that will mimic more closely what was there. Then I can paint it to match the room.
I still need to get out my fine sandpaper and scrapers out try to get the paint off the trim that was left over from when previous owners had boxed in this area. A little oil and a coat of shellac should blend it ok. It's behind the door, so it's not super noticeable, but I'm a completest.

After the chimney on Friday, I pulled one of the doors off in the office and started stripping it. Back when I flipped the office in the depths of the pandemic, I did the room, but didn't have time to get to the doors. Now that it's not stinking hot out, I can strip stuff outside instead of having to have a freind come help me get it down to the basement.

The set up. I figured out how to make my sawhorses taller (!) and reused the plastic from solarizing my worms as a drop cloth so I didn't get paint chips everywhere. It worked out really well.

6.5 hours and some really sore muscles later, I have one entirely heat stripped door. Having it higher did help. Next step, sanding.

This is the door that is closest to the front door in my office. Like every other door in the house, I'm fairly certain it started life somewhere else and was repurposed.

Two strips have been added to the top of the door to make it taller. (Not just one!)

The are under the knob plate is a hot mess. They are little circular iron rounds, with 3 pricks, ostensibly for stability - they would stab the wood, and with the help of 2 tiny screws hold it down. Can't have longer screws because the metal housing of the mortise lock is right behind it, only 3/16" away. Decades of use and repositioning turned those pricks into saw teeth. The other side of the door is worse. *Edit - I talked about this 2 years ago!

The other side of the door (which you can't see well) and the mortise lock pocket. You can see on the bottom of the close edge corner where the wood started to blow out a long time ago. I'm certain there's a complicated right way to fix this. I think it's going to involve glue and filler in my case, and maybe different style plates to cover up the knob mess - even if I hit the area with wood filler, those little teeth are just going to keep grinding away.

That's where I got on Saturday. Sunday I trimmed back some brush that had grown up along my driveway and killed another 400+ worms. I'm hoping I have time this week and the weather holds out so I can drag the door back out side to sand it.