Ramblings about stripping..

We had a productive day today. Rick had the day off and we took the top of the hutch apart so we can start to refinish it. It took almost 3 hours just to take everything apart, we had to remove the back of the hutch because the veneer was warped and peeling, but we will replace it with 1/4 inch plywood. We took a lot of pictures today mostly so that we will remember how it goes back together! The hardest part was removing the tin flour hopper, it was nailed into a wood frame which made it tricky to get out without bending it, but I don't think we did to much damage. We were again able to save the hinges and latches, they just needed to be soaked in stripper and cleaned with steel wool and some silver polish. There is still a little rust on them, but I think it adds to the character. It seems that the inside of the hutch was originally painted a beige color, so we will probably take off as much paint as we can then repaint it. When we took off the back we found some old recipes and a little booklet that had fallen. The booklet is a "Sun-Maid raisins" recipe book from 1921, how cool is that?

This is what the top looked like this morning.

This is what it looks like now. You are looking through the back to the front, also it it upside down. To get a point of reference look at the strawberry wallpaper.

The back of the doors. There are 2 spice jar holders and a paper holder (I think). Everything is original, except the color.

The flour hopper (upside down). and part of the back panel. I love how functional this piece was, Grandma Hansen said she had one in her kitchen growing up and that her mom would make cookies and her famous noodles on the it. I always love the stories that go with the furniture. I forgot to mention that on the bottom section of the hutch (look at the previous post) the tin top pulls out to a large work area. Also behind the door is a pull out cutting board and 2 shelves that pull out. The 3 side drawers are actually tin with a wood front.

The recipe booklet from 1921, there are about 30 pages and 92 recipes. I might actually try to make one, the raisin-ginger bread sounds pretty good.