Scrape and Sand

Once I removed all the old nails and staples, I could start preparing the frames to be re-painted.  I paused halfway through to take this picture.  The one on the bottom/left is already done.  The top/right one is untouched.

The paint had some serious "alligatoring", so it was time to get down to bare wood.  I spent most of the day with a heat gun, orbital sander, and dremel to get into all the nooks and crannies.

I still have a bit of work to do to repair the bottom edge of each door before starting the painting process.

And the screw holes for the hinges are shot so they need the dowel and glue treatment.

Choosing Fasteners

Let's say you were choosing fasteners to attach the small, 3/8-inch thick piece of molding in the center of the picture.  Which do you choose?
a - the 2.5-inch brad at the top
b - the 1.25-inch brad second from top
c - the 3/4-inch brads at the bottom

For some, the correct answer might be c - the 3/4-inch.
Apparently, the right answer is d - all of the above.  Or what ever random fasteners you have lying around.

I'm in the process of re-screening the french doors for the pedimented window.  These are the random mix of nails used to hold this small screen molding in place.  You can see a piece of the molding still attached to the door at the far right of the picture.  You can also catch a glimpse of the small bit of screen that was still in place.

The molding came off in about a million pieces, so it's not salvageable.  What was underneath the molding was equally interesting.

There were bits of at least three different kinds of screen.  Each was attached with different types of fasteners: tacks and at least 3 different types of staples.  Obviously this has been re-screened many times over the life of the house and no one has bothered to removed the remnants of the previous installation(s)...

So I get to do it.