The good news is that the peel away did an excellent job:

so much so that layer of paint just came off with the wax paper. awesome, since it takes only 2 minutes. but, since i ran out of peel away i decided to give a try to another product that i got for free from craigslist (someone was done renovating)

Ready Strip! The goo that came out of the bucket looks straight out of goosebumps novels

I decided to do just one plank in case it didn’t work that well. Although directions on the bucket promise that the goo changes color when paint is ready for stripping, that wasn’t the case here (but since i didn’t purchase the bucket I don’t know if it was exposed to elements or is old). Overall though, with some scraping, the paint came off pretty well.

After about 40 minutes I decided to apply another layer and do an additional plank: and cover with wax paper.

Overall I got pretty good results, although the pictures are deceiving because what looks like bare wood is actually another layer of paint.

But I am thinking I might leave this layer – the moldings look good, and there is no point in pretending that they are new, they are probably 100 years old just like ours and some layers of paint — I think — provide charm. Plus stripping is tiring.

  

Ready Strip vs Peel Away: name: ready strip, its just more fun. cost: free definitely beats $20 a quart. But Ready Strip is smelly, and unlike peel away doesn’t take off whole layers of paint in one swoop. however, i found that it was easier to scrape off paint with ready strip.

verdict: ill finish this bucket and maybe try a third product.