I love fire!!

I had my first go round with the all mighty paint scraper this past weekend. A friend from work gave me some super heavy duty marine grade remover. I used it on the fireplace. Within seconds the paint started to bubble. That was friday night, happy that it was going to be so easy. All the horror stories that i have heard about were not going to happen to me. WRONG. Saturday morning I got up early, I couldn't wait to finish my first "real" project. And the fireplace was looking kinda shabby. I did not wipe off all the goo good enough and some of the bricks had turned a little greenish. I thought it added to the character. The paint removing was going ok. It was the grout that was giving me the most trouble. I tried steel wool, wire brush, more chemicals. I ended up saying screw it and cleaned up the mess. I was ready to move on to the window. While I was cleaning the rest of the hearth up I did get a lot more of the paint off. Good old fashioned elbow grease. I thought it would be a good project for me to do after work. Sit and have a glass of wine while I pick at the left over flakes. All in all I'm happy.