Hello All,
I'm a newbie to this group and to home repair. I was hoping to get help
on two issues:alt.home.repair sent me here...

1. I am "restoring" a 1927 Tudor which so far has involved hundreds of
hours stripping (heat gun and chemical) windows and repainting, as well
as removing carpet, thousands of nails, 7 layers of paint on a
beautiful staircase that awaits staining and sealing. My problem today
is in one room. The windows, baseboards, doors and trim are all wood
(about 5 inches wide)and have been painted with three layers of paint.
The top layer is maybe latex? How do you tell? Anyway, some of the top
layer is pealing and chipping, I assume from bad prep. The two layers
underneath look smooth and solid (professionally done, probably). I
want to repaint everything white, but the prospect of continuing to
strip and sand till my wife divorces me is not the most desirable one,
especially since we're thinking of trying to have a baby (lead paint
issues). Anyway, does anyone have advise on this project? I was hoping
to only remove the top layer of paint, or even sand it with 100, then
150 grit and painting over it. I know this is probably not the best
solution, but the alternative makes me shudder after all my prior work.
And I certainly don't want to do as bad a job as the last homeowner
did.

2. On a second note, the living and dining room has beautiful mahogany
built in bookcases and a gigantic mantle covering an entire wall, and
the baseboards, doors and mantle are all unpainted mahogany - thank
God. They don't look bad, except for a few spots on the baseboards and
on the window sills (where the prior windows failed and leaked-now
fixed). I was hoping to "refresh" the look of all the wood with a layer
of poly or wax or varnish or something, but I don't have the first clue
how to begin. The finish is still mostly intact, but is not shiny
anymore. We're having the oak floors professionally redone - again,
divorce is the likely alternative, so I want everything to look good,
not just the floors.
And should I do the stripping/painting, etc before or after the floors
are redone.

Any help or suggestions or references on my projects would be greatly
appreciated.
Thanks,
David