Goldilocks and the Wee Bear

I've started stripping this door:

Except I'm doing it in the back hallway.

I'll write more about it later, but I had to sneak in here and just tell you that it is not going well.

I got myself all set up with the extension cord and the heat gun, the boom box and Stand! by Sly & the Family Stone (because, at heart, I am an angry black man) -- only to discover that my secret special stripping tools (which are not actually stripping tools at all but they're what I've been using for -- say it with me -- two freaking years) went missing somewhere in this past month of flurry-scurry, move-things-around-a-lot-to-get-them-out-of-this-or-that-person's-way, but-still-not-get-anything-done.

So I got mad and shouty, which made Johnny mad and shouty (because oh, yeah, the job fell through so he's home with me on my day off, which is always a good thing), until I gave up and decided to use the crappy plastic tool I bought back when I still thought citrus stripper might actually work (I also used to think you could get high smoking banana peels -- you try something once, you make a big mess and throw up a little bit -- you learn a lesson about fruit).

The crappy plastic tool folds like a limp carrot when the heat gun hits it. So more mad and shouty from me...

Now he's in the basement -- instead of doing all the stuff he was supposed to do today -- digging through every bucket of everything, determined to find me either my tool (which I've given up on) or something I can use instead. Every five minutes or so he comes up and hands me something, which is either too hard or too soft, too sharp or too dull, and stands over my while I try it out, so I feel obliged to keep using it at least until he walks away.

Thank you honey, this one's just right...

I've got six or seven of them strewn about me now, I've been at this for an hour, and I'm not even 1/4 of the way through it yet.

There's no way I'm finishing this job today...