First off, it all starts with a “vision”.  My vision for this home is to strip off all the paint on the beams so we can go back to the bare wood, then clear-coat seal them.  Just look at the pristine shape these beams are in when you really get down to it.  We’ve already had so many people passing by telling my crew and I how fantastic the beams look.

Why are we doing this?  Almost nobody else does this because it’s so labor intensive.  The main reason for stripping the paint is that we need a wood element in the house to soften/warm up the overall feel.  The beams are our only chance for that, and notice we correctly carry the look through both inside and outside!  All the paneling will be gone so the walls will be white drywall; the floors will be concrete; the cabinetry will be lacquered; etc, so this is why we need some bare wood somewhere.

I’m super happy at how these beams have turned out, they have a little patina of leftover white paint in the cracks but that just adds to the story of a 58 year old Eichler.

What do you guys think?

-Mark