Old Window Moldings on Plaster Walls - HELP!!!!

[Maxine76]

OK, so here's my 1st post & it's a doozy. Any help would be greatly appreciated. My fiance & I bought a house built in 1900 in March & we just recently began getting it together & deciding what we want to fix up first. The house isn't really a 100% fixer upper (kitchen, bathrooms, roof are all new) but there are certain rooms that need attention. These rooms all have new windows BUT this horrible, horrible, couldn't-hate-it-more molding that I am OBSESSED with stripping or literally ripping off the walls. Here's why I cringe every time I look at it. It's been painted about 4,000 times & looks like hell. You can barely seen the actual rivet work & striations within the molding (which are nice) because of layers upon layers of really shoddy painting. My fiance is rearing to get the walls of the room painted (it will be our game room) so that we can entertain but am insisting that the molding absolutely must be addressed first. I bought some stripping gel (JASCO paint & epoxy remover) & followed the directions to the T. I don't know if I don't have the right tools to really get into the crevices & cracks of the molding but it's just not working. I would say 70% of the paint has come off the one window that I have attempted to strip but I can't seem to get the wood smooth or get all of the paint out. It obviously looks worse than before. I just want to get the molding to where I have a fresh playing field so that I can repaint it well. Should I just rip off the molding & start with new molding? I was advised not to do this since the house was old & the walls were plaster. Is there some other paint stripper/thinner that I should be using or a different tool (tried toothpicks, brush, sponge & water, steel wool & a putty knife) or should I just be sanding down the first few layers of paint & starting from there? Also, I spent several hours on this one window. I am not trying to do this quick. I just want to do it right & looking at the molding from where I am typing...it doesn't appear that I am doing this correctly.

AGAIN, ANY HELP WOULD BE GREAT!!!!

[vek const]

you need to hire a high end painter i am a gc and can give you several # restoration work is not cheap! and you need a pro. not many painters can or do this work. i work on multi million $ homes so if you want to preserve your home. i do know the right people.

[mrcaptainbob]

Molding suggestion...

I'm cheap. Here's my suggestion: Use a utility knife to score the corner where the molding meets the wall to break the paint bond. Try to do that on the window side too. Get one of those wide blade pry bars. When using it, place a wider blade putty knife on the plaster as a bearing plate so as not to scar that. Gently pry all along the molding. Don't pry a lot at any one place, but rather gently lift it all along, then make another pass. Pay attenetion to the corners! Often times they're cross nailed or have some other kind of fastening to keep the surfaces even. Try to remove all three pieces (sides and top) as one if you can. Now you can lay them on a flat surface and more easily strip them without the slop dribbling down your wrist!, as well as the wall and floor. Refinishing them this way will be easier, too. Not to mention painting the walls without having to mask that area. The effort pays off when you reattach the moldings to the wall and you see that nice, crisp line between molding and paint!