Wallpaper from Hell
What may look to the naked eye a reasonably simple task has been the nightmare of my week. As you will see in the first picture we were sporting the 1989 floral wallpaper with the added bonus of a floral border to match. I decided this past weekend that I would jump into the 21st centry and strip down the wallpaper during the kids naptime and then slap up a couple of coats of paint at night after i put them down. Yeah, thats not exactly what happened. Just to give the abbreviated version..I began the wallpaper ripping on Monday which consisted of me drenching the walls with this solution and then using a scraper to pull it down. I had found this great stripping recipe online that was sure to work on "tough to remove" wallpaper. I think the previous homeowners that put this crap up used super glue and chose the wallpaper with 14 layers which my recipe didnt take into consideration. So as I stripped off layer upon layer (by this i mean ripped off tiny pieces) I began to see parts of the drywall which even i knew was a bad sign. After 6 straight hours of stripping (never thought i would begin a sentence with that) and spackleing the drywall, I finally had what looked like a blank canvas for my paint. So yesterday I start on part 2 of the walls from hell. I sand down the spackleing (which please note that this puts a layer of one inch dust on every square inch of your house) and get ready to paint. By this point I am not kidding.. i had already had a 2 sit down apology sessions with Mason where I told him Mommy was sorry for being ugly to him when he didnt do anything to deserve it. (which he reminds me of every 5 min-- "Mommy its not my fault that you are ugly to me") I go to paint the first wall and I'm almost done rolling the entire wall when i look over and literally see another freaking layer of wallpaper peeling off the wall. Where the heck is it coming from?? I think I had a mental breakdown.. all I remember is me crying and scraping down another layer of wallpaper that is covered in wet paint. Just about this time Kendall awakes from her nap and i can hear her screaming in the monitor which i proceed to turn off and pretend its not happening. Anyway-- long story short (well sort of) Kevin and I finished the last coat about 2am this morning and the saddest part is that the color isnt even what I really wanted-- but its staying. Now I am going to go get Kendall out of her bed where she has been for 48 hours straight (kidding) And by the way, yes i am going to replace the lovely crystal chandelier-- any of you could be the lucky recipient of it if you're nice.
4 Comments:
At 5:13 PM, amy said…
what a nightmare! we were lucky that we only had part of our kitchen wallpapered & it was so old that it was peeling off the walls. the previous owner used duck tape on the edge to keep it up! it wasn't a pretty sight, but it did make for an easy tear down.
At 5:23 PM, mk said…
i'm so sorry you had such a bad experience...i understand, though, b/c i have a bathroom that still has what i believe is original to the house (at least 20+ years ago). i started taking it down about 8 months ago (maybe more) and i've never taken the time to finish. maybe i'll get it done before we put the house on the market (if that ever happens). i don't know what color you were hoping for but i like what you ended up with (at least from what i can tell in the picture).
At 3:01 PM, Cindy said…
I love the color! I feel part of your pain. I started stripping the wallpaper in Peyton's bathroom weeks and weeks and weeks ago. I haven't finished and really have no desire. I am using fabric softener and water, which works really well....but I only have one layer. I've just got to finish.
At 9:11 PM, Mother of the Year said…
I did the same exact thing in our bathroom, but instead of seeing the drywall, I ripped a piece and saw the inside of the drywall, which really isn't good. So, we couldn't even spackle or sand enough to make it nice. We just gave up and Jonathan hung up this textured, paintable wallpaper which we then painted green. HMMMM. I'm proud of you that you finished.
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