The End of the Wallpaper

Most of our friends and loved ones knew from day one that there was one thing we truly didn't like about our house: the wallpaper. We've been wanting to take it down for so long, and this MLK weekend the time finally came. We had finished our trim painting project. I had worked Monday in order to get a head start on the Annual Report, and thus got Friday off. Then, choosing to forgo my usual Saturday half-day of studying, our slate was empty for four days, except for church Sunday.

There were, it turns out, five different types of wallpaper in the house. Here you can see, from these old photographs, some of the old Dining Room wallpaper:

 

This is the paper we first went for on Friday, and it came off as easily as a refrigerator magnet.

 

In a matter of minutes, the Dining Room looked like this:

 

The hardest part was getting all the fixtures off, some of which were more complicated than a simple light switch. Then some of our friends had to take an emergency trip to California, similar to our recent trip to Mississippi, and left us with their son Elliot for the afternoon. Elliot is quite smart and all boy, so I quickly realized that the thing he would enjoy most is tearing down the paper himself.

After a few hours, and two bathrooms of wallpaper on the floor, Elliot and I played outside and read until Todd came to pick him up. Then Emily spent the evening taking down the upstairs bathroom while I polished off some details downstairs. We had put in only five hours and had gotten 40% of the house done (and three of the five paper types)!

Saturday morning we got up and attempted to get some of the harder stuff done. The easier stuff was finished, and we felt very encouraged by that. As it turns out, The entire next day would be spend on one wall, this one:

Most wallpaper has some glue underneath, and a little fabric softener is necessary to neutralize it. But a small fraction of wallpaper is also coated in vinyl, which prevents anything from soaking into it (thus preventing anything from dissolving the glue.) This was that small percentage that was as stubborn as it was ugly, and no amount of scoring and soaking would do the trick. I imagine we put in 18 or 20 man-hours that day slowly defeating it.

As aggravated as we were, Sarah was somehow content to play with her toys the whole time:

Sunday afternoon one of our church members came over, which was not only a help but also a catalyst in speeding up our work. We only had two tools to remove it, so I went downstairs to get my old window washing razor for her to use. That, it turned out, was exactly what we needed. The rest of the house had one kind of paper, and it too was difficult. But this razor could get underneath it and was sharp enough to actually cut the top layer off. Then a little fabric softener would soak right in to the under-layer and take it right off. That afternoon we were able to get the whole kitchen done, even behind all the cabinets and appliances.

Then Monday morning came and we were able to use this new technique to finish the entire first floor: both entrances and the hallway outside our bedroom. What a relief to be done!

Now all that remains, for another time, is this tall stairwell. The wall goes about eight feet higher than the top of the picture here (it's funny what you never concern yourself with about your house until you do work on it.) I think I have a plan, but it will require some precarious ladder positioning!

 

Now comes the part where we take all our dreaming of paint colors and turn it into work!