Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Ms. Fix-It

After a year and a half of living in our first house, I am finally painting the third and final bedroom. Right now, it has the most annoying wallpaper trim around the ceiling. It has sea life on it. It is stuck like gum in my hair. I took down two feet of the border and it took me one hour. This does not bode well for my motivation to get this room finished. However, I am currently researching how to remove wallpaper. I am reading that fabric softener, soap, and water are all very helpful.

I am not going to go after it for about a week because I have the trim to cover. The last bit of trim in my house that is periwinkle. You read that right. Periwinkle. It is now a crisp, clean white. White is a color that will go with any color. I am thinking about making it a very boring color like tan.

Our life has revolved around home improvement projects and they just keep going. I like it. I like doing something and having a result. I am also going to do something that will shock a few people. I am carpeting our stairs and upstairs that have hardwood on them. It isn't like the beautiful hardwood that comes in new homes. My home is over 70 years old and some of the floors look like it. I have also had one fall down steps that resulted in one x-ray to confirm a sprain and not a break. I do not want to risk this again. Good bye, hardwood. Hello, plush.

4 comments:

Carm said...

talk to Marci about wallpaper removal... seriously. She has lots of experience in all kinds of home projects and had some kind of magic solution that worked on wallpaper. It might work for you too.

Mrs. T said...

On the paper removal- it helps to use the hottest water you can stand and sometimes vinegar.
I have had the fall down steps serious sprain as well- horrible. I thought my foot was going to snap right off the end of my leg.
Happy DIY-ing.

Anonymous said...

Oh. Wallpaper. When we bought our house there was thankfully only one room with wallpaper. I HATE WALLPAPER. Noah's room was covered with disgusting blue elephants. It took us months to actually get it off because we had to abandon the project in favor of other busy activities, but once it's off, it is SO worth it. We had a wallpaper scoerer and some crazy botanical soap that Greg's step father manufactures and sells. The botanical soap worked like a charm (the enzymes eat sticky things like glue) and was nice because it was completely nontoxic. However, there was still a lot of scraping, peeling and mess involved.

I'm sorry to hear about your nasty fall. I'm sad about your carpet because I love, love, love hardwood flooring. The whole bottom floor of my house is hardwood, and I'd love to get rid of the carpet upstairs and have hardwood everywhere, but I can't convince Greg. And the carpet is really nice and plush and in perfect condition, but maybe when I'm old and moldy I'll tackle it's removal. Anyway, I understand your feelings about slipping and falling. Wave a little special goodbye to those beautiful boards from me.

Anonymous said...

You will have to share your wall paper techniques. We have borders in three bedrooms that will need to come down.

I'm pro-carpet also. Hardwoods are nice, but carpet is comfortable.