Let’s talk about what we’d like to accomplish before this baby comes for a second. In our first house when we were preparing for Clara’s arrival, over those nine months we tackled a few rooms that were still on our redo list (mainly the full bathroom and the nursery) since so much of the house was already done (our kitchen reno was all finished, the hardwood floors had been redone, we had opened up some walls and closed off others, etc). This time around, there’s a baby on the way but this house is much less finished than our first one was, so our goals before baby are more about getting it to a nice blank slate than a fully finished after.
You see, I’m a mom on a mission. And that mission is to get rid of all of the old wallpaper, old carpeting, and blue trim before this baby comes. So that means chipping away at seven spaces over the next six months:
- de-blue-trim-ifying and de-wallpapering the dining room
- finishing Project No More Graph Paper in the kitchen
- stripping the blue wallpaper in the sink/tub area of our bathroom
- ripping up the old carpet runner on the stairs (our new runners finally came after being on backorder, woot!)
- painting the blue trim in the office
- removing the old carpeting on the steps that lead from the garage into the kitchen (don’t even know if we’ve shown those…)
Of course we also have other updates on our radar that we mentioned in this post last Friday – like adding built-ins to the bedroom, amping up the office, packing in a few guest room updates, and creating a nursery of course! But man I’ll be a happy momma to slowly but surely send the blue trim, the peeling wallpaper, and those old stair runners packing. Out with the old, and in with the new, baby! Or should I say out with the old and in with the new baby? Somehow they both work.
And we actually get to cross off that second bullet already, thanks to a few days of the serious wallpaper battle that I waged on the kitchen graph paper wallpaper. Ahh, look at that clean wallpaper-less wall, complete with a big ol’ intercom. Can I get a hootie hoo?
Every time I tackle wallpaper I try out a different wallpaper removal method just to see what works better (I’m like Anderson Cooper with this hard-hitting investigative journalism) so you can read about how boiling water worked here, and how a steamer worked here (spoiler alert: so far the steamer is in the lead). And this time my method of choice was warm tap water and Dr Bronner’s soap. I hear that soap can help cut the glue from the wallpaper a bit more than plain water can. Some people swear by a Downy + water mixture, but since my tummy is so easily rebellious these days (morning sickness tends to go until about the half-way point of pregnancy for me) and my nose is turned up to “bloodhound mode”, I opted for a less fragrant soap that still cuts grease/tackiness : Dr. Bronner’s.
I just added about seven squirts of Dr Bronner’s to my wonky spray bottle (remember when I nearly melted it with boiling water here?) and filled the rest of the bottle with hot water from the tap (so it wasn’t boiling, but it wasn’t lukewarm either). Then I sprayed down this entire wall, let it soak in for about three minutes, and got to work peeling like a madwoman.
This is my third attempt at wallpaper removal and my third attempt without a scoring tool. Going into this I assumed I’d try one out one of these times, but thanks to many large sheets coming off like this, I’ve actually become afraid of a scoring tool since it seems like it could create a lot more work for me (peeling off ten million scored pieces instead of one big sheet).
So the best removal methods certainly seem to depend on a multitude of factors (how stuck your wallpaper is, what glue was used, what prep work was done to the wall under it before it was papered, and how old it is, how many layers there are, etc). My recommendation would be to try peeling it without scoring first, and if it just won’t budge you can then move onto scoring things to get through the paper and loosen things up. I just think it’s a smart secondary step in case your wallpaper comes up in larger sheets like ours has so far (if it helps anyone, this wallpaper was all applied around 30 years ago to our knowledge, and we believe the walls were properly prepped beneath it with primer, which definitely helps with removal).
After doing that big wall next to the table, I just inched my way around the room, spraying, waiting three minutes for it to soak in, and peeling.
Once again, there were some nice big sections that came off…
… but of course from these piles you can see that there were also smaller sections that took a little longer after the big chunks came down (I just resprayed those more stubborn areas and picked at them with my fingernail until they came off). I should also mention that I tried a spackle knife since I’ve heard those can be helpful but I found that it caused little dents in the wall so I quickly abandoned that. I’d rather take my time getting the paper off and have pristine walls in the end than ding them up getting the paper off faster (but then have to spend time spackling those spots to get things smooth again).
I ended up getting around to the other side of the kitchen (where the built-in desk is) about three hours into the removal process, which is when this momma needed a break.
So I posted this Instagram picture of the mess I made, and curled up in the fetal position for a while. Wallpaper will do that to ya.
About four days later I had more prego gusto as I like to call it (every few days I get bursts of energy, and dang it if I don’t capitalize on them) so I ran into the kitchen with a battle cry of “Arrrggggghhh!” and scared the dog got to spraying and peeling again. I had this side of the kitchen to do this time, which was easier in some aspects (the backsplash is a lot smaller of a space to peel, for example)…
… but there seemed to be more glue going on, so it took a while longer to make my way around.
More glue in some areas meant that I was left with more of the paper backing on the walls in some areas, which looked a little bit like white tiger stripes wherever it stuck to the wall.
Here’s where I tried an entirely new method, that worked LIKE GANGBUSTERS. Guys, if you have that paper backing mocking you silently from your freshly peeled walls, here’s what to try. Fill a bowl with as-hot-as-you-can-get-it tap water and a few pumps of Dr Bronner’s soap (I’m sure other soaps could work, but I had luck with DBs). Then just dip a paper towel or a rag into it and dab that over the paper backing right on the wall. It saturates it a lot more than the spray bottle (without giving you hand cramps from squeeze-squeeze-squeezing) and…
… even giant chunks of that stubborn backing should peel right off in one giant piece. At least that’s what worked this time. Look at me go.
So in some parts of the room it felt like I was really peeling wallpaper twice (since it was a few hours of wallpaper removal followed by a few hours of backing removal) but when the dust cleared, we had a wallpaperless kitchen! Hurrah!
It’s still dark as heck with faux brick linoleum and a big ol’ garage-looking light on the ceiling, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. As for how long the entire process took, I’d estimate that it was 8 hours of work when you add it all up.
But those blank walls sure do feel good. Now all I need to do is wipe them down with a vinegar and water spray (that has worked to get rid of any lingering glue residue in the past for us) and we can paint our little hearts out.
Aaaand, just because I like to cross things off…
- de-blue-trim-ify and de-wallpaper the dining room
finish Project No More Graph Paper in the kitchen- strip the bold blue wallpaper in our bathroom
- rip up the old carpet runner on the stairs (our new runners finally came after being on backorder, woot!)
- paint the blue trim in the office
Oh and in case you’re wondering, the steamer still wins as the easiest/fastest method, but neither the boiling water or the hot tap water + soap approaches were that bad (and they’re 100% free) so they’re pretty decent back-up options – at least to try. Next up, I have my eye on the bathroom wallpaper (I think I need a smaller space to give my arms a break) and the carpet runner on the stairs’ days are numbered too. Be afraid, be very afraid (if you’re our carpet runner or bathroom wallpaper – if not, no need to be afraid). Is there anyone else out there with a deadline and a list of non-negotiable house stuff they’d like to accomplish? Honestly I’m so excited about the nursery that I’m hoping to rush through all of those other bullets so we can get to the fun stuff.
Psst- Clara’s having conversations again. And as usual, she’s cracking us up.
Kate F. says
Sherry, can you tell me anything about the white trash can in your first pic? Am on the hunt for one and this one looks like the size I need. Random, I know, but thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
That was from HomeGoods a while back. Hope it helps!
xo
s
Instants de Louise says
Oh yeah ! There are some deadlines in here too as we’re expecting baby n°2 for february : finish all the paintings and beginning to fix up a room under the roof to put my office… To us not very good DIYers, this seams quite a lot to do and I’m not sure we’ll be able to finish it all…
YoungHouseLove says
You can do it! I’m cheering you on!
xo
s
Kari says
I am pregnant too, with about seven weeks left! So far we (I) have: hang curtains in all the bedrooms (except one–the baby’s, of course), hung art in the dining room and living room, painted the study, stripped wallpaper in the hallway, and assembled the crib. Left to do: skim coat the hallway, prime and paint the hallway, prime and paint trim in the hallway, find a dresser for the baby’s room, hang curtains in the baby room, unpack books.
Yikes.
YoungHouseLove says
Wahoo! You’ve already done a bunch Kari! Good luck with everything!
xo
s
Ursula Carmona says
I feel your pain! I’ve just finished peeling wallpaper from my two bathrooms and sharing it on my blog a few days ago(http://homemadebycarmona.blogspot.com/2013/10/wallpaper-wallpaper-on-wall.html)! I saw your post and literally yelled out loud “Hey look! I’m not alone!”. Great minds think…”work” alike?? Lol. My experience has been a little different (hee hee, strong scents made me nauseous too)…so my tips are a little different, but I think what you shared is fantastic! Good luck!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! You are not alone!
xo
s
Gwen says
Strangely, I’m most excited to see the master bathroom without wallpaper! And to see the new runner on the stairs. :)
April says
I so get the whole prego deadline thing. That is how I was this last pregnancy. I work from home and my office was set up in our third BR. We also had a little extra/mudroom right off our side entrance but it needed lots of work. So we had to get that room fixed as the office (new floor, paint and light) and then fix up the BR as the nursery. We also had lots of things happening in between all that like birthdays and Christmas. It was nice to have it all done though in time for the new baby!
Rachel says
We just started peeling in our house, had no clue the whole house was wallpapered multiple times with another three layers of paint on top. I’m just wondering if you’ve had experience peeling wallpaper that has been painted over? Anything you can recommend?
YoungHouseLove says
Ugh, I haven’t but I hear it stinks. In that instance I’d imagine you’d have to score things to cut through the paint and then maybe try a steamer since they seem to be extra powerful compared to other methods we’ve tried?
xo
s
Aimee says
Demo.
It’s easier. BTDT. Had lathe and plaster walls slathered in 4 layers of wallpaper that was painted right over another 4x. Somewhere in the middle of the paint someone decided to add in swirly texture, too. And there were formica *tile* sheets to about 48″, covering the wallpaper. 1920s houses are full of fun like that.
I swear that bathroom was about 3 in bigger all around with fresh drywall instead of all those lumpy layers! No wonder the top section of the walls bulged out over the formica sheeting!
Britiney @ Consider the Lilies says
Although I recognize it might be necessary in some situations, I say avoid scoring. When I was removing wallpaper I thought it would help the water get under the paper better so I scored it all. What it really did was allow the water to penetrate the drywall and we ended up having to repair the drywall and re-texture where I had scored before we could paint. If you MUST score, use a very light touch! Great work, Sherry. Removing wallpaper is an awful job!
KathyL says
Wow, I just pulled off as much as possible, got a hand towel in a bucket of warm water/downy and soaked the paper for about 2 feet. I did have success with my dad’s paint scraper without any damage, I kept it sort of flat against the wall, and it just zipped off. A rewash and I was done.
The challenge was I couldn’t get off work, and couldn’t clear my dining room…and I was overwhelmed at the time with so many personal things…so I decided to tackle it “one wall at a time” which made it so much easier. I moved all furniture from one wall away about 5 feet, stripped wall paper, cleaned wall, spackle, sanding, then paint. Move furniture back, go to next wall. This took me weeks–but it was a much needed chore, for my heart as well as just getting it done. (My father had just died)
The way to get through it was one wall at a time, and I try to apply that to my life now instead of being overwhelmed with the entirety of the task.
YoungHouseLove says
So sorry for your loss Kathy! Sounds like such a nice method if you don’t want to move out all of your furniture (one wall at a time = genius).
xo
s
Heidi says
I’m absolutely terrified of wall paper just from the horror stories I’ve heard from others when they try to remove it. There is a tiny bit of wallpaper in our kitchen and that’s the thing I’m looking forward to the least when we renovate our kitchen. Not tearing up flooring or knocking down a wall, but dealing with wallpaper removal!
Your tips will certainly be used!
http://jax-and-jewels.blogspot.com
MaryB says
Excellent job. We have a horrific little powder room in the townhouse we rent out. I call it the chuck wagon powder room. It has a floral wallpaper with a clashing floral border (I assume put on to cover up an error?) around the top edge. The cabinets are far too heavy for the tiny space. I promised myself I will tackle this between this renter and the next. Now I am hoping she stays FOREVER!
My husband has given himself the deadline of Halloween to finally install exterior lighting on our “real house”. This has been missing since our addition/renovation 2 years ago and we don’t think of it until guests come over and can’t find their way to the front door across our wooded lot (fortunately the path is a light-colored stone and there is a streetlight not far away). He says he will also install a door bell before spook day. I’ve got my fingers crossed!!
YoungHouseLove says
Good luck MaryB!
xo
s
Michelle says
Have you thought about using one of those pump sprayers they sell at Lowes so your hand doesn’t hurt from squeezing the trigger?!
Like this: http://www.lowes.com/pd_36943-89543-5318_0__?productId=3711310&Ntt=pump+sprayer&Ns=p_product_price|0&pl=1¤tURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_price|0%26Ntt%3Dpump%2Bsprayer%26page%3D1&facetInfo=
Wallpaper is such hard work. It looks great!!
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds smart!
xo
s
Alison from The Whole Damn House says
Yep, we set up a housewarming party for our new house on November 2nd..We have over 45 people coming to our house as inspiration to get our butts in gear renovating our kitchen. We have ripped out the flooring, wallpaper, and painted the knotty pine kitchen cabinets a crisp white. We still have to decide what flooring we will put in, cabinet hardware, paint the wood paneling, paint the walls, and paint the dutch door leading outside a fun color.. If ya’ll get bored, we are in the Hampton Roads area and could obviously use some help! haha!!
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds like fun! Ding dong (that’s me at the door).
xo
s
Tracey Bradshaw says
We moved house 2 1/2 weeks ago and have A LOT of STUFF.
Like one full to the brim huge moving truck that took the movers 9 hours of loading and unloading, plus 4×600 cubic foot containers that we filled over 4 weeks and sent to storage that we are having delivered one at a time.
Three of the containers were filled with my vintage items for my home business, furniture waiting for makeovers, rustic stuff, tools, lumber, paints, workbenches etc, plus the tools and family treasures that I rescued from my dad’s home when he passed away last year.
My goal is to be fully unpacked and organized inside, as well as in the garage and workshop before Christmas, so when we get back from our vacation, I can get straight back to work on my furniture.
YoungHouseLove says
Woah! That sounds like a ton of work! All the best with it Tracey!
xo
s
Melanie says
I’m also pregnant with my second, due in April, and we’re going through the same thing you are. We moved into our fixer-upper while I was pregnant with our first, but with full time jobs and a newborn we didn’t get much accomplished. Now that we know what we’re in for with a second it’s a mad dash to get things done even though all I want to do is barf and nap! Good luck with everything! You’re inspring me to keep moving!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, good luck with everything Melanie! I know what you mean about barfing and napping being high on the to-do list!
xo
s
Christina C says
Go Sherry!!!
Annette says
Your cabinets/counters look so much nicer without all that ugly wallpaper around them! Amazing!
Megan says
My husband and I recently bought our first house (it was my grandparents) and the living room and dining room/kitchen share one giant wall. The wholeeee wall was wallpaper. And it’s huge too, lofted ceilings and all. And apparently my grandparents went for the Mercedes of wallpaper because this stuff is the thickest I’ve ever seen. We’ve peeled off the top pattern just by pulling it off (I kept a piece just like you did! I’m planning on framing it, removing the class and glueing on a painted wooden “C” for Clarke to hang up in a frame collage.) :) The paper backing is taking us ages to get off because it’s so thick and has so much glue behind it. Steam was working well, but was putting so much moisture in our already humid house that we abandoned that. The best thing we’ve tried so far is a gel type remover (Dif? maybe?) but I’m not sure how eco/safe it is. Good luck! I’ll be dying a slow, wallpaper-y death right along with you!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, that sounds like legit paper Megan! Good luck!
xo
s
Kevin Cooke says
You guys are awesome! If my wife and I move to Va, we should hang out…aka let us steal ideas ;)
YoungHouseLove says
Come on down! Haha!
xo
s
Lee Ann Perez says
FYI. The paper tiger scoring tool can be a life saver if you have older/less quality wallcovering that comes off the wall in tiny pieces. My only caveat is that you want to LIGHTLY score the paper until you know if you’re going into the drywall beneath it. But it’s a wonder tool in certain circumstances.
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds awesome for that comes-down-in-tiny-pieces wallpaper!
xo
s
Gina, book dragon says
graph paper wallpaper? shaking head . . .
I too use a spray bottle but didn’t think to add the soap. A washcloth on the tiger stripes is great. I don’t have fingernails to speak of so I used a hair clip. The putty knife just wasn’t thin enough.
Now about your energy, I was wondering where mine went! :-)
Lauren H. says
My tested-and-true method is a mixture of white vinegar and hot water (in a spray bottle) without any scoring. It will remove layers of paper and adhesive in no time! If you can stomach the temporary vinegar stench, the room is actually deodorized after an hour or so. Happy peeling!
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds awesome!
xo
s
Kristy says
This is what I’ve been using, and it works great on the glue, but I don’t think my paper is porous enough for it to soak through to the glue — is this a thing? Or, am I not waiting long enough? Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated!!
Kristy says
SO, I’m currently removing the only wallpaper in my house, in a tiny guest bathroom and it is the bane of my existence. I do not envy you at all. I have one wall done, and I’ve been following your methods closely. I used the steamer/hot water method for the first wall, and it worked…ok. Here’s the issue, and let me see if you know what I can do. I think they used some sort of super heavy duty glue or something because it’s in a bathroom, but I can NOT get big chunk off at a time. I’m currently peeling a tiny bit at a time, spraying it with the soap/water mixture, getting the glue off and repeating. I just can’t get very much off at a time. Luckily, I don’t have very much to remove, but I want to figure out a way to get huge chunks of paper off because this is so time consuming.
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, that sounds like how some of the walls in the kitchen went (the ones that had more glue). People have recommended a plastic rounded edged scraper from Bed Bath & Beyond (like for kitchen/spatula stuff) so maybe try that to get more up at a time without denting the wall like a spackle knife can?
xo
s
Marianne in Mo. says
It’s probably the paper quality. Some are vinyl “coated”, some are vinyl, and some are just paper. The paper ones are the hardest to remove, and are also usually the cheapest. If it is horribly stubborn, we used to advise just leaving it, painting with two coats of primer, then painting over it. But warn that if it “bubbles” when priming, it is releasing from the wall, and would have to be stripped. The seams can be hidden by a skim coat of joint compound before priming. Hope my 10 years in the business helps!
Gillianne says
Sooooo much better already! About that faux brick floor, did you see what Jenny at Little Green Notebook did with her faux brick floors? First she tried a complicated paint pattern (very nice), but then she decided to repaint it–no design–and it’s a massive improvement for a small investment of time and paint.
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, I loved that! Sadly her floors are real tile/stone and ours are a flat shiny sheet of linoleum, so we’re afraid painting it is like painting plastic (it’ll scratch right off with foot traffic). Boo!
xo
s
Kelli Fox says
omg I have done that before and it is a tough job! Kudos to you!! After I took mine down I swore i would NEVER hang wallpaper in any house I lived in, ever again.. haha! Have fun ripping the carpet off the stairs – we just did that recently and I love it!
Megan Poletti says
I did a post about wallpaper remover on my blog a while ago. We tried windshield washing fluid (the blue kind) and a mix of part vinegar to part water. http://rentalrevival.com/home/2013/6/10/diy-wallpaper-remover-2-ways
One room was super easy to work with, but the tiny foyer was a NIGHTMARE. Funny how there was a drastic difference in the wallpaper installation process for two spots in the same house.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, it stinks that you had one “problem child” room!
xo
s
Kelley says
I have one of those walls with the paper backing that’s been mocking me for months! The shame!!! Thanks for the tip, I will definitely try the Dr. B’s and hot water. We bought our house in April and there was ONE wall with wallpaper. ONE. It was like an accent wall except the wallpaper pattern wasn’t even visible so I don’t know what their point was in leaving it up. I went nuts on it pretty soon after we moved in but left that backing up there. Boo.
Marianne in Mo. says
Go Ninja! I/we always used hot water and sponges at the wallpaper store to remove displays. It is a two-step process, face paper then backing. I didn’t like the scoring tool personally, because it takes a light hand, which I don’t seem to have, but if done right, it will penetrate only the face paper, and not necessarily come off in tiny pieces. As you say, whatever works for each instance is the way to go, and a big thanks to the people who use wallpaper primer! (Different than paint primer, by the way! )
Kati says
Such a huge difference!
Also, on an odd note, your “Go Preggo, Go Preggo, Go” is actually inspired by the Ninja Turtles, not 3 Ninjas. Vanilla Ice sings that song at the end of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 movie. Someone must have just mixed it with the 3 Ninjas footage. Either way, a fun trip back to my 90’s childhood (I’m a huge fan of both movies haha).
YoungHouseLove says
YOU’RE RIGHT! How could I forget that?!
xo
s
Stephanie C. says
What a huge difference! Sorry if you already mentioned it and I missed it, but what color are you thinking of painting the kitchen?
My one deadline I have is to paint our living room before Christmas, I am still debating paint colors at this point. I will probably be painting on December 23 at the rate I am going!
YoungHouseLove says
No idea yet! It’s hard to envision it with all that wood, but we’ll have to see (maybe we’ll slap up some samples first?)
xo
s
Emily M says
I”m currently tackling wallpaper removal too (while preggo as well!) but it is not going nearly so easily as yours :( Ours was installed 20 years ago and the walls were not prepped properly because scoring tool, or no scoring tool, that stuff only comes off in small pieces, and only the top layer. It’s this awful textured aqua and pink stuff and I think the texture part is not helping. I’ve got about half the paper removed, along with the backing layer, and am in the process of scrubbing the residue off the walls, which is actually taking forever! There’s so much glue left behind. But I know it will be done and painted by the end of the year and boy does it make the room look bigger already!
YoungHouseLove says
I’m so sorry Emily! Sounds terrible!
xo
s
Erin says
I love removing wallpaper! I usually use one of those round-up sprayer things instead of a spray bottle though. Put a towel on the floor to catch the drips and you’ll end up with a lot less hand cramping.
Jen says
Do be careful if you ever use the scoring trick. First of all, that rolling, prickly tool is SCARY. Second, when we used one (on plaster walls) it left a lot of “scoring” right in the plaster itself, which required skimming the plaster with a repair layer. I suppose a very thick primer might work, too, but… Well, if you don’t have to go that route, just don’t.
Maureen says
Who needs wall intercoms now? Isn’t that what cell phones are for?? :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! It played music too, back in the day! Now it’s sadly broken…
xo
s
Marianne in Mo. says
I have to add, I actually LIKE to strip wallpaper, I somehow find it relaxing, because I can daydream while I work! If I lived closer, I’d volunteer to help!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, you’re sweet Marianne!
xo
s
Barbara says
Here’s a hint for the next wallpaper removal project: I would ditch the little spray bottle and use a big sponge. Saturate it in hot water/vinegar and soak the walls before scraping. It’s a bit sloppy with water dripping all over, but it works great!
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds awesome!
xo
s
Isabel says
Woot, woot! Wallpaper removal, so satisfying! My sister lend me her clothes steamer and I can’t wait to tackle the one on my dining room walls. It is the very definition of fugly. Due to my recent wallpaper surprise experience, I discovered that primer apparently makes wall paper come off (although who the heck would want to prime a wall to then remove wall paper?!?). I also discovered that the thing you use to remove snow from the car windows are great for scraping it off because they’re plastic (to not harm the glass) so they’re soft on the walls. We also discovered, thanks to very stubborn wallpaper on my husband’s side of the wall, that the razors you use to scrape the paint off windows are also very handy, they just hurt a lot if you don’t have any type of handle on them (which we didn’t) but my husband being a Scorpio (?) and/or male (??) was h-e-double-hockey-sticks bent on getting rid of the paper even if it meant losing feeling on his thumb for a week. Spraying/moistening the paper with warm water also helped immensely. I didn’t yet have the clothes steamer so I tried using the iron and spraying the wall with steam but it was too cumbersome and didn’t have that constant steam-on-walllpaper action that is probably what makes the real steamer method work so well.
YoungHouseLove says
Hilarious! Love the tips!
xo
s
Valerie says
We are working on updating our kitchen before the holidays hit, and I’m definitely feeling the pressure. So far, we have finished our farmhouse table for the breakfast nook (and I’m so excited about it!), but we still have: painting, backsplash tile, faucet replacement, oven replacement, cabinet reconfiguring and painting, wall extending and countertop replacement. AHHHHHH!
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds like fun! Good luck Valerie!
xo
s
Nancy says
We live in 130 year old home and found garden sprayers way easy for years of wallpaper removal. I can’t imagine your poor hand with that little spray bottle. It also made me feel like a firefighter hosing down the walls. Hot hot water!
Jeri says
So jealous of your (relatively) easy to remove wallpaper! When my little one was on the way, it took at least a month of evening and weekend work – hours at a time – to get the walls in her room prepped. Sure, the wallpaper part itself wasn’t so bad – it was the almost cardboard like, thick, impenetrable layer underneath that was glued to unprimed plaster. Not awesome. We should have just knocked down the walls and started fresh.
Patti says
I never noticed how gorgeous the wood is in your kitchen dining area, it looks gorgeous in the pics! I also never noticed how HUGE the intercom is…a small flat screen tv would fit there nicely!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah, it’s TV sized for sure!
xo
s
Jen says
I am the biggest nerd for knowing this, and while I fully appreciate your acknowledgement of the much-underrated film 3 Ninjas (Rocky loves Em-i-ly!), “Go Ninja Go” was performed by Vanilla Ice for Ninja Turtles 2: Secret of the Ooze.
Ohhh Vanilla Ice…
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, you’re right!! How could I forget that?!
xo
s
Jennifer Carlisle says
I love the intercom. We just moved from our first house to our “forever” house (http://carlisleartclass.blogspot.com/2013/10/what-have-i-been-up-to.html)and it has those LOVELY monsters of “technology.” Even though ours still work we are slowly taking them out. Thanks for sharing on your blog. I love it! Also congrats on baby #2… will be praying for you!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much Jennifer!
xo
s
Koliti says
It would have been fun to play Tic-Tac-Toe on the wall with that grid!
andy c. says
Isn’t that from Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze? Not to be technical (read: a dork) or anything.
YoungHouseLove says
You’re right! Those ninjas confuse me with their fast moves and similar outfits…
xo
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Debby says
Well I am on the opposite end of the baby spectrum. My oldest daughter is graduating from high school in May and we have a big party planned for July 12. We are doing a full kitchen reno,hardwood floor refinishing, tiling a 1/2 bath, and finishing painting all the trim in our home white. Along with a mini front porch makeover. So while you’re getting ready to start the beginning phase of life, we are getting ready to celebrate the beginning of her adulthood.We built this home 23 years ago and did most of the work ourselves before the world wide web existed!! I have raised 2 babies in this house and it’s fun to see it taking on another life. All times are precious and special. I love your blog.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Debby, that sounds exciting!
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Jessica says
Oh man! I feel ya! Congratulations on the newest petersik! I am also currently pregnant with our first! Due at the end of February (spoiler alert, it’s a boy!). My husband and I have gutted the entire second floor of our home in preparation for our little bundle. Then we discovered we needed a new roof. Then the plumber royally messed up our upstairs bathroom and water came through our dining room ceiling, so we had to gut most of the ceiling. Things are starting to come together now, like new windows! I sure hope we get to a livable place upstairs before the baby arrives!
YoungHouseLove says
Congrats on your little boy on the way! I bet you’ll get it all done. Sending you lots of DIY luck!
xo
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Kayla says
We just bought our first house (and have our first baby on the way!), and let me tell you, half wallpapered (all the same, all golden 70’s floral) and it did NOT come off easily. Many days, many different approaches, much frustration. Good news is, our house is completed de-wallpapered. It might have been applied with some super-glue-like adhesive.
Also, they make plastic scrapers you can use, they keep your walls in good condition and help peel off the excess wallpaper and backing.
Best wishes in your wallpaper quest!
Diane says
I’ve done a lot of scrapping of old wallpaper in my house but the biggest challenge was when my daughter moved into her first house. One of the bedrooms was floor to ceiling-all four walls- Mickey Mouse wallpaper with a border of Mickey Mouse all around the top on top of the wallpaper. I don’t think either one of us can look at Mickey without a shudder down our spine!!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha!
xo
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Aimee says
I know a couple whose bathroom AND kitchen AND office are completely, totally, Mickeyfied. Not just wallpaper but ALL the accessories. The scary part is, they were pushing 40 when they decided to have a happy childhood.
becca says
This post reminded me so much of when we bought our current house…about two months after we moved in we found out we were pregnant with our first. I spent so much time pregnant-painting! The deadline really lit a fire under us and we got a ton done. “Extreme nesting” one of my friends called it. Now we’re expecting #2, also in April (woot woot!) and are hoping to get the last of our major projects done before then! Good luck to us all — we’re gonna need it! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Good luck Becca! I love “extreme nesting” – haha!
xo
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