I did want to catch up on progress quickly - last Thurs I posted a 5lb loss (I think the drinking more water effect is kicking in.) and just today I was down 5 more lbs. - WOWZA! Yay! I'm still experiencing dread and trepidation when I step on the scale - pretty sure that's just human - but I also think there's a mental element here where you just feel like this can't possibly work - gotta be a fluke right?! So I keep assuming the worst and hoping for (and the last 2 weeks SEEING) the best!
So now we're grand total of 37lbs down. Woot!
Calling Al Borland...
Also did a few home 'improvements' - improvement is simply the turn of phrase - not always the truth behind it...
We actually did these back over holiday break - I just hadn't shared yet.
We now have a lovely stainless steel (working!) hood/exhaust over our stovetop where our decrepit, old, almost useless microwave was mounted. When Rob pulled that out - it was astounding how much more space there was to cook - we could actually USE the back burners - and it really opened it up visually. We also found TWO layers of wallpaper - umm YIKES...
We already had his outrageously GOOD stainless countertop microwave - which we had been longing for every day since we moved in and had to use the crappy over the range microwave. SO it's dusted off and micro-ing like the champ it's always been!
So improvement - CHECK!
Now onto the 'other.' For those who have seen the house, 99% agree that its wallpaper is hideous. There's some on the bottom half (below chair rail) in the kitchen - that's passable in that it doesn't assault your eyeballs - but it surely wouldn't be my choice... then there's the dining room... now that is truly frightening...
SO what *better* time than when you're absolutely stir CRAZY and trapped at home to remove wallpaper? Rob ventured into the world to secure me the supplies - and then I began to 'pirannha' away w this lovely medieval looking tool and coated the first few panels of paper in gel Dif wallpaper remover. Soak in, pull off... wait - it's supposed to come OFF right?!
Well - the Mattoxes - who lived here before us - Debbie (wife) had told us at the walk thru - when I *specifically* asked about that same occular violating wallpaper - that 'it should come down, no problem... they sized it when they put it up.'
Well she was either lying or truly had lived there SO long and had taken one too many bong hits (the Mattoxes were def hippies) she hadn't remembered that the monstrosity was there when she moved in...
there was no sizing...
there was no primer...
there was no sealant...
there was... NOTHING...
So after a panel or 2, we determined that something was WRONG...
That's right folks -- we have the perfect storm creating the MOST difficult wallpaper removal situation you can have. We have drywall so we can't use too much liquid... we have wallpaper that's old as shit and covered in glue and it's been APPLIED DIRECTLY TO THE SHEETROCK.
So there was cursing and giving up... I busied myself poking at the kitchen wallpaper afterward - at least THAT was primed and came off...
There was a few days of 'I'm not dealing w this shit' --
Then there was copious googling done by yours truly to figure out exactly WTF to do... in parallel w Rob polling the experts at Lowe's and Home Depot.
A few themes emerged --
1. You're screwed if you do remove it - then you're either replacing the drywall completely or you're spending days repairing and re-drywall 'mudding' the whole room.
--- PHEW, glad we stopped 2 panels in ---
2. You can seal it and prime it and then apply 'wall liner' - aka - plain wallpaper that's paintable - over it and pretend like you're starting from scratch.
--OR--
3. You can mud/spackle to repair what you've done, sand everything - including existing wallpaper - and then seal and then prime and then you can 'start from scratch.'
I think we've settled on what's behind door #3.
We would have to buy sealer, primer and spackle anyway - between wall repair and general painting needs... this way we save the extra expense of buying a room of wallpaper. (Well half - it's luckily only above the chair rail in the dining room.)
So I'm sure there will be upcoming developments on this front that's worthy of blogging...
Rob's Mom and Dad were supposed to come up in Feb but his Mom's shoulder surgery was more serious than initially thought so she's out of work for longer - and clearly needs a longer healing time... that buys us a little more time in getting the dining room up to code for their visit.
Stay tuned...
4 comments:
Woah! Good luck finishing the wall paper project. Now I'm glad we didn't attempt that right as you had moved in. Always best to get as many victories under the belt as you can, and that would have been a bit of a setback. Not that I would have minded helping...
Congrats on the continued weight loss too!
Yah it's gonna be not so fun -- but WAY easier than if we'd plodded on ripping and tearing! So I'm glad we were intuitive enough to stop. Have more to update soon! I took Friday off and actually spent the day wallpapering in the guestroom -- I'm a masochist I know!! It was a random Target buy-- on sale of course -- like the night BEFORE gettings my thousands of dollars of med bills... so I figured I ought to put it up... but w/o spending more... which proved tricky... more to come!!
Let me tell you growing up with a dad who paints homes as a profession, and being dragged along to many, many jobs to help him out...I HATE taking down wallpaper, so I feel your pain! And I have come across this situation so many times, which is probably where I learned most of my curse words from my dad, both English and Spanish! Anyway, looking forward to the rest of the projects you have posted.
Oh yah! So you gonna come down and help?! :) At least I could use help w paint color selection. We've got like 14 different swatches snugged into the molding in our living room trying to pick a color...
Post a Comment