The marathon house reno session has begun. Sarah and I have argued about whether or not this is a large-scale reno, and I guess she's right--we're not tearing down drywall or putting in new plumbing, so I guess it's not a massive undertaking. But what's made it harder than your usual paint and de-wallpapering is the fact that very little of the wallpaper (and there is a shitload of it) is dry-strippable. The front hall was gloriously dry-strippable, then came the second bedroom (which Sarah's dad called "the low-hanging fruit room" for its relative ease to finish,) then came the back hall and powder room which was close quarters and pretty damn hard, but the worst is the master bedroom. The paper in there was like vinyl, in no way porous and even pretty resistant to scoring. And when you're lucky enough to tear an inch of paper away from the wall, underneath is backing paper which must have been applied with Elmer's Glue. On top of all this, one of the walls was never primed, so in places the paper and backing pulls bits of the wall with it. Sarah labeled that one: "The wall of my discontent" (which we'll be priming the bejezus out of, FYI).
But consider this complaint by proxy, because I didn't really deal with the wallpaper. Sarah's parents (and Sarah) have been busting their asses on that stuff since Thursday morning. I was at work Thursday and Friday, so I've put about sixteen hours less effort into it so far. Most of my efforts have gone into pulling up living room carpet and stabbing myself with those little, wooden, nail-filled boards that hold down the carpet edges. On the bright side, once you've got the tetanus coursing through your veins, the seizures give you a nice burst of strength when you need it. [Plus, the floor looks great! Hardwood that had been stained and sealed, then hidden for 40 years with very thick, hot pink carpet. We polyurethaned the floors yesterday and they look AWESOME!! -S.]
Ahead of us today: TSPing a bunch of rooms, polyfilla-ing holes and starting to prime. We're getting there, folks. The light at the end of the tunnel is just a wee pinprick, but it's there.
But consider this complaint by proxy, because I didn't really deal with the wallpaper. Sarah's parents (and Sarah) have been busting their asses on that stuff since Thursday morning. I was at work Thursday and Friday, so I've put about sixteen hours less effort into it so far. Most of my efforts have gone into pulling up living room carpet and stabbing myself with those little, wooden, nail-filled boards that hold down the carpet edges. On the bright side, once you've got the tetanus coursing through your veins, the seizures give you a nice burst of strength when you need it. [Plus, the floor looks great! Hardwood that had been stained and sealed, then hidden for 40 years with very thick, hot pink carpet. We polyurethaned the floors yesterday and they look AWESOME!! -S.]
Ahead of us today: TSPing a bunch of rooms, polyfilla-ing holes and starting to prime. We're getting there, folks. The light at the end of the tunnel is just a wee pinprick, but it's there.
Comments
But I can't believe you ripped up the hot pink carpet... who wouldn't want hot pink carpet???