Remodeling Day 2?

Last time I told you how I was not going to bite off more than I could chew and just do one room at a time, remember? Well, hehe, it turns out that one room is almost more than I can chew. So far I have worked over 8 hours on that one room. First, I had to take a lot of things out and dump them into other rooms. I cannot even see my bed now. The couch is beckoning me J. I will need to clean it off too LOL.

However, what has taken an amazing amount of time is taking of the wallpaper border across the top of this 12 by 12 room. Let me give all of you "this old house" wanabees some basic instructions. If you think it is an easy task that anyone should be able to do, think again. If you cannot get or pay someone to do your wallpaper border removal for you, here as some suggestions:

1. 
   Don't use the wallpaper glue softener that comes as a thick pasty substance. I have used it in two forms:
   
   




1. The first way this substance is available is in a nice plastic bottle with a sponge roller attachment. It looks like it should do the job and in the hands of an expert it probably does. It looks very tempting. Save your money and move on. The problem is that it turns out to be very messy and it is hard to know when you have applied enough.


2. The second way this substance is available is in a squirt bottle familiar to anyone who has ever done anything do to with cleaner. I found that the instructions on the bottle would best be used if you are working on removing wallpaper that is covering the whole wall. However, it too is rather messy if you are trying to remove just a border


2. Regardless of the type or age of the wallpaper, do not even start without using the specially made tool to punch pin holes into the paper. I thought that since the paper I was trying to remove was not a vinyl wallpaper that I could skip this step. I was wrong.
   


3. 
   I ended up using the second product but had to change how I applied it. I used a wet sponge. I squired the blue gel onto the sponge and then dabbed it onto the paper. By dabbing rather than rubbing I was able to see how much of the gel I had actually applied. Be generous; it will not pay to be stingy.
   
   
   

   One last note about the type of wallpaper glue softener you should us. I did not use it this time but I remember years ago that there was a concentrated substance that we mixed with water at home. That might still be the best way to do the job.
   



4. The instructions on the bottle say to wait 15 minutes. If you do as I did and go around the whole 12 x 12 room at once, it will take much longer than 15 minutes and the paper will be dry as a bone. I found that I could only work on 6 ft sections at a time and I still had problems. I had to reapply the blue gel several times.
   


5. Be patient. It does not pay to rush. If you try to remove the paper too soon, you will separate the top layer of paper but leave a very thin layer of paper behind. While that layer easily absorbs the blue gel, it does not come off it one piece but in many very small and gluey pieces.
   


6. 
   Be sure to wash off the wall after all or most of the paper is off. I did this twice.
   
   
   
   
   
   1. The first time I alternated between the sponge with some of the blue gel on it to soften any remaining glue with a clean green and yellow sponge using the green, scraping side. Again, I worked on 6 ft sections at a time.
      
   
   
   2. The second time, I only used the yellow side of the sponge just to make sure all traces of glue and bleu gel where gone.
      


7. Again, be patient. Allot twice as much time to this talk than you could ever imagine and you might get it done an hour later.

What It Looks Like Now

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