Wallpaper Removal...What a Nightmare

So, if you have never had to remove wallpaper let me just say you are ONE LUCKY PERSON! Man is it tedious! The bottom half of the master bedrooms walls are covered in the this purple flowery wall paper. Thank heavens for sisters who love tedious things, a 3, almost 4 year old angel who thinks its like one REALLY big sticker, a husband who has more determination in his finger than I had in my whole body for this first project, and a son who loves to be daddy's helper.

The Lovely Wallpaper that HAD to Go!

To get ready to tackle our first project we bought a scoring tool and scraper, and some wallpaper stripper. We began by scoring the wallpaper. Once we got started Tanner and Izze fun with this part. While they were scoring I started spraying. We would let the spray sit for a few minutes and then we would begin to scrape and peel it off. Some came off in large pieces and others were not so big. Thank heavens for Izze...she was having a blast and was so determined! 



Perforate, spray with wallpaper
stripper spray, peel, and repeat...




 


Score, spray with wallpaper
stripper spray, peel, and repeat...

It wasn't necessarily going fast enough for us (little did we know the amount of patience it would take) so we decided to pull out our steamer and give it a try. This helped to loosen up the adhesive, but it still wasn't working "great".  

Thought we would try the steamer to remove
the glue adhesive...



 So, once we ran out of wallpaper stripper, and the steamer wasn't working miracles we resort to perforating, spraying with HOT water and scrapping. This worked as well as anything else we had tried.

 And it's Done...FINALLY!



Feed up, tired, and desperate for help I called up my sister Cheryl. She is one person who has the patience of Job. I think cross stitching takes that much patience and she LOVES to cross stich so I knew she was perfect for the job. It was the BEST call I had ever made.

Thanks to her, after about three days the bedroom was WALLPAPER free! Places that still have wallpaper are the bathrooms and kitchen. We will give that some time before we conquer those areas.

Steve was SO excited he decided to rip out our bathroom vanity and sinks...I think we are going to regret that because we aren't ready to remodel bathrooms yet.

Some Lessons Learned...

1. Don't expect it to go fast...it WON'T
2. Enlist help, whether from a three, almost four year old or your sister. It will keep you sane.
3. Clean it up as you go...it make a huge mess.
4. Tools that were necessary-the scoring tool and the scrapper.
5. Wallpaper Stripping Spray-save your money...Hot water worked just as well.
6. The steamer wasn't a terrible idea, it just made everything that much more sticky. Use it in the stubborn spots.