Wallpaper-Free

After months of scraping and chiseling and spraying inordinate amounts of soapy water onto our walls, they are finally clear.  It finished with a fantastic day with friends and family.  I've been talking about scraping wallpaper, but it really was more than that.  At some point in our home's history, somebody got the grand idea of skim-coating a layer of plaster over the wallpaper and then painting over that.  Things would have moved a lot faster had it not been for that skim-coat.  There were large sections where we were literally chiseling a 1/16-1/8" layer of junk off the walls in order to get down to the plaster.  Here is the transformation of our parlor and dining room from chocolate milkshake brown to bare plaster.

Before:

June 2:

July 27:

September 15:  Making a Mess

Part of the border exposed

Tools of Destruction:  ladder, scraper, spray bottle of soapy water, trash can.  Not pictured: utility knife for scoring skim coat, putty knives

October 12:

Cool Discovery:  Name and Date written on the plaster.  Dated either May or November 9, 1938.    Next to the name and address is the word "pastemonkey"  Perhaps this was the person who did the wallpaper.  

October 27: Work-Day at the House.  Unfortunately, we didn't take quite enough pictures - so we don't have pictures of Kristen and Justin and Tom's parents scraping, scrubbing and sanding away at our walls - but are grateful for their help on a long, productive day.  By the end, we were wallpaper-free - yay!!!