Sunday, September 7, 2014
More adventures in wallpaper removal
After doing like a frenchman all week playing with plaster, I got most of the stairwell mudded.
Ready for a light sanding and paint
Skylight well drywalled and mudded, including a most useful ceiling outlet as a means to terminate one of the stray hot wires I was unable to remove without tearing out the ceiling in the adjoining bedroom, and opening a whole new can of worms. That will be a job for a later chapter. The ceiling outlet has already been put to good use for vacuum cleaning and plugging in a fan placed in the skylight to draw heat out of the house in summer.
Then there is the small matter of the hideous wall paper in the living room. It simply will not come off without tearing up the wall board. After some head scratching we decide out with the drywall as it is easier to start with a clean slate rather than go through all the trouble to skim coat the old drywall.
aaaaaand we find a second layer . . . .
Of this lovely stuff . . . what were they thinking? like I said at every turn things were monkey rigged, even if it was more difficult to do so. . . . someone was certainly smoking dope when they chose to put this crap up back in the sixties.
So after some liberal use of adult vocabulary and not some minor frustrations, I managed to clean things up, rewire the TV outlet and hang new drywall. Yes, I managed to miss removing two old screws that poked though my new drywall, hence the white patches. Enough sweating and swearing for one day.
Saturday morning, we tear into the other wall and get one layer off to find again a second layer of hippy-dippy-hairy-leg-patchouli-perfume-oil-of-petunia vintage wallpaper on a second layer of 3/8 thick drywall.
Nothing to it but to make a mess and tear it all off as well.
I finish tearing out the baseboard heat covers and the old wood baseboard behind them with some more considerable cursing, skinned knuckles and frustrations. And run new wires and switches for the front door light and outlet.
And after a dump run and a second load of sheet-rock from Lowe's, get it all dry-walled and things cleaned up outside just before the storm hit at 4 pm. I guess I am in for another week of doing like a french-man with mud.
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Wow! I got tired just lookig and reading.
ReplyDeleteBelieve me, I was spent by the end of the day. About 90 degrees F and 85% humidity. Not the best days to do this job.
Deletei really admire your determination and ability. and patience too! this project would drive me crazy!
ReplyDeleteHi Jaz, determination perhaps, not sure about patience. 5 years ago when I rebuilt the outside of the house I put in new windows. Never finished trimming them inside. Mostly hidden by the skillful placement of curtains and furniture. It was time to finish the job. I figure my wife was the patient one. Most of my hesitation in taking on the inside was that I knew it would be a bit of a mess, as at every turn things have been done half assed by previous owners. If the house was unoccupied it would be easy. The hard part is trying to live in it while you re build it. I have over 800 photos of the outside rebuild. Some day I will get brave and cull them down and do a post on that project. That one really tested me, almost paralyzed me with fear of taking on the second part now under way, hence the long delay.
DeleteA good weekends work again! You know you're going to get comments from people saying that they like the old wallpaper. I must say I rather like your description of it! Made me laugh! I also like the ceiling socket. I used to have them in my old workshop and they were always handy then no reason they can't be handy in a house as well!
ReplyDeleteHi Kev.. I have this dreadful feeling that its two steps forward and three steps back, at every turn it just turns in to more work. Hopefully I'll have the worst of it finished by Christmas.
DeleteIf I said that my wife would instantly say "which Christmas?"
Deleteshhhhh don't mention it too loudly, maybe Annie won't catch on until its too late...LOL
DeleteI also admire your detrmination and think that your wife must be very patient too:)
ReplyDeletei also stragle with an old house and it is very intersting for me too see how it is doing somewher else.
Yael, I imagine your method of construction over there is bricks and mortar, quite different than ours. Here it is juts a big wooden box so it is fairly simple to modify. The trouble comes with 75 plus years of poor people doing shoddy jobs on it. I had to repair the wallboard where I replaced the windows. To do that I had to remove the wall paper, and that was impossible so I had no choice but to remove two layers of wallboard and rid myself of 75 years of bad work so i could start with a clean slate.
DeleteMe thinks you're getting there my good man.
ReplyDeleteJohn, that's what I keep telling myself, though I seem to keep making more work for myself at every turn.
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