Whistle While We Work

This is Isaiah's first week of summer vacation and in order to have fun the rest of the summer we needed to get a few projects done this week. It'll make the pending chore list a little easier.



On Tuesday we tossed or readied for Goodwill clothing that was too small and toys that were not used anymore. Wednesday, we did the same thing for Anna's room. Today I rearranged and made less cluttered the playroom downstairs. Tomorrow we'll make a run to Goodwill and drop off what we do not need anymore. Such a good feeling.



Yesterday I also started my list of my fixer-upper items. I want to paint the entryway a darker color but before I can do that I must strip the painted over wallpaper. This is so un-fun that in an email to my husband I stated that I may work on our new budget plan as a break from the wallpaper picking. It was at that point I realized what a cruddy job I have taken on.




Matthew asked why I just don't repaint the painted over wallpaper. I said it was not the correct way to do things. Initially I thought the

paper would come off more in strips, unlike the "specs" I'm taking off now. When Matthew mentioned his idea I was 4 hours into a painfully

slow job, however, I was far enough into the job that I had no option but to muddle on through. I actually would love to just paint over the already painted paper now that my initial thoughts are proven incorrect. Oh well, at least it's a small room, right?

The first photo shows the color of the paint. It's showing up much darker in the photo than it does in real life. Because the entryway faces the south the sun just brightens the shade too much for my taste. It appears off white rather than tan.

The second photo shows the paper. They previous owners had a coat hook that I took down and voila there's the paper pattern in all it's 1993 glory.

The third photo shows the wall I've been working at for. hours. and. hours! That is only the top 1/4 of the wall.

I believe the trouble is caused by the lack of size that was put on the wall. Typically one would size a wall before applying the wallpaper. It works like a primer for the wallpaper and also makes the removal much easier. This wall was not sized. Besides the difficult removal some of the drywall paper is coming up as well. Not much but enough that I'll have to Spackle more than just nail holes before I paint.