I literally close my eyes and see my blade pulling off flakes. It's all I can see and feel. My "world". But I finished the living room, yay!
I thought the living room was difficult enough because it had two layers, the "latex" and the adhesive, but at least it all came off easy enough. I could pull off the "latex" by hand even. It was just a large room and the first time I had ever removed wallpaper. Then I moved into the first bedroom and "expected" (damn expectations) the effort to be similar. Well, I could not for the life of me find a place to start pulling. The paint was so thick, my blade would not even penetrate the first layer. I called my mom to chat about ideas. She said if it didn't come off, we may have to thinly sheetrock over the wall; and if we do that, the electrician needs to know by Monday so he can set the electrical boxes out by that thickness. So I called a drywaller asap. The first guy is local, so I thought he could jet by the same day. He picked up the phone in a gruff voice, sounded like I was disturbing him until I asked for an estimate. Then he sounded interested. (Recall, I really really really like good customer service and this guy is totally not passing.) He said he could come by in TWO days. Ok...I then decided to try another guy I found on Angie's List, based in Federal Way, but his reviews are stellar! Funny, he was "in my neighborhood" and could swing by in five minutes. Wow?!
"Joe" stopped by and we chatted about what I needed done all over the house. Smooth ceilings, textured walls, some drywall repair, maybe popcorn ceiling removal depending on the price (and yes, I had it tested for asbestos! Miraculously no asbestos, although I am toying with another test just to make sure...seems too good to be true in a house of this age). He told me about the fiberglass option on the walls to help prevent cracking...but then you get bubbles 4-5 years down the road and it costs more. No fiberglass. We then went into the bedroom and I told him we may need to sheetrock over those walls because I could not get the wallpaper off. He asked to borrow a few items (scraper, scorer, wallpaper removal, etc.) and he set to work on a small area. Leave it to the pro! He was able to start pulling. Phew!
He said I'd have an estimate in 4-5 days, so he left and I went back to scraping. Well that was a fortuitous visit! I was off and running, but holy crap, this was not as easy as the living room. The wallpaper/paint combo was cemented on in some parts. I had to literally "micro scrape" a ton of areas, chipping away centimeter by centimeter. Anyone who has ever doubted my patience in this life...well, don't ever comment on that again or I may hit you. My hands and lower back and legs ached (how?!), I ended up buying leather gloves for the chore (one of the fingers literally wore out after the first day??)...fortunately, most of it could be done without sponging the wall with wallpaper remover. Two days passed and I removed the first layer. There is still adhesive to remove.And onto the next room...which certainly did not go smoothly at all. I tried four different areas and thought, how the hell did I manage to randomly choose the order of rooms so it gets progressively more difficult? The second bedroom (fortunately the LAST room with wallpaper) will truly try my patience. I got a small area chipped off in an hour. This is going to take a while...
All in all, this is certainly a lot of work, but it's also satisfying being able to scrape away all the layers that are suffocating the house. I get to remove nearly 100 years of build up, the memories, and the walls are starting to breathe again. Some good energy is slowly starting to stir up in this place. It's exciting and keeps me motivated.
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