Wallpaper=Evil

After closing, we picked up subs at our favorite pizza place, Vito's  and brought them back to the house where we sat on the floor eating our sandwiches and drinking champagne to celebrate the exciting first moments of owning a home.

here we are right after closing

about to walk into our house for the first time!

champagne and subs

We then took before pictures of all the rooms to remember what the house looked like in its current state.

Two things about the house (in its current state) that are irritating:  

1.  wallpaper everywhere!!!  this was our first challenge to undertake.

2.  where there is no wallpaper, there is creative and ugly stenciling.  (see example below)

there were 3 bedrooms, one dining room, and one bathroom that needed to have wallpaper removed.  We actually started removing paper in one of the bedrooms the night of closing and spent the entire first weekend removing all the paper.

It was a complicated process because there was a variety in the amount of time and way in which the wallpaper had been done.  Some wallpaper had been applied relatively recently, probably about 15-20 years ago, and although timeconsuming, did come off more easily.  We scored the paper, sprayed it with wallpaper removal gel/solution, and then scraped it off, then scraped off the remaining glue.  In other rooms, we learned that the paper had been on for probably about 30-40 years.  We learned that using the traditional scoring/spraying/scraping method did not work well in these rooms as it was tearing off the paint as well.  so we had to literally just chisel this wallpaper off.  There were three "easier" rooms and two of the more difficult rooms.  Here's a video of some of the process for us so far (and the mess we've been making)

it was definitely an exhausting process but we are so happy the paper is off because the rooms look bigger and it's definitely already increased the value of our home in removing the paper.  

Unfortunately, the scraping process left many many holes in the walls and the next step was using spackle to seal up the holes, then sand.  we bought a ryobi sander with a built in vaccuum but the dust still goes EVERYWHERE all over the house.  we have spent multiple days just cleaning off all the dust and wiping down the walls after the spackle dries so that we will be able to prepare for painting.

One of the things Trevor has been looking forward to, and talking about for MONTHS is mowing the lawn.  Here's a video after he mowed the lawn for the first time!