Well! I have the first section of the walls in my library stripped down to the plaster. From the outside in there were: vinyl wallpaper, light green paint, pink textured stripe wallpaper, and green stripe/pink rose medallion wallpaper. The last wallpaper was pasted right on the plaster - no paint or primer at all. Here are some photos of the process:


































You can see the various layers in the photos. Notice the darker area on the plaster in the photo with the ceiling moulding in it - I think there was a roof leak at one time, but obviously that has been taken care of. Also, it looks like the moulding was put on right on top of the wallpaper. There was even a border on top of the first layer - the one with the roses on it, but I couldn't get a good picture of it. Maybe as I do the rest of the room I can get a better look at it. It had only about an inch and a half showing below the moulding and the rest of it was beneath it. You can also see the darker paint under the lower moulding by the door - originally dark brown - or what can be seen under the white. And NOT that puke brown the quarter round has been painted!

Here are some pictures of the wall after the paper is gone and it's been cleaned. I found some Natura stuff at Home Hardware that doesn't need to be rinsed off like TSP does. It seems to work ok. I also got some primer and drywall compound to fix the numerous holes. If you look close you might be able to see the hair (horsehair I think) in the plaster! You can also see the cracks in the wall above the doorway. This is due to the old original chimney that was closed off but not removed. It's weighing down the structure and, of course, creating those cracks. I'm looking into seeing what would be involved in getting it removed.






Please excuse the lame layout - I'm not good at this, but I'm trying to get better!

Here is my house:


See - small one! I'm going to do one room at a time and finish it before I move on to the next.

The first room on the drawing board is the utility room upstairs. I'm surmising this was originally a bedroom, but at some point a new bathroom was added which reduced the size of this room and changed its purpose because the only way to get to the bathroom is through this room. So now it's not a very good bedroom, but it will make a lovely library/sitting room. One of the previous owners removed the door to the room (it's downstairs in the basement) so there is no chance for much privacy.



This is the wallpaper and the "new" doorframe into the bathroom. I'll post other pictures as I go. One thing that is of a concern is the number of holes in the walls; the previous owners packed in a hurry and didn't take the time (they didn't have the time to tell the truth) to fix all the holes - and there are many. I expect all the walls in this room except the wall adjoining the bathroom are plaster, but we'll see.

It's been over a year since I posted to this blog, and what a year it's been.

Just about a year ago, my husband of 34 years walked out, saying he couldn't stay. Of course he had somewhere to go - and someone to go to. We are now legally separated and I expect him to formalize the divorce as soon as he can, and really, that's totally fine with me.

I'm not going to go into detail here - none of that stuff belongs in this blog anyway, just suffice it to say that things had not been going well for a long time and I'm quite a bit happier on my own.

Also, my daughter got married last year and that was a source of much frustration, aggravation, pride and joy. I love my son-in-law and his family is lovely!

My son has settled into a job he loves working the night shift, which he also loves, so all is good in his world - and that's a nice thing for a parent to be able to say.

When we split, ex-husband and I had to sell the house we owned together and I've bought a much smaller, older house in another (smaller - hahaha) community. The house is homey and much more my size for care, but it does require a little work - especially on the decor! The paint and wallpaper are just NOT me! So I thought this would be a good place to document what I do to spruce the place up and show the work in progress.

Are you ready? Let's go!