A Den of Stripe-iquity

The den/office was the last room on my list for renovation. It seemed to be the most recently decorated. But according to my taste, the out-dated wallpaper was a sin. The carpet was in good shape. After a long day of house-fixing, I liked to retire to the den and vegetate, but for some reason I had a hard time relaxing. Maybe it was the floor to ceiling stripes. I felt trapped in a wallpapered with pajama-bottom fabric box. I dreaded dealing with the walls. I did not know what was under that busy wallpaper. One day a friend and I were sitting on the couch discussing the stripes that were closing in on us. I took hold of a corner of wallpaper that was lifting. I gave it a pull and down came a big chunk. Oh, oh! My friend gave another piece a yank and down it came. Well, den renovation had begun whether I was ready or not.

I jumped into wallpaper removal with gusto. I was pleasantly surprised to find that a previous owner had stripped off all the layers of old wallpaper before applying their wallpaper. The latest layer of wall paper and the underlying wallpaper practically fell off in my hands, Yeah.

I was going to attempt to put drywall mud on the walls that were rough but had a thin coat of paint. My left wrist was having problems because of tendinitis from working on the computer so much so I struggled with attempting that project. My trusted drywaller came to my rescue again. I hired him the put up a new ceiling, and skim coat the walls. I think some jobs should be left to the experts and this was one of them.

I sanded and painted the woodwork, painted the walls, repaired and repainted the door, stripped paint off the hardware, installed crown molding and hung a new light/fan. The old fan/light had several feet of wire wound around inside the box and some wire sticking out around the edge.

Dining in Blue?

See the interesting orbs captured on a photograph
taken with disposal camera.

Here is a photograph of the dining room before its makeover.

Blue! That is the word for this room. I stripped off three layers of wallpaper. The latest layer was blue with small white dot. The paper made the room look dark. Fortunately the wallpaper had never been painted. I used a product called Wallwik® that when wet, stuck to the walls like a wet towel, holding moisture on the paper to keep it damp. It made stripping the wallpaper much easier.

I stripped about one wall at a time (only an area one package of Wallwik® could cover). Before using the Wallwik® I scored the wallpaper with a wallpaper-scoring tool, which is specifically designed to score wallpaper. This tool has notched teeth that perforate and lift the wallpaper as it rolls along. I added a chemical used for stripping wallpaper into the warm water in a bucket to sponge or spray on the wall to keep the Wallwik® wet. Plaster over lath in old Victorians handle water better than wallboard in newer houses. Patience is important in this process. I kept spraying the wall with a spray bottle from time to time as I saw it drying out especially near the ceiling. In the meantime, I worked on another project. After a couple of hours the paper was well soaked, and I was able to peel most of it off the wall.

My handyman tore up the fake-brick linoleum, pressed wood and also installed crown molding.
Under the linoleum was asphalt tile, tar paper and gooey tar. I expended a lot of effort and time to remove as much tar as I could. The tar paper was nailed down with hundreds of nails. My daughter came to my rescue by helping me with the tedious chore of removing tar and nails. I chiseled away tar. I heated some tar with an old iron on top of a metal cookie sheet until it was soft enough to scrape off. What a job!

My favorite, but now retired, dry-waller skimmed coated walls and installed wallboard on the ceiling. I painted the walls a cream color and the ceiling, door and moldings white. The paint on the walls changes as the light in the room changes. Sometimes it looks pinker then other times it has a golden hue.

The wood-burning stove hearth was built from bricks taken from the old Manti Store after it was torn down. The dark wall paper overpowered the brick.