Goodbye, wallpaper!

Last week I got the entryway molding and the hallway painted, so Monday it was time to start the next part of the project, removing wallpaper and painting in the hallway bathroom and entryway.

Here is a reminder of what the entryway looked like after I had painted the dark molding:

Like everything in the house, the wallpaper was in great shape, and really didn't need to be changed because of damage or peeling, etc.  In every room of this house, the walls were in almost perfect condition.  There were hardly any nail holes, even, after forty-four years.  

The former owners hung pictures from needles stuck in the wall (!) which made almost invisible holes.

I just wasn't crazy about the house colors, as they leaned darker.  And this wallpaper doesn't work the new colors I'm painting.

This was the wallpaper.  I actually might miss it a little...

I waited for my son, who got to spend the first day of his spring break learning how to remove wallpaper.  I wanted to teach him another new life skill.

He was so helpful!

After two days of work, we got it all off!

The entry looks so naked now...

We ran into a slight glitch, though.  It turns out there is a strip of wall next to the front door that is missing drywall.  The previous owners had just wallpapered over it, and it was never even noticeable.

There were also a few small places where bits of the wall lifted off with the wallpaper.

My husband offered to patch it, and I thought about it, but, I really want this to be perfect.  We are going to wait till we can find someone who's an expert in drywall to come and even out the walls flaws before I paint.

So it's not going to go as quickly as I might have hoped.

Meanwhile, the hall bathroom is in process.  The wallpaper removal here is no fun!  It's lots of overhead scraping, scraping behind the light fixture and in narrow crevices.  I'm hoping to get it done today.

I had thought perhaps this wallpaper was as old as the house, but it turns out it's not.  The bathroom wall apparently used to be yellow!

It would have been fun to have seen this house back and in the '70's and throughout the years.  I love houses with a past!