last weekend more quality time was spent with the rented wallpaper steamer. we were determined to remove the remaining stubborn wallpaper in the kitchen. some people wondered, “why not paint over it?” “why not just tear out all the plaster and replace with gypboard?”
1) painting over the wallpaper was what had been done by previous owners and in most places the paint just didn’t stick well and chipped off easily in large sheets. plus from the way it had browned and aged, we’re guessing the adhesives were not archival and would probably show through the paint over time. 2) and as with the rest of this remodel/restoration project, being as environmentally conscious and keeping as much out of landfill as possible was a big concern. tearing out plaster from all the rooms would require a large dumpster. removing old paint and wallpaper, produces just a few small garbage bins worth of waste. and the old plaster is so much more beautiful and durable than gypboard!
(above left) mathew is removing the door frame for the door that was removed and blocked off leading from the kitchen to the bathroom. (above right) after the trim and wallpaper has been removed.
when the kitchen was almost done i realized “coffee and a kick in the pants” had gotten damaged. all that remained on the wall was “kick in the pants”, “coffee” had somehow gone missing! it’s silly that we got so upset, but it was a clipping given to us by mathew’s brother misha, and it has been with us for 10-12 years! i eventually found “coffee”, it was trying to blend in with the discarded wallpaper on the floor.
around 8pm on sunday night mathew decided we should tackle the second entry/hallway. his only experience with wallpaper removal had been the kitchen and that WASN’T fun. the paint and wallpaper in this hallway flew/melted off the wall and mathew understood what my experience with my mom had been removing wallpaper in the bedroom. the plaster on this wall was in fairly good condition with only a few cracks. it looked like the previous owners had used some sort of red stain/paint on the bare plaster.
next mathew decided we should work on the opposite wall (not shown.) this did not go as smoothly and when removing the top layers the smell of mold surfaced. basically we were trying to remove paint and wallpaper from moldy gypboard and eventually decided to just replace the gypboard.
and in my free time i knit.