We rented the wallpaper steamer again this weekend and finally finished steaming the layers of wallpaper and paint off the walls in the office…
We’d removed the lower half of the wallpaper already, so now it was all working up ladders. The photos make it look like it just happened quickly, but it was slow going: We had to scratch up the surface of the wallpaper so that the steam could get through the paint, and then it was about four passes on every foot square to get down to the plaster.
At the end of Saturday, we’d got through most of the room: Just the area above the windows and the wall over the fireplace left to do.
Janeen found that steaming went much faster if she scraped off as much of the paint as possible before trying to steam. In some places, the wallpaper would partially separate, or some of the paint layers would come loose. Those were the fun bits.
In some places, it seemed like the wallpaper had been attached with some type of superglue: we’d steam it for a couple of minutes, and still the wallpaper would only come off in tiny little 1/2″ pieces, then we’d steam and scrape and steam and scrape… In the photo above right, there’s a bin below janeen: we completely filled that with soggy wet wallpaper scraped off the walls.
The photo above right is titled “unclear on the concept.” The previous owners screwed a hook into the picture rail: what did they think picture rails are for if not to hang pictures from?
I love the look of the plaster after the wallpaper has been removed. It’s a pity that this house has such cracked plaster, as I’d love to find a way to just keep it as it is. The mottled yellow/orange color and the smoothness of the 100 year old plaster are impossible to replicate, and paint seems so bland in comparison.
I also got some of the insulation into the floor in the area we were doing electrical work; not easy to jamb fiberglass insulation around all that conduit, wire, framing…
The photo below right shows the beam that was added to the house when they put in the garage in the 50’s: I never noticed before, but it’s BENT! Much of the cracking in the plaster was caused, I think, when they did the garage addition. The beams they used were not stiff enough, and deflected too much, cracking the beautiful plaster walls in the process: Cars and architecture are not friends. I also added a 2×6 on the front and back to make sure the beam stays on the post in an earthquake (wouldn’t want it falling off, or the post falling over!) Now I just need to get plaster board back on the ceiling.
Getting all the wallpaper off the office walls makes things feel like they are moving again: now we’ve just got to fix the plaster, strip the paint off the woodwork, sand, stain, seal, paint, replace the windows, make the built-in furniture… almost done. ahem.
