New Start

When I finished as much painting on the outside of the house that I could do, I decided to take a little time off.  That little time stretched into two months!  I did have several orders for my animal sculptures, and did some work on culling the contents of the attic and garage, so at least I wasn't totally idle. Cleaning the house for the Thanksgiving Holiday, after a summer of neglect, took some effort as well.

But this week I finally got back to work.  I started stripping the wallpaper from the front hall.

I have found it is not as easy as the videos I have watched.  The metallic type of wallpaper is very heavy and resists wetting.

 I went over it all with a tool that was supposed to "score" the paper, and am using a commercial product to help loosen it, but it is going very slowly!

I actually took this picture a few days ago.  I have since gotten one wall completely clean.

I find the process soothing in a way.  If I am patient and let the solvent do it's work the process works.  Inch by inch.

Just another version of taking one step at a time.

I never liked this wallpaper.  I have wanted to remove it for at least 20 years.

Craig wanted to "remodel" the front hall  because there is a musty smell in the two closets in the hall.  I agree there is a problem there, but if the walls of the hall had a moisture problem, I don't think the wallpaper would be as tight as it is.

 Also as I have spent many hours now with my nose quite close to the walls, I cannot perceive any musty smell.  I do smell it in the closets so it's not my nose.

The previous owners played a sneaky trick on us.  They filled the closets with wool clothes and hung mothballs in them.  So when we opened them, all we could smell was the mothballs.  I firmly believe they were covering up the problem!

We have sealed the ground in the crawl space  below the hallway with cement. I think this may have solved the basic problem. But we may have to replace the drywall in the closets. But I'm going to try a waterproofing primer first. Craig has had 20 years to do it, so now it's my go. If I can get rid of the mussy smell with primer-sealer, great, if not we will go on to the harder solution.


As I strip away the paper I think that at one time, someone thought it was beautiful.

Tastes change with time. Choice of wallpaper is very personal. I'm going with basic paint.  People can see repainting as an option easier than removing wallpaper.