Wallpaper Disaster!

In case I haven't mentioned it, I moved in with Adam in the fall.  He (now we?) has an adorable 1930s character home.  The problem with older homes though is the things that have been done to them in the in between time (read 70s and 80s!)

Our kitchen had wallpaper.  Terrible falling off wallpaper.  Terrible falling off wallpaper that the previous owners had GLUED up with random glue before selling the house.  Let me show you!

 

And now for the close ups!

(the duct tape was our feeble attempt at prolonging the life of this wallpaper that needs to die!)

One weekend I just decided it was time to come down!  If you ever want to attempt this, I highly recommend starting something in your slow cooker in the living room!!

Isn't that a lovely shade of more blue underneath?!

The first layer came off pretty easily.  The older stuff underneath DID NOT!!

Evidence of where the previous owners had used random glue to stick it back up!

Luckily the plaster walls underneath were in good shape, and not a terrible color (i.e. if we don't get around to painting right away we can live with it!)

Adam taking down wallpaper to discover that there was an "accent" wall underneath!!

Me looking pretty happy that we were almost done!

So what I learned here:

1) I hate wallpaper. There was a reason people kept just piling it on top of other layers!

2) Start dinner in the slow cooker before starting!

3) BEST TIP: While we were working, a buddy came over to deliver a pie he had made (yup, actually came over to give us a pie - awesome!) and also offer us his tickets he couldn't use to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers (again, awesome!!) AND then told us that it works really well to use an iron on a steam setting to take off wallpaper.  This saved us soooo much time.  I highly recommend it if you don't have a steamer!

Stayed tuned for before and after pics of wallpaper vs. fresh paint!