Death to Wallpaper!

I took off the week between Christmas and New Years with the goal of getting some things done around the house. The biggest thing on that list was finally tackling the wallpaper in the dining room! This awful red and gold striped paper has been on the to-do list since we bought our house 5 1/2 years ago and this is the last room in the house with wallpaper!! It had been 1 1/2 years since we finished stripping the wallpaper in the playroom, so I was ready to take this on.

There was only paper on the upper half of the walls...below the chair rail was just a bad faux-finish paint job. The paper actually came off fairly easily with a lot of steam and patience, but it did damage the walls pretty badly so the walls will have to be skim-coated before we can paint. And there are SO many holes in these walls to be repaired...like years and years of holes...it was as if the people who lived here before us just guessed (poorly) on where to hang things. Crazy!

The first couple sheets were the worst...I had to get the hang
 of how much steam and time it took to remove.

Finishing up the last little section...look at all that paper in the bag! 

I did take a break mid-week to see "Into the Woods" with Jennifer. It was FABULOUS!! Of course, I am biased since I was in this play in high school...it is easily one of my top 5 musicals ever and I still knew every word! I was stoked to get this CD in the mail the very afternoon that I started on the paper...I listened to this and Taylor Swift on repeat! :)

I managed to get all the paper off before our weekend trip to Nashville and I was happy with that progress. Next up will be skim-coating the walls to repair the damage and sanding (which will make a HUGE mess!) Russ also got the wall repaired behind the washer and I got all of Christmas put away, went through toys and reorganized the playroom in addition to the wallpaper removal! A successful week off!