whoohoo! finally over tolerating the vinyl wallpaper peeling at every join and desperate to remove the nasty matted and pet stained shag carpet (hmm yes the previous renters clearly had low hygiene standards - eeww gross!) I decided to attack the bedroom! this meant peeling off the vinyl layer of the wallpaper first, to allow the steamer to more effeciently remove the paper layer glued to the wall... it was quite a lot of fun just ripping & stripping of the paper & H was certainly a little surprised when he came home from the gym that morning... "hi honey, soo... I've done a little housework - what do you think?" hehehe... this part of the process only took around an hour - not to bad a work out for myself...then it was time to hit up our local Kennards for the steamer... put your patience hat on and this process works a treat. Although some what time consuming, it saves a lot of money if you do it yourself & it's also a great work out for the arms, make sure you have a good platform too... the mini-skaff here was borrowed from Alicia's dad (thanks so much for the assist A!) but you can also hire these from your local Kennards too. Go H Go! Doing a great job - nearly half way now...
The ever reliable site supervisor Indi, good boy! 
One slight delay in the process was that while stripping the wallpaper, a somewhat significant portion of the paint and plaster underneath also fell away from the wall and needed scrapping back, sanding and replastering and sanding again (go the skim coat to tackle those pesky hairline cracks that have the potential to ruin the fabulous new paint job... if you don't prep properly you'll be so disappointed in the cracked uneven finish in a brand new paint job - plenty of options are available for to fix this at your local hardware store). 
This was all very time consuming but provided a great sense of satisfaction once all the prep work had finally been completed. If you want to give this a go yourselves, your best friends will be a steamer, paint scraper, 'No More Gaps', a flexible spatula, plaster skim coat... if your removing existing carpet do this last as it will provide a perfectly fitted drop sheet to protect your floor. Stay tuned, H & I have now finished removing the carpet, painting and sanding the great floor boards we found beneath that awful shag... We're searching for new curtains and deciding on artwork, and should have a few pics of the finished product soon... YAY!
It certainly looks like quite a task but so you must be glad you've got it out of the way now.
ReplyDeleteYikes, that's no good about removing more than you bargained for. You're right about taking the time to refinish the walls properly for a nice smooth result.