wallpaperless

There are many retro features about our house that we love. The wallpaper is not one of those features.

The nursery-to-be came with a wall of pink and mauve and orange flowers (that's a close-up on the left). During our first two years in the house, we rarely went into the room. But once we started nesting mode, it was time for the wallpaper to go.

Work began last Friday, when my mom generously offered to help. Peeling off the wallpaper was was slow, but oddly satisfying.

On Sunday, Aaron and I tried a new approach. Did you know that you can rent tools by the hour? For 21 bucks, this wallpaper steamer was ours for four hours.

It came with a scoring tool that made tiny holes in the paper. (Dork alert! The scoring tool was so loud, it required the use of ear protection.)

Once the paper had been scored, we were ready to steam and strip. We've done a lot of stripping in this house (see here and here), and this was by far the easiest.

With 45 minutes to spare on the steamer rental, the nursery was officially wallpaperless . . .

That left us lots of time to go across the hall and remove the bathroom wallpaper. And while it's easy to understand how we left the wallpaper in a room we never went into, it's harder to explain how for two years we lived with lilypads in a room we use several times every day.

 In less than half an hour, the lilypads were gone.

It's amazing what a difference it makes. On one hand, the room seems a bit boring. But until the lilypads came down, I never realized that every time I went into the bathroom, it felt like I was visiting someone else's house. Someone's grandma's house.

Of course, taking down the wallpaper is only the first step - we still have to patch and sand and paint. But with each project we finish, this house feels a little bit more like home.