Wallpaper, Paint, & Trim: Oh My!

We are making progress. We have moved everything in and we are sloooowly getting work done. I really love doing work on the house but I have been feeling a little overwhelmed lately. Brian works full time outside of the house and I can't get a lot of the painting done during the day (thank you toddlers). The progress feels slow and only happens a couple hours at night and on the weekends. I truly love the process but I am ready to start getting some major work finished. 

In the meantime I can share what we have done so far. We are starting with boring monotonous work but it can make such a difference. First up: wallpaper removal. 

See that tiny amount of trim up there. It took FOREVER. On and off an entire day of scrubbing. Brian spent the entire day peeling and removing this. This is old school non strip-able wallpaper and it was a nightmare. The best method for us was:

   -Score the wallpaper.

   -Spray with a mixture of stripping solution and water.

   -Let it sit for 15 minutes.

   -Spray with warm/hot water again.

   -Peel with a plastic paint scraper (metal will scratch wall).

   -Use a sponge dipped in hot water and scrub. 

Quite the process! Poor Brian. 

Next up: ceiling painting! Our ceilings clearly have not been touched since the house was built in 1970 and they are stained, splotchy, and dingy. We decided for the main living areas we would go with a nice bright flat white. We may be more creative with the bedrooms but we want to bring as much light into these spaces as possible. We ended up using the Ace Hardware brand and because we have textured ceilings we ran out very fast. But as you can see in the picture above it makes quite the difference. 

Another thing we have been working on is the trim. We have barely started and I can't wait until the trim is done. We have orange oak floors, trim, and doors. Way too much for me. The floors are in good shape and maybe eventually we will refinish them. For now we are going to paint the trim and put down some rugs. 

Pretty soon we can start posting some real progress pictures. Right now the timeline is feeling really short and the list is looking really long. Here is to getting started though! 

Happy Weekend!