OUT OUT DAMN WALLPAPER!!

In order to get the party started with making the house Short, we needed to start somewhere. My BFF, Lifelong Friend, and former Maid of Honor... let's call her Nikki...I've known her since I was 13 and we have been pretty much attached at the hip since then. 

Anywho, Nikki and I decided to start with taking the wallpaper down in the kitchen, foyer, and bathroom. But first we had to go to brunch. So we put on our best going-to-brunch-pre-wallpaper-removal clothes and posed for a picture before dashing out.

Yeah, we were cuting it up. So we went and had brunch -- which turned out to be lunch because, as usual, Nikki and I were behind on our time. But we had mimosa's... and some funnel cake fries. And it was sensational.

And then we came back and got to work.

This was the wallpaper in the kitchen and foyer. While I'm sure the former owner of the house loved it, it's not very us. So down it was going to come.

Nikki and I were trying two different methods for the removal of said wall covering. The first was to use the chemical spray from the hardware store to detach it. Nikki heard something about using Downy fabric softener and very hot water.

We started by pulling off the decorative paper part, leaving behind the backing that was actually glued to the wall.

That stuff came down easy. And before long we had clean walls... and a bed for the dog?

He'll lay on anything...

After all the paper was down, we got to the messy part. I started on one wall and Nikki on the other, with the chemical and the Downy respectively.

The spray worked alright, but you need to spray a lot on and it is sticky and smelly and all around not fun. It took me almost half a bottle to do one wall, so I would say from a cost effective stand point it wasn't the most viable.

Surprisingly, the downy worked just as well if not better! You put some Downy in some very hot tap water, soaked it into the paper, and it just slid right off.

GREAT SUCCESS!!!!

It smelled a ton better, was less messy -- and what little mess it made was easy to clean -- it was a lot easier on our HANDS and we used maybe three or four cap-fulls in all three rooms.

You have the use the hottest water you can, when the water cooled down it stopped working as well. But that's not that hard because it goes pretty fast so you will keep up with the water.

With the kitchen and foyer done we moved upstairs to the bathroom. Here is the wallpaper up there:

In the same vein as downstairs.

The only thing was, it was vinyl wallpaper so it was a little bit harder to get down. Also, there are a lot of little places (ie, corners near cabinets, behind the mirror, behind the toilet) that will take a lot of work to get the rest out. We were tired and it was a lot more work in a small space. So there is still a little bit of stuff on the walls... but we will pull that off when we are getting ready to paint.

Even Mr. S got into the peeling.

He's a good helper lol. Nikki and I stood by and watched while he did a wallpaper removal/balancing act in the shower.

This girl does so much for me, she's the bomb diggity.

So, now the wallpaper's down (minus a few remnants) so now it's time to get painting. I've got big plans for this little place.

Nikki - Thank you so much for all your help, you're the hardest worker and the most inexhaustibly generous person I know! Wine and cheese for you next time, girlie ;)