Wallpaper Woes

Ever stripped wallpaper? If you said, "No!" keep it that way. I love this new house of ours, don't get me wrong. Wallpaper, though, it's everywhere! Seriously, there is not a single room that isn't papered in some way, shape or form. The living room won't stay. Problem is, it's covering the whole room and it's vinyl. I must say, they used top of the line wallpaper. I fear it will never come down. I decided to start on the kitchen border since it looked like it might be easier and if not at least a smaller task. What a mistake that assumption was.

I decided to invite my sister-in-law over to help. She's got a death wish, I guess, and loves to strip wallpaper, she said. I fixed her quick. We bought 'The Paper Tiger' it's a round hand held contraption that pierces millions of tiny holes in the paper for the remover to penetrate to better reach the glue underneath. That's the idea, anyway. It sounds better than it is. I finally broke it. We tried fabric softener, first, as a glue loosening agent. It made my house April Fresh, but did little else. Then it was time for the big guns. I'd bought DIF, a wallpaper stripper solution. It's supposed to dissolve the glue. Yeah, right. Nothing dissolves the glue- nothing. It also smelled pleasant and not as over powering as the fabric softener. 

We followed the directions to a T. Still, the paper scraped off in teeny tiny little pieces leaving the backing and glue behind. My sister-in-law was artfully able to remove the backing, somehow. I was not. Everywhere I did still shows the underneath of the paper. Grr.

Finally it was time, after about three hours, for my sister-in-law to leave. She had to meet a bus at home with her daughter on it. That's more important that my wallpaper, I found out.  :(  I was left alone to my own devices. Gulp. I did very little over the next few hours. When I gave up, finally, I still had about 1/3 of the room to go- seriously. 

I bit the bullet and took on another session a few days later. I got a good amount done. Still, it's not done. I've given up. The hideous border remains just enough to taunt me every time I see it. It's hard to miss. 

I've resigned myself to failure. I am going to have to suck it up and invite my sister-in-law over all the damn time or hire someone. If a professional has the same hard time we had, it'll be prohibitively expensive. The funny thing is, the living room, which I hate, matches our furniture beautifully. It's just so not me. Wallpaper, in general, is just not me. The kitchen matches my dishes. The bedrooms match our bedding. Why do I want it down? Maybe I don't. Hypnosis to make me love it might be the best solution.