Quick Changes

Things change quick in remodel-land. I said in my last post that I would wait to pick out the tile for the back splash until I had finished the counter tops and cabinets. But on a second trip to Lowe's, I found this recycled glass tile that is just perfect for the price and since they only had four boxes and I needed two, I snapped up the two that I needed before someone grabbed all of them. There are so many different browns in the tile that I think it will work with my plans.

But that wasn't the reason I went shopping. I was having problems getting some of the old wallpaper off the wall. I had done some research and read where, in most cases, vinegar and water in a 1:1 solution worked just as good as anything in removing wallpaper. You will notice that I wrote "in most cases". The plaid wall paper and the paper with the little olive branches came off just fine, but it seemed as if the border was put on using super glue. After using nearly an entire gallon of vinegar, I knew I needed to use something different.

I went to Lowe's and picked up a bottle of some type of wallpaper remover and found Piranha Gel. It works really well and did not stink up the kitchen. Even though it said it was non-toxic, I did wear gloves when using it. I had to strip off the top layer of the wallpaper (which was vinyl) so that the gel could get down to the paper and the adhesive. But this ended up much quicker than water and vinegar.

Sometimes, things you do to prevent one problem, causes another problem later down the road. On the left, you will see a photo of one of several plastic corner guard that were on the corner of the walls. They were attached with both adhesive and nails; and when they were pulled off the wall - they took parts of the wall with it.

On the right, you can see the damage done to the wall. I have several corners now that have this damage and will require patching. I really don't need the extra work. . .

Happy patching!