We assembled some sponges, a bucket of water, and a couple of scrapers, and sat in the hallway to get started. I tried to soak the first panel with a sponge, but the paper is textured and smooth, and feels like it’s made of plastic, so the water just beaded right off it. I picked at a corner until I got a little piece to pull on, and I tugged – the whole thing peeled right off in one wide strip. And nearly every piece came off like that, without even needing to wet the walls or scrape. There was only one panel with excess glue that needed extra work, and we’ll need to patch the wallboard there before we paint, but the rest was an absolute breeze!
But, naturally, nothing we’ve done in this house comes without a surprise. I thought the blue was bad. Underneath the wallpaper, hidden by the textured ugly, was an entirely different ugly.
Pink. Pink. Little-old-lady pink. Chalky pink. Horrible, horrible pink. So now, until we can wash the walls and start painting, two huge rooms in my house are two-colored monstrosities. At least this will motivate me to get the painting done fast, because this is entirely ridiculous. And yet, someone painted their house this way because they thought it looked great!
Why would you do this to innocent walls?
Expect a painting update within a couple of weeks. Unless I go blind before then.