Primer
Wow, it's amazing what that stuff covers. You can't really see it in my pictures (in fact I think I forgot to take them at this point) but once I got all the wallpaper down the walls looks really old: stains and discoloration spots in almost a rhythmic pattern literally all over and every wall. All that was missing were marks drawn on the walls. And when I rolled on that primer, WOAH! It completely covered everything with one coat! Beautiful, uniform, bright, clean white! :)

Only word of WARNING about primer: If you do it, use it everywhere and don't skip trimming with it. Color paint over primer looks just enough different from color paint not over the same primer that it will look like you painted with two different shades of the same color. You've been warned!


Removing wallpaper
Is not at all hard if you do it right. But no matter how you do it, it will take time.

IMPORTANT things I learned (by paying attention to the fine print on the adhesive removal bottle and on this site) that aren't spelled out for you (but should be) are:

1) Test what kind of wallpaper you have first, by pulling at a seam or corner. If you can easily pull it off, jackpot! Just do so, you don't need to spend money on anything more. If you can't, then you should BUY TWO things: removal solution and a wall scraper (don't worry, you won't actually be scraping with it).

2) In my opinion, DON'T use a scoring tool/wallpaper perforator. Why? Because unless there is enough wallpaper and paint to make a thick enough layer of buffer, you are doing to put teeny tiny holes in your dry wall underneath everything, and there's no way to fix that. I have a run of those itty-bitty holes on one part of my wall, it isn't stylish.

3) It is VERY HELPFUL to figure out which way the grain of your wallpaper goes. If you know that, pulling wallpaper down gets even easier because it will come off in nice large chucks when you pull in the direction of the grain!

4) WAIT to use the removal solution until after you pull down the top paper layer of the wallpaper. Yes, that means going around and pulling off ALL the wallpaper before going around a second time and taking down the remaining adhesive (which will fell fuzzy, because you have just torn paper off of it). The removal solution only loosens the gum-type glue stuff that keeps the wallpaper adhered to the wall. It does not in any way help remove the actual paper - which in some cases is designed to be waterproof or water resistant. Especially when the paper is like that, resist the temptation to use a wallpaper perforator or scoring tool to get the removal adhesive to the glue part. Just pull down the paper part, THEN use the removal adhesive. It will go faster this way.

5) WARNING: The adhesive removal solution DRIES FASTER than they say! So don't go around and spray all the wallpaper then go back to remove it all. Even if it says 15 minutes to dry and you could remove all the wallpaper in that much time - IT WON'T WORK! I had to go out and buy more because it dried faster than I could get to it, and it only took me a minute or two per section of wallpaper. Just spray down AND remove ONE SECTION AT A TIME. It will go SO much faster that way.

6) Really saturate the fuzzy adhesive left after you take down the paper layer of the wallpaper with the removal solution. Get it all covered. Then take the wall scraper and just skim the wall. The wallpaper adhesive layer will come off SUPER easy, just like shaving hair with an electric razor. Oooo smooth :)


Cutting tile
Yeah, all I needed was a nice pair of tile nippers. I didn't have to score the tile (it might have helped if I was tried to get a perfect shape, but I just needed a generally round hole), and I definitely found out the power tools for cutting title weren't a help. In fact the one recommended to me at the store ended up making my job harder! Of the sites I read online about cutting tile, the only one that had tips and advice that worked was this one. My advice? Don't buy into the hype. A good hand tool and measuring will do you the best.

Labels: Do-it-yourself