Girls Write Out
Thursday, January 31, 2008

JUST CALL ME FORREST GUMP
Forrest's mother once told him "Stupid is as stupid does." and I just did something I'm regretting severely today. I've been eyeing the wallpaper in the hall outside the bathroom. I've not been happy with the wallpaper and it extends into the dining room. We're redoing the laundry room which connects to this hall and it seemed a good idea to strip that paper and paint it the pale yellow I'm painting the laundry room. My reasoning was that if it came off easily in that hall, I'd move on to the dining room and redo that too.

There was only one layer of paper and in the upstairs rooms we'd peeled off layers and layers of wallpaper and paint--enough to fill 20 garbage bags from one room. So how hard could it be to do this one little area. Read my lips. H-A-R-D! You should see this space now. As the wallpaper has come off, PAINT has come off with it! The whole thing will probably have to be skim-coated with drywall compound before we can paint it. I've never had paper this hard to remove.

Now I'm looking at that paper and wondering why I hated it so much. LOL It was really rather pretty. Much prettier than the peeling pain under it. And really that space needed wallpaper because of the wide oak trim and the big built in oak cabinet in it. So this is one of those moments where you look back and wonder what you were thinking. You ever have one of those trials? I've had my share of remodeling disasters but this is one I brought on myself, that's what makes it so bad. There was no reason to be in this mess other than my own stupidity. LOL
Colleen Coble  
posted at 7:30 AM  
  Comments (11)
 
 
Delicious Delicious
11 Comments:
At 11:27 AM, Blogger Diann Hunt said...

Oh, how miserable! I say you just slap on some paint and be done with it.

Okay, so my gift is not decorating. I am always blown away by you types who can see a beautiful display in your room before you ever get it there. Once I bring something "beautiful" home, i never know what to do with it. And yes, I watch the home shows on TV, but it doesn't do me a lick of good. I have no eye for that.

So, when you get done there, C, come on over! :-)

 
At 12:03 PM, Blogger Rachel Overton said...

You could always use the texture paints. I have a wall in our dining room that unpapered that way. It was horrible!! We actually had layers of the wall-board/sheetrock stuff come off. After we scraped and sanded and filled and did the skim coat you mentioned, we used a granite-texture paint, and it covered the left-over flaws so beautifully! It's not very washable, though, so if this is high-traffic, you may not want to use it.

 
At 4:04 PM, Blogger Kristin said...

Oh but it's easy to skim it with plaster, and it will look SOOO good. I did an old world finish on mine, and I just love it!!! There's a brand that starts purple, and turns white when it's done, and it is so easy to work with!! I think it's dTap.

 
At 4:17 PM, Blogger Colleen Coble said...

I'd thought about a texture but none of the other walls are textured. Still, it would be less work and I'm all about less work! LOL

 
At 4:34 PM, Blogger Jaime Wright said...

sounds exhausting to me! lol Of course, i'm the one who dropped splotches of chocolate brown paint on my kitchen floor and didn't notice until it'd dried! Have fun ... if you can! ;)

 
At 6:42 PM, Blogger Kristin said...

Oh I never thought to do it without texture. Wow, that sounds harder to me. Of course, I guess you can sand any bumps out, huh? KB

 
At 7:25 AM, Blogger Andrea said...

I hear you!!!! We have an OLD house. The bathroom was wallpapered when we moved in. It was starting to peel and was awful. We tried to take it off. OH MY GOODNESS! I think we got down to wood underneath. So we thought we were smart and papered over it using one of those wall liners under the paper. We also used special bathroom paste etc. Four years later, it was peeling off. So we had a man in to work on the ceiling from an upstairs toilet leak.While he was here, I started in on the wallpaper. I also used child labor. My 13 and 9 year old loved peeling and pulling. The boys could destroy and NOT get in trouble. I asked this man what to do about these walls. He skim coated them for me.They were beautiful. SOOO what did I do next? I waited a bit and decided to paint them the from the same color family as the brown/tan in my hallway and living room. Keep in mind this bathroom is in the same area as these rooms. So I go to the store to get the paint. I see this peachy color. I thought it looked really pretty. On the spur of the moment, I chose that paint instead. What was I thinking?!?!!? The paint on the wall is SO MUCH brighter than I expected. It looks like orange sherbet in there. It took us a LONG time to get realize that during the day we did not leave a light on in the bathroom. It is just that bright. I hate it but feel guilty asking my husband to repaint it. Maybe this summer I can work on it. I remember why I think and plan and think so more before I paint. I can't see how things will look in my head. I am bad at deciding decorating things. Next time I will stick to the plan. No more spur of the moment ideas. They are dangerous.

 
At 7:29 AM, Blogger Colleen Coble said...

Oh Andrea, I laughed out loud. LOL We have an old house too--built in 1895. So I know exactly what you mean about those walls. And that's what my husband did to these walls, he skim coated them with drywall compound. And then we painted them and then used wallpaper primer so when we ever changed wallpaper it would come off easily. But it didn't work I think we didn't wait long enough for the paint to cure. Sigh.

On a good note, I did get it all off now.

 
At 8:13 AM, Blogger Andrea said...

I'm glad you got it all off. I could have sent my boys your way. They are experts :). On a different note, are you feeling snowed in yet? Up here in Northern IN, we are getting pounded. My family got the day off school! YEA! Ask me if I'm still yeaing later after they've been home all weekend. :)

 
At 8:15 AM, Blogger Colleen Coble said...

We're getting pounded too, Andrea! My hubby is only a few blocks from work so he had to go in, doggone it.

 
At 6:38 PM, Blogger Southern-fried Fiction said...

ROFLOL!!!!!! I'm cracking up at the Freudian typo! The "peeling pain"

ROFLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Sorry, it was too good to pass up. ;)

 

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The Authors
Kristin Billerbeck
Kristin Billerbeck is a proud Californian, wife, mother of four, and connoisseur of the irrelevant. She writes Christian Chick Lit; where she finds need for most of the useless facts lulling about in her head.

www.KristinBillerbeck.com

Colleen Coble

Colleen Coble writes romantic suspense with a strong atmospheric element. A lovable animal of some kind--usually a dog--always populates her novels. She can be bribed with DeBrand mocha truffles.

www.ColleenCoble.com

Denise Hunter

Denise Hunter writes women's fiction and love stories with a strong emotional element. Her husband says he provides her with all her romantic material, but Denise insists a good imagination helps too.

www.DeniseHunterBooks.com

Diann Hunt

Diann Hunt writes romantic comedy and humorous women's fiction. She has been happily married forever, loves her family, chocolate, her friends, chocolate, her dog, and well, chocolate.

www.DiannHunt.com

Hannah Alexander

Cheryl Hodde writes romantic medical suspense under the pen name of Hannah Alexander, using all the input she can get from her husband, Mel, for the medical expertise. For fun she hikes and reads. Out of guilt, she rescues discarded cats. She and Mel are presently taking orders from four pampered strays.

www.HannahAlexander.com

 
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