Why oh why is home improvement so frustrating? At least here. I think this condo was built by drunk monkeys on crack. Studs aren’t where they are supposed to be, the floor is funhouse crooked, there are settling cracks everywhere…ugh. I had thought we’d addressed most of the big issues, and thus I started on a new yet small project optimistically and with a song in my heart. That didn’t last long.
The bathroom in our spare bedroom hasn’t really been touched since I moved in. A couple weeks ago, the toilet tank started leaking - rusty bolts and such, so we removed the tank to replace the bolts…but then decided this was a golden opportunity to paint, as the toilet tank is 1/4″ away from the wall (probably violating all kinds of building codes) and made painting difficult for the previous owner. Evidenced by the big square of exposed ugly blue wall paper behind the tank. The rest of the bathroom was painted a boring white. So it should be no big thing to rip down the wall paper and repaint, right?
no.
Underneath the ugly blue flowered wallpaper is even uglier salmon pink seashell paper. And under that? Drywall.
And I mean exactly that. Underneath the shell wallpaper is drywall. No layer of primer paint or anything. So as I’m spritzing down the walls with a warm vinegar solution (makes it easier to remove the wallpaper) and removing layer by layer…I realize that as I carefully try to peel off the shell wallpaper, I’m also removing the paper off the drywall.
*bangs head against vinegar soaked wall*
WHO DOES THIS??? WHO BUILT BUILDINGS THIS POORLY THOUGHT OUT! FUCK YOU, ATLANTA, CIRCA 1985!!!
It’s fine. FINE! There’s nothing more to do but keep going. And then we’ll just have to even everything out with drywall compound and then a couple coats of primer and then we’ll paint and just put fingers in our ears and say LA LA LA LA LA! I CAN’T HEAR YOU LA LA LA LA LA!!!!
That’s how we do most things here.
Meanwhile, life goes on.
Have I mentioned I’m knitting a sweater?
I am. The color is a deeper red than that - I can’t get rid of that orangy tint out of the picture. It’s the Lift and Separate sweater from Big Girl Knits. For those that don’t have ravelry and can’t see that link, the sweater will eventually look like this:
So there’s that. Also, Sadie is doing MUCH better. Pooping normally and everything. She’s chosen a more homeopathic method of treatment than I had suggested…
mmmm…empty yogurt cups!
I love the color of the sweater. It looks like a great pattern.
When we put wood floors in our house, we found out that the builder had put particle board down for the sub flooring, sigh, I feel your pain.
I’m glad Sadie is feeling better.
I keep looking at the Lift and Separate pattern. I really like the look of it in the book, and in a few of the completed Ravelry projects. But in some of the projects, it looks - well, a bit, um - dumpy? Not all of them, but a few. And my complete inexperience with sweater knitting would pretty much guarantee that mine would be dumpy.
I love that colour - that’ll be a great sweater.
Good luck with the painting! I’m far too lazy at this point to paint my apartment, as my lease says I have to paint it back to apartment-building-blah-off-white if/when I move out.
Catherine - our floors are concrete underneath, and it all cracked and settled at some point years ago. A while back, we ripped up the nasty carpeting to put down wood laminate, and had to use about 200lbs of leveling compound to make it work. UGH!
Kirstie - I did notice that, but I’m wondering if the size was wrong for some of them? I’m making the largest size, and it is somewhat adjustable with the tie on the side. I also have a good pair of spanx to smooth out any…unfortunate dumpyness. This is my first sweater ever, so I hope I don’t screw it up TOO badly!
I need a man so I can do random projects around here. I’m stuck doing them myself, which is scary as I’m NOT handy. Just single-mom-handy, which is hammer, nails kinda handy. Or call-my-dad-handy.
I think it was a fad back in the 80s to NOT prime before hanging wall paper. We had to deal with the same thing in our bedroom, but luckily it was just a border, but still. I feel your pain.
I can’t wait to see your finished sweater!
Glad Sadie’s feeling better!
That sweater should look fabulous on you.
There are a couple of layers of wallpaper in our guest bath. I bet it’s the same way. No, I haven’t had the courage to tackle it. Yet.
Lovin’ your sweater! I’d love to see it on Thurs. It is going to look faaaaabulous on you!
I feel your pain on the wallpaper sister. We are doing the exact same thing with our downstairs bathroom. Everytime I look at the walls I just want to cry. We seriously have thought about getting the belt sander out and just sanding the walls down instead of trying to get all that damn wallpaper off. UGH!
Those damn drunken crack monkeys! I’m sure they built some places up here too. Salmon wallpaper? Pukeatronic. What a terrible decision whenever it went up. Good luck getting all that nastiness off the unfinished drywall.
Hooray for solid poo!