El Diablo

This my friends is the devil!

 Yes, those little dainty flowers. Those little dainty flowers are etched  into the master guest bath wallpaper. Where the flowers are, there is a quilted like texture causing much turmoil for removal and there are hundreds of little dainty flowers all over this wallpaper.

I waltzed myself into the bathroom with my trusty turquoise steamer thinking the wallpaper would come down like the first bathroom. Boy, did I ever have a rude awakening. The first bathroom took about 8 hours total to take all the paper down, the backing, and wash off the glue. 

Here is the bathroom before, in all it's glory.

It's got potential...that is the only saving grace.

Now, for the wallpaper removal, this little tiny bit....took 2 hours.

Since the wallpaper was not only vinyl but  quilted, the paper wouldn't peel off as easily as it did with the first bathroom. It peeled off in little bits and pieces. Every now and again I would shriek with joy when I could peel off an 8 inch section. That happened, maybe 2 or 3 times?

So, after scraping and peeling...

And more scraping and peeling....

And even more scraping and peeling, I finally got the stuff down. Huge sense of relief afterward. It was hard work and my body ached! 

This wallpaper removal project took all day on a Saturday and Sunday and then a few hours after work on a Monday and Tuesday. I did not want to step foot  back in that bathroom...ever. But, during my own personal torture process, I discovered that the walls had no texture. Nuts.

I researched drywall texturing and purchased a drywall texture hopper. Frankly, drywall texturing sucks. I bought what I thought was a good electrical drywall hopper. It was a disaster, more to come on that later.

First, I prepped the walls so the texture wouldn't get all over the place. I have watched enough episodes of Dexter to know how to cover the walls adequately.

I got the hopper all muddied up ready to go.

Then started spraying. At first things were going well. It was making a mess even with the plastic up. Then, it started spewing chunks on the wall. I had been warned this may happen from reading reviews. But some reviews also said it worked great so it was a risk I had to take.

I couldn't just wipe the chunks off the wall because then it would ruin the good texture that had been sprayed on so, I got savvy and started to blot it with a paper towel. It slowed me down a great deal but worked out just fine. Took 6 hours to spray it all on and I think it should have taken less time really. Oh, and I can't forget to mention right when I had only 1/8 of the bathroom left do to the dang thing clogged!! I wanted to throw it up against the wall and jump on top of it and kick it like in Office Space. But, that 1/8 of untextured wall would seriously disrupt my OCD so I took it out back and hosed it off. Put it back together, mixed more texture to put in the hopper and it was still clogged! I managed to do a maneuver or 2 that made some of it spit out and went with that to finish up.

So, here is the final drywall product. Not great but not bad for a first and frustrating attempt!

The 3rd and almost final step was to paint the walls. I didn't like those blue flowerdie tiles at first but they started to grow on me and I like them even more once all those dang flowers came off the wall. 

I wanted a bright blue but not a knock your socks of bright blue. I went with allen + roth Valspar Signature in liberty.

The painting was the easiest part! All this wallpaper tearing, drywall texturing, and painting gave me plenty of time to figure out what kind of "theme" I wanted in this bathroom. I decided to go with a "coastal" theme. I already had a nice set of brown Martha Stewart towels to use so all I needed was accents  and accessories. Between Bed Bath and Beyond and the Home Goods store I got some good loot. There is still a bit more that I need to get to finish things off but I think it is a good start so far.

Eventually I want to update the counter top in this bathroom but since there were no leaks or malfunctions like the other bathroom sink it will have to stay like this for a while. The old homeowner was quite ahead of his time. This is a marble counter top, original to the house when it was built in 1959! Unfortunately, it is a little worn and I haven't figured out how to shine it up a bit. We also just can change the fixtures either. The hole thing is connected together, the sink, fixtures, and the counter was custom fit for the sink and they don't make them that way anymore. 

Mr. Lucas was handy again and installed the new light fixtures. 

Just a suggestion to everyone out there. Hire someone to take your wallpaper down for you, especially if it is vinyl and quilted. No bueno folks!

Cheers!!