Foyer Update–Week 2

The race is now on to transform this foyer in six short weeks! You can read my Week One post by clicking here.

I’m replacing the wallpaper that has been here since we built this house 28 years ago. Because it is difficult for me to find someone to tackle the labor in this project in my very rural area, this is a big DIY project. I’ve done lots of wallpaper before and my mother and I did this 28 years ago. Actually, my mother did the work on the highest part the first time. The biggest challenge is the height in the open area.

I also decided to take this opportunity to remove the popcorn texture from the ceiling. The popcorn has already been removed in most of the other rooms but this one hasn’t been done yet due to the difficulty in getting to the ceiling two stories high.

The top layer of paper came off very easily. I just found an edge at the seam and started to pull.

Then I sprayed with water which caused the paper to come loose and release from the wall. You can see in the photo above where the paper is starting to bubble up and loosen. There is a steamer in the photo below but I didn’t need to use it.

This section went pretty quickly.

I was able to get all of this done before bringing in the ladders.

I was able to use an adjustable ladder to get some of the paper going up the stairs.

As you can see in the photo above, it made a huge mess. The bottom layer of paper came off in all sizes of pieces, some of them tiny.

This is the dangerous part. I had to use a walk board between two ladders to get part of the paper down and to scrape the ceiling in the corner. I used scaffolding to reach the ceiling in the center. Safety disclaimer: THIS IS NOT SAFE. My son who is a construction management professional walked into the room and said “Mom, this is not safe. Walkboards are not allowed on job sites. You are supposed to be tied off when doing any work more than 6 feet above the floor.” My brother in law walked in and said “Do you know how many OSHA violations are in this room?” I would not recommend any one do this. I did what I could with the equipment that I had. It is my private residence and not a commercial job site.

Scraping the ceiling goes pretty fast. After covering the floors, I used my spray bottle of water again to spray a small section of ceiling. I held a baking sheet in my left hand and used a wide putty knife in my right hand to scrape the ceiling letting the popcorn texture fall onto the baking sheet. I then dumped the material from the baking sheet into a trash can then started on a new section.

While this job required a considerable amount of patience, it was well worth the effort. I’m ready to be to the fun part. Hopefully I will have pretty pictures next week! Click over to Calling It Home to see the progress on the other projects.