Wallpaper Acres - Let the Fun Begin

When a house appears to be languishing on the market and has fantastic bones with only a light stench of cat pee and acres upon acres of wallpaper, the obvious and sane decision would be to make an offer! So here we are, John and I have bought a house that has wallpaper for as far as the eye can see and an odd assortment of left behind items including items ranging from family photos to a vibration rhythm weight loss machine. In our eyes, we just struck gold!

It is our intent through this blog to show you normal, everyday humans fixing up a house on a realistic budget using realistic tools and methods. We hope to capture processes that have the ability to help someone else and also show the mistakes made along the way that set us back. Let’s face it, we are human and we are definitely not contractors so we are anticipating some hiccups along the way.

John always likes to keep busy so we are excited to tackle this project over the next few years and turn it into a homestead that meets our needs. The first thing to tackle…wallpaper removal and cat pee deodorizing. If you think I am exaggerating and being extra about the wallpaper, take a peek at these photos. There are only 3 areas/rooms in the house that are fully painted walls...

(Above: formal living room with brown wallpaper and matching brown curtains...)

(Above: Living room)

(Above: Formal dining room)

(Above: Kitchen with nook)

(Above: Kitchen with half bath)

(Above: Upstairs bathroom)

(Above: Denim jeans bedroom...we have some extra denim wallpaper if you are interested!)

(Above: Welcome to the beach!)

(Above: Baguette and wine anyone? No need to hop aboard a plane to travel to Italy!)

I would love to sit down and speak with the previous owners to find out what the driving factors were behind the choices that they made. If you are interested in a trip to Italy or the Florida coastline or to the denim-clad 90s, we have got you covered. The most complex part of this is that there was wallpaper stripping solution in the closet…looks like the intent was there at some point then just abandoned altogether. As much as we are going to miss this wallpaper…we are excited to get a fresh coat of paint on the walls/ceiling/trim to start the process of making this our home.

The projects that we intend to complete are as follows:

• Wallpaper removal and paint the walls

• Carpet replacement

• Accent wall in main bedroom

• Vapor barrier on the back wall of the basement

• Custom main bedroom closet

• Main bedroom bathroom remodel

• Deck update (replacing the stairs and replacing wood deck boards with composite decking)

• Fireplace upgrade with more prominent mantle and built-ins on either side

• Kitchen revamp – not a remodel because we are planning on keeping the cabinets and layout

• Remove wall between breakfast nook and living room

• Landscaping clean-up

John and I know we have our work cut out for us. John’s hobby as building things with wood and being overall handy is going to come into play majorly. We hope that you will join us on this adventure and enjoy the blogs to come!