Though I have owned a home for over 18 years I have not taken on very many home improvement projects. This, combined with the fact that my mom did not do well in the area of house upkeep, leaves me in a situation where I have gone back to school. What am I currently learning? I am taking a real life course in how to update a very...very dated home, turning it into something that is both modern and comfortable. My classroom at the moment is our dining room which we hope to split into a dining and sitting area. My first course: learning how to take down wallpaper.
When we first bought the house I freshened up the bedrooms by painting over the old wallpaper. Actually I should say I have painted over where the previous owner painted over the wallpaper. I wanted to do the same in the dining room but water damage from a leaky roof is forcing me to replace the drywall. This is going to leave us with new drywall sitting side by side with old (painted) wallpaper. Not wanting to see the difference in texture between the two I decided it's time to buy a wallpaper scraper.
With two big box hardware stores nearby, I headed into one for my new scraper. I always enjoy buying a new tool and walking around a hardware store is one of life’s great adventures. The only drawback is having to fight the urge to buy something I had not planned on getting. So after gathering a few new ideas I started my search for a wallpaper scraper, which was not where I thought the store would put it. After walking around for several minutes, I finally gave in and let my wife ask for help.
As is often the case, we easily found a sales associate ready and willing to offer advice. So we asked where we could find a wallpaper scraping tool. The associate told us they no longer sell wallpaper. I am not sure why he told me this. I didn't want to put wallpaper up. I wanted to take it down. By the look on his face I could tell he was a bit puzzled as to why anyone would buy a wallpaper scraper. After admitting that he did not know if they carried scrapers, he pointed us to the department a scraper might be in if they did carry them. As it turns out, they did.
While my shopping trip was successful I was left wondering: Why do people so often answer the question that was not asked? While you ponder this, I have a wall to scrape. I will post updates on my progress along with descriptions of my successes and failures as I learn home improvement on the fly. And the next time I need a tool, I suspect I’ll visit one of the local independent hardware stores where I hope to avoid any funny looks or strange answers.
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