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| 21/03/04 |
Busman's holiday for DIY-er |
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| With Father away sorting out his VAT return, Becca and I are on holiday...in the lounge, redecorating it. |
Most people would be thinking about catching the end of the ski season or a romantic breakaway in some European city or other given a week off in March. God knows, until recently I would have too. But, this year we're spending our spring break in the lounge, stripping wallpaper, filling, glazing windows and opening up fireplaces. The thing is, we have these lovely leather sofas ordered months ago languishing in the shop. We've put delivery off half a dozen times because the house was in such a mess, well it can't wait any longer and that means the lounge must be finished by next weekend. It's quite nice having a bit of a challenge and spending some 'quality time' with my fiance. Trouble is, Becca's come out with a stinking cold and I've done something very dodgy to my back and we're only one day into the challenge. Anyhow, learnt some good DIY stuff already. The wallpaper has turned out to be a nightmare to strip. Forget just using a steamer and scrapper. That won't touch it. What we've had to do is this 1. Use a blowtorch to gently heat the topcoat of paint (over the wallpaper) and a scrapper to lift it off.2. Apply sugar soap solution to the wallpaper exposed underneath and wait.3. Use steamer and scrapper to lift of the paper. It's quite quick really with one on the blowtorch and one on the steamer. Another good trick I've discovered is to sharpen up your scrapper, if it's been well used. Sharpening it up on a combination oilstone will make scrapping effortless. Right, well it's gone half past nine on Sunday morning so I'd best get back to it. The objective is to have the whole room stripped (ceiling and all) by this evening. I'll let you know how we get on! |
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