My Attempt at Home Improvements

  So, about 2 months before Thanksgiving, I decided to take on the task of redoing the guest bathroom in my parents home. Of course it started off as a small project. The wallpaper that had been painted over started to peel away from the wall in various places near the shower so I figured that I would just remove it and paint the walls. Wellllllll......that process turned out to be a bit more arduous than expected. As I began to remove the wallpaper, the top layer of the gypsum board tore away as well in quite a few places. I knew this couldn't be a good thing. Even in using wallpaper remover, this continued to happen. My initial thought was, "well, I will just redo the side of the bathroom with the shower." Welllllll....In the other part of the bathroom there was border paper that was peeling away and as that was being removed, results were the same as the other side. This led me to decide to remove all of the wallpaper instead of doing half of a job. I purchased one of those wallpaper scorers that's supposed to create little holes in the wallpaper that allow the remover to penetrate through and make the process simple and painless. Boooooo!!! Maybe if the wallpaper hadn't been painted over a couple of times that would have been the case. 

What did I get myself into?

 I took to doing much research as to how to fix my "little" problem and that's when I learned that I would have to become a spackling fool. First I had to buy special sealant that made the gypsum board nonporous where the brown paper was exposed. Little did I know that this project would become so expensive. Then I started my attempt to smooth out the walls. Oh boy!! I want to send a special shout out to Youtube and all of the other video posters that helped me to become the spackler that I am today. LOL!! I bought some joint compound that went on pink and dried white. This helped a lot.

Next came the messiest part of it all....the sanding.  I was warned about this so there was no surprise in the mess that was made.  I decided it was best to just buy a palm sander rather than use the one I borrowed from a co-worker...in case I burned the motor out or something. I was literally enshrouded in a cloud of dust.

 Next came the painting of the walls. I decided to do a faux finish on the wall by sponging it. Once again, thank you to online videos. Of course, being the OCD person that I sometimes am, I couldn't stop at the walls. A new light fixture and mirror had to be put in as well as new electric socket and light switch covers to make the job complete. So after many late nights of hard work, trips to Lowe's and Ace Hardware, and a nice whole in my pocket, the project was completed in the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning.

Yep, just call me Ernie "The Tool Woman" Hayes. LOL!!!