The first step of wallpaper removal: NEVER put it up to begin with. Please. If you are ever thinking of moving out of your house, don’t hang wallpaper. You might think that there is no way someone won’t love your paper, but trust me it is a guarantee that someone will hate it.

And if you can’t follow that advice. Please, for the love of all things holy, don’t paper every single room. Confine yourself to one or two rooms.

Because one day you will sell your house. And the new owner will be faced with room after room like this:

And they will wonder how you could have ever thought that was worthy of hanging on the wall. Does this wallpaper make you weep like it does me?

Then when they are removing it and it has adhered to the plaster and tears the plaster off the wall in chunks, they will curse you slightly.

Hopefully whatever wallpaper you are trying to remove has been hung properly.

There are many different ways to remove wallpaper. Some people use a steamer, a method I personally don’t reccommend. Unless you like to be aggravated and burn yourself periodically.

Step One: Acquire your tools

You will need:

A scraper, I prefer to use a five-in-one tool above all over scrapers. (That link will being you to a site that sells them 5 for under $30. You can buy them and invite your friends over to help!)

A product such as DIF wall paper remover

Paper tiger, or something similar to score the wallpaper. If you are doing a small area using the pointy side of your 5-in-1 tool to CAREFULLY score the paper will work fine. But for larger areas you are much better off using a tool designed for the purpose.
A large sponge

Step Two:
Using your paper tiger score your wallpaper. Score it as much as possible. It makes the next steps easier.

Step Three:
Apply the wall paper remover using a roller and apply like you would wall paint. Allow it to sit until it has soaked under the wallpaper. Work in smallish areas because you do not want the remover to dry on the walls.

Step Four:
Pray that the person who installed the wallpaper used sizing so that the wallpaper comes off quickly and easily.

Step Five:
If you are like 95% of the homeowners removing wallpaper you will discover that they person who installed the wallpaper decided to skip the step of applying the sizing to the walls.

Step Six:

Using your 5-in-1 tool gently scrape the wallpaper off the wall. You might need to reapply your wallpaper removing product.

Step Seven:

Continue around the room until all the paper has been removed. At this point you might notice that there are bits of wallpaper glue still stuck to the wall. Using your sponge and a bucket of hot water, sponge down the walls to remove the residue.

Step 8:

Allow the walls to dry for a few days before you do anything else. Now you can decide if you want to wallpaper again or paint.

After all this, I am guessing you choose paint.

HGTV is having a Great Fall Fix-Up Sweepstakes. You can enter every day until until October 3 for your chance to win $100,000.

How many of us flip through the magazines at the check-out stand and think, ‘If only I had the money…’ Imagine what you could do with $100K!

A kitchen renovation
A bath renovation
Installing a greener heating and insulating system in your home
An addition
Landscaping
A pool
New furniture

Or a combination of the above. The options are endless and completely up to you.

A winner will be picked by random drawing on or about October 20.

In a recent article, the NY Times profiled Micheal Jansen a man who is interested in downsizing his life and his home. He says what many of us think:

“I don’t want this life — the life of someone who’s working too hard to pay a large mortgage to live in this house.” The catalyst, he said, was watching the value of his home plummet with the rest of the real estate market, while the time and money required to maintain the property only increased. “The energy cost is enormous,” he said, “and the bigger your property gets, the more there is to do.”

I have a friend who recently their home and moved to another state for work. At the onset of the relocation they fully planned to buy a new house, but the hidden joys of renting have won them over. They are not sure when they will buy a house. There is no periosic maintenance associated with a rental. That is what the lanlord is for. If something breaks, like the furnace, you only need to call the landlord. Sometimes it is easy to forget that our time is a valuable commodity.

And with that in mind, Michael Jansen has become deeply interested in the small house movement. Many of us talk about downsizing, especially those of us in the cold weather states who have seen our heating costs double and triple in the past few years.

Others have also been deep into the small house movement. A small house, from all definitions I could find,is a house that is smaller than 1000 sq ft, though many of the homes that are featured are under 300 sq ft, with some not even topping 100 sq ft. That is small!

The blog Small House Style is dedicated to everything small house related. If you are looking for information on small houses it is a fabulous resource for how being small doesn’t mean compromising style.

Drilling into your brand new cabinets in order to install the hardware is daunting. What if you make a mistake? It’s not like you can just fix it. Not to mention that cabinets are an expensive investment.

When it came time for me to put the knobs on our cabinet doors I made a little template to help ensure that the knobs would be aligned correctly.

I made this from a piece of scrap wood.

I first measured exactly where I wanted the knobs to be on the cabinet doors. Then I transferred this measurement to the scrap of wood.

For the love of all things, make sure that you label your template. You might think that you won’t forget, but you will.

As you can see from the photo I am holding up the template for the right door.

The best part about the template… when you flip it over it works for the left door.

You can now also use it on your lower cabinets, like I am doing in the photo above.

This is why labelling is so important.

Viola! Perfectly aligned knobs every time.

All of the hardwood floors in our house were painted. I think it is because it was originally a summer house and it was probably less expensive and easier to have the floors painted than to have them finished.

We have sanded floor after floor in our house. If I never see a floor sander again, I will not be upset.

When we got to two of the chidlren’s bedrooms we thought, why not just repaint them? It would add a little character. And, okay I will admit it, it would be much, much easier.

The bedroom above already had a grey colored floor, the same color that is used on the exterior porches of the house. And so I decided to just go with that color and see how it loooked. I have to say that I really like it.

My younger son’s bedroom we are going to go with a barn red color.

The first thing that you need to do before you begin to paint to scrub the floor. I recommend using a TSP solution to cut the grease, grime, and dirt that might be on the floor. (*If your floor has polyurethane on it you will need to sand the floor in order for the paint to adhere properly. Unless you are doing the floor painting as a temporary measure.)

After the floor dries crawl around and look for any paint splatters or areas that might need a light sanding. Those little imperfections will show through the paint. You might think that paint will cover it all, but trust me on this, it will not.

Once you have done that, give the floor a final vacuum.

It might seem like this is a lot of prep work, but really the prep work is the most important part of any project.

I chose a porch and floor paint by Benjamin Moore. I have used this paint for exterior applications before and figured that if it can withstand the outside elements that it can hold up to the abuse of little boys.

I first cut in around the room with a brush and then roll the rest of the floor with a roller attached to an extension pole. Let the floor dry for 48 hours. You might be able to get away with letting it dry for less time. Or you could be like me and walk into the room and leave your footprints. It is much better to be safe than sorry. After 48 hours, roll on a second coat of paint.

Depending on the coverage you get, you may want to put on a third coat.

If you want to add some more personalization to your floor, you can stencil around the edges, paint checkerboards. or any other design that strikes your fancy. I painted a rug on the porch floor of my old house. It held up for years with no additional protection, until I finally painted over it.

In a previous post, a comment was lefft asking the question, Can you tile over existing tile in a kitchen backsplash?

I am going to preface my answer by saying that sometimes it is possible to do something, it itsn’t always the best option. After doing diy renovations for years, I have discovered that sometimes the short-cuts you think that you are taking, really aren’t short cuts in the long run.

I would equate tiling over tile with painting over wallpaper. Yes, it might seem to save you time at the onset, but it creates other issues that must be dealt with. I prefer to take the time to do it right the first time and then not have to worry about it again. I would hate to spend all that time and money putting in a new tile backsplash only to have it begin to fall off in a few months.

Sue said that they are replacing their countertop and want to tile over the existing tile backsplash because it will not match their new decor. Before installing the tile I would check to make sure that the increased depth of the backsplash will not interfere with anything and check that all the tile is stable and still firmly attached to the wall.

Before beginning, clean the backsplash and sand it to remove the glossy finish. The glossy finish would prevent the thinset from adhering to the tile. Clean the tile again to remove any dust particles.

Then you would tile as you would normally.

Have some time this weekend and want to do a project with the kids?

What about building a simple soccer goal out of PVC piping?

How about a fort made from pre assembled fencing?

Do you need an old fashioned tree swing?

Don’t want to build something for outside when winter is right around the corner, what about an easel for all of those winter art projects?

When you think back to when we were kids, no one had islands in their kitchen. In fact, in the suburban neighborhood I lived in almost everyone had their kitchen table smack in the middle of the kitchen.

Now an island is practically a given.

Islands now can contain sinks, the cooktop, the dishwasher. The island often takes the place of the fourth wall of the room so that the cook can look out into the adjacent family room. Since everyone always ends up in the kitchen anyway, the next logical step was to enlarge the kitchen and incorporate it into the family room, making the Great Room.

There are some things to keep in mind as you plan your kitchen island:

1) Size of your kitchen. Unless your kitchen is at least 12ft x 8 ft, do not even think about putting an island in.

2) Size of Island. An island needs to be at least 4ft x 2ft in order to be of any use.

3) Purpose of Island. Will it be a cooking island? A food prep island? Will there be seating for eating meals?

4) Function of Island. Can you open the cabinets around the island? Is the dishwasher able to open fully without impeding traffic? Is there enough room for two people to work comfortably? Make sure that whatever you need for working at your island is stored there.

Most kitchen islands are made from the same cabinets as the rest of the kitchen. But this doesn’t have to be the case. You can get a long butcherblock table or an antique farmhouse table can be re purposed as an island. Using a freestanding piece of furniture makes the kitchen uniquely yours.

Installing an apron front sink is not easy.

Cutting into your brand new, expensive cabinets is not for the faint of heart. Or the inexperienced. Though that did not stop us.

We learned that it also depends on the sink you buy. The first sink that we had was a Belle Foret. It was pretty much a rectangle. The outside was completely finished and smooth. My three year old saw it and asked if it was a little tub for him.

That sink ended up being too big for the sink cabinet. The lesson here is to remeasure everything even when you have “professionals” doing things for you.

We returned that sink and bought a Kohler. Not because we wanted a Kohler sink, but because it was the only sink that was in stock, in the size that we needed, in the entire tri-state area.

Oh, Kohler farmhouse sink how we hate you and your rounded and beveled edges. Sure you look pretty now that you are installed, but cutting the hole to fit the sink was a long laborious process.

The inside of the cabinet had to be fitted with wood braces and plywood to support the sink. The front of the cabinet had to be carefully sawn away. Swearing, while not technically required, seemed to be neccessary more than usual in this diy project.

My husband and I have been having a heated “discussion” about some repairs that need to be done around the house. Or I should say I think need to be done before our house goes on the market and he thinks do not. The biggest one is the roof of our front porch.

We had to jack the front porch up and replace some of the supports that had rotted. When we did this it became obvious that the roof was also in bad shape. Right in front, the roof has a pretty big dip.

My husband thinks that it costs too much to replace the porch roof. I think that not replacing it causes potential buyers to question the quality of the rest of the roof of the house. A huge, huge roof that would cost a ton of money to replace. The rest of the roof of the house is in fine shape, but seeing that part of the house needs a new roof could just be the turn off that sends people fleeing. They begin to question the roof as a whole. Studies have shown that replacing a roof, though a very straight forward job that doesn’t take too much time or disrupt life in the house too much, scares people.

So who is right?

Turns out I am. The top five home repairs and improvements that should be done before selling a house:

1) Paint walls and ceilings that need painting

2) Update flooring. Time to get rid of that smelly old carpeting. Hardwood flooring is preferred by buyers.

3) Update bathroom fixtures

4) Update kitchen. No need to get top of the line items. Buyers want things that are clean and not damaged. Look over the room with a critical eye.

5) Curb appeal. Repair or replace roof, repair cracked driveway, edge lawn, and plant some flowers.

I will be calling the contractor ASAP.